I know its been a while but I wanted to quickly jump on the blog and discuss my high tea experience at The Cortile in Intercontinental Sydney. I visited IC for my birthday because I actually haven't experienced a proper sit down high tea before. In all honesty, I had just assumed high tea was whatever I had already experienced during my many visits to Dubai over the years or the 'high tea' buffets I had tried on my trips to the homeland. Yeah, those weren't high teas. Those were just buffets. Im not complaining though, who doesn't love a buffet?

Anyway so I had a few people ask me how it was so I decided I will just do a blogpost on the entire experience!

Let me just start off by saying almost every major hotel in Sydney has a high tea menu. The Shangri-La, The Langham, The Westin, Sir Stamford, Park Hyatt and the list goes on and on. When looking into which place I should choose for my first (proper) high tea I had three major requirements: location and its aesthetic, price and menu. Pretty standard stuff to evaluate really and I am always thorough in my research. While I wont go into incredible detail of the places I decided against in the hunt for a good spot of tea, I will say each place had its own charm and I can understand why some of the ones I have listed above are on all the 'best high tea's in Sydney' lists. Some of the menus looked great, although the prices varied in regards to this and honestly speaking, some were more on the pricier side in comparison to their menu offering. My good friend who accompanied me had already visited the Westin and had enjoyed it and I definitely will go their next I think, since I have heard rave reviews and they actually do a high tea buffet. (A proper one though, unlike the one's I have experienced in Pakistan where there is no scone in sight 😂 ) I decided against The Westin purely on the basis of wanting to experience a new place with my friend, not somewhere she had already been (especially since high tea menus rarely change.) I decided against the other places due to the price, with some 3-tiered high tea's costing over $75 with some actually being offered at $100. Listen, i'm not one to be frugal but trust me when I say the menu just didn't seem worth it. Why spend that much on high tea (not even a proper meal, but bite-sized portions) when you can spend it on makeup? But hey, that's just me! But look, if you don't mind paying that much for a scone and a mini pie then hey, no judgement on my part.

 In the end, I was tossing between The Shangri-La and Intercontinental. This decision was based on the menu and price. The Shangri-La is known for it's high tea desserts due to their award-winning pastry chef, Anna Polyviou. The price was also great, a three-tiered high tea for $45pp. The menu was also completely Halal (winning!) for those of you who may be wondering. They also catered to other dietary requirements such as vegetarian and gluten free, all you needed to do was let them know at the time of booking. So at this point I am thinking okay great--menu looks good and I like the sound of that price. However upon google image searching the place the high tea is actually served, I was a little disappointed. The Shangri-La has some of the best views of our beautiful Sydney Harbour, but the high tea is served in the lobby. Ah, so close to coming out on top Shangri-La, so close. So now, I'm thinking okay, 2/3 requirements have been filled. Price-tick. Menu-tick. Location and its aesthetic-unfortunately no tick.

And in case you're wondering why it didn't make the cut for me personally, here is The Shangri-La's  lobby lounge:

So that leaves the Intercontinental. Menu-tick. Again, most of their items are halal certified however when I booked over the phone I still clarified I wanted a halal menu just to make sure. Speaking of a halal-friendly experience, the price of $60pp at the IC included wine on arrival, and this was one aspect of IC I was a bit confused about. From my research of the other locations, there are two different price points. The first being a slightly less expensive version, which doesn't include an alcoholic beverage and the other slightly more pricey, naturally due to the inclusion of alcohol. However at the IC it was $60pp which included an alcoholic beverage. So while that probably sounds great for those who do drink, I still believe there should have been two options available where the price would be lower for those who dont. However, the woman on the phone was very accommodating to our dietary requirements and when I asked about the inclusion of wine on arrival, she said we could swap it for an extra coffee or tea. Honestly, the one coffee is enough and I didn't really feel the pot of tea (each!) was necessary and I would rather have just paid less and had my one coffee, but again, that's just me. Either way, $60pp for the amount of food we received: tick. So that just leaves the location and it's aesthetic. When researching the The Cortile (where the high tea is served in IC) I really liked it. I wish I had taken a photo of the overall space, but unfortunately I was too busy scoffing my scone, so here is a poor-quality image taken from the internet:

Okay back to the menu since that is what most people want to know about. The high tea consisted of technically four tiers instead of the usual three. 

Here is the menu:

I did however take a photo of the cold savouries for some reason, so here we go. The cold savouries included tea sandwiches filled with roast beef,  smoked salmon buns and a Moroccan cous cous.

Moving on to the hot savouries. The hot savouries were very good. As in, the delicious kind of good. The bite-sized beauties full of flavour really satisfied our empty stomachs (we came prepared!) And the gourmet harissa lamb pie was the clear stand out in the hot savouries. It was perfect for the slightly cool weather and it just melted in your mouth with your tastebuds thanking you with every bite, no joke. 

Sweet Treats:

Caramel Mascarpone, Lychee and Mango Cup 

and here is the best I can do for photo reference! (I feel like such a failure about my lack of photo taking😣 )

 Thats right, five desserts each. You're probably thinking well okay, for the price you're paying you should receive that many bite-sized items. But oh my goodness, I couldn't even fit the last one in my mouth I was that extremely full. I will say that the Lychee and Mango cup  (third from the left in the above photo) was pure deliciousness, especially if you love a good fruit-based dessert. Plus I am obsessed with lychees so I LOVED it (I just wish I wasn't so full so I could have fully appreciated it.) 

Okay so thats about it for The Cortile! I know that was a bit of a brief review, but it's really something you just have to go and experience yourself and I hope I helped in some small way in providing some more information! But I did want to give my final thoughts regarding my experience:

The atmosphere was lovely and the whole experience with the staff of IC Sydney was great. Our server was extremely professional and sweet, explaining to us the different items on each tier and just generally being very welcoming and their social media team even wished me Happy Birthday on my Instagram later that evening lol. Overall, the staff at Intercontinental Sydney were great and really made you feel special. I think that good service is important and I really appreciated it. The food can be delicious, but the service is what can make or break the whole experience. The menu was great but like I said, there needs to be more of a balance in regards to the ratio of savoury to sweet. I never thought I would ever utter these words but, too many desserts!