High Tea at The Brunswick Tea Room Melbourne

The ironic thing about many high tea venues in Melbourne is that the focus on delivering the perfect ribbon sandwiches and petit fours often overshadows that other important element - the tea.

(Editors note: The Brunswick Tea Room changed it’s name to Mary Eats Cake in October 2016.)

The ironic thing about many high tea venues in Melbourne is that the focus on delivering the perfect ribbon sandwiches and petit fours often overshadows that other important element – the tea.

Luckily, The Brunswick Tea Room puts not one, but five tea blends in their high tea offering.

But first, a little something about the name change.

Many high tea lovers probably know this venue as Impala and Peacock, but in the past month owner Sarah de Witt has made the executive decision to rename it The Brunswick Tea Room to differentiate between the venue and her Impala and Peacock tea range.

Now, back to the high tea. The Brunswick Tea Room is exactly what you would expect from a high tea venue in trendy Brunswick. The small space has an industrial-chic decor, with concrete flooring, exposed brick, lots of natural light and wooden tables and chairs.

This is softened by a rather large chandelier in the middle of the venue, colourful cushions scattered about, plants growing out of pots and jars, and mismatched floral bone china.

The high tea itself beautifully presented on a three-tier cake stand and is matched with two tea blends for the savoury items, two tea blends for the sweets, and one for the fresh fruit piled on top.

“There’s a bit of a science to brewing tea,” Ms de Witt said.

“It’s not just about boiling water.”

Guests enjoying high tea at The Brunswick Tea Room

Roasted mushroom with tomato and quinoa and salsa verde

The menu is surprisingly healthy and hipster, and we start off with a tasty roasted mushroom filled with a tomato and quinoa stuffing and salsa verde.

Our only complaint was that we could have used a knife to help cut the mushroom.

We were also impressed by the lovely sweet notes of cinnamon and dukkah in the sweet potato frittata, which was easily the highlight of the savouries.

The traditional cucumber sandwiches were fresh and the open beetroot sandwiches were a bright and tasty alternative to more traditional fillings.

Our sweet tooths were also quite taken by the baked raspberry cheesecake and the strawberry Russian meringue cupcake.

Meanwhile, each tea is perfectly matched to its tier, and we were particular fans of the Aromatherapy blend, which includes peppermint, lemongrass spearmint, lemon verbana, sweet lemon balm and a touch of lavender buds.

We also loved the theatre of the Blossoming tea, a jasmine flower that was wrapped into a ball with white tea.

The pod was dropped into a teapot of boiling water and left to blossom before our eyes.

In short, The Brunswick Tea Room provides an exceptional offering at a very reasonable price.