November 2024

The good the bad the ugly and the yummy of afternoon tea, brampton edition

Last week my friend and I had afternoon tea for two people at macaronz in brampton ontario which is about 40min from downtown toronto.

This is probably my 5th time coming to macaronz over the years, b/c it’s always been a nice place for me to meet my brampton friend for lunch. Everytime I come here, the interior is different. Last year they also occupied the neighbouring unit and it was full of nicely appointed tea time tables but this year they are down to ONE table. Yes, they only have ONE table in their bakery now! Let’s get into the details…

THE GOOD - My favourite part of afternoon tea here are the savories which i like b/c they use french loaf and turn it into garlic bread.  Always yummy and I like their quiche pastry too.  This afternoon tea has always been vegetarian; last year our plate had 6 savories so this was less. On this visit we each received two chive quiche, an egg salad on garlic bread, and a spinach cream cheese toastie. These savouries were all very fresh and tasted good.

Their scones are also classified as good this year.  Each guest is served only one scone, I do prefer when two scones are served per guest. We each had our own strawberry jam and whipped cream in plastic cups. As always, real clotted cream should be served at afternoon tea so that part isn’t great but the scone itself tastes good here. Not fancy but respectable; The youtube score for the scone tier is 6.5 out of 10.

THE BAD - Unfortunately, the tea situation here was not acceptable on this visit. There was no tea menu to read. But the server rattled off some of our tea options.  And they’ve downgraded their tea from the Sloane brand to grocery store brands. My earl grey tea bag was higgen and burke, same variety served by mcdonalds here in Ontario. And my friends peppermint was (??) brand. Neither of these were quality loose leaf tea.

THE UGLY - this venue isn’t ugly but it’s been severely downgraded from our last visit last year when they had recently opened a lovely tea room area. This is literally one year ago; it was so spacious and lovely. But on this visit they only had one table so it’s really not a great vibe here anymore. But the overall tea tiers are very aesthetic with blushes, pinks, and purples. It’s a visually appealing tea experience even though the ambiance has been downgraded.

THE YUMMY - Our favourite bite was the spinach cream cheese toastie. But I’ll also mention the sweets here which were not as good as our last visit. We each got two macarons, which makes sense since this place is called macaronz and we got two of their mini donuts. Everything looked pretty and visually yummy. The macarons are definitely house-made; here they are on baking rakes at the back but even being house made, they don’t do anything for me. I do not know what these flavours really were.  The donuts, on the other hand, were very tasty being totally covered with toppings. Last time I remember a blondie bar made with macaronz which was a delicious so I was disappointed it wasn’t served on this visit.

This afternoon tea costs $45 per person (that’s about 32$ usd). This price is fine for me. The part that was awkward was having to pre-pay via online invoice and being asked to add the 15% gratuity to that online invoice. I wasn’t a fan of this system but I understand it being as they only have one table; they need to make sure you are serious about coming and prepayment ensures that. Prepayment is fine, you’ve seen me attend several afternoon teas that require that but this ensuring I add gratuity invoice myself, ahead of time, just felt awkward.

As I said, this afternoon tea is visually appealing and fairly decide; I did enjoy my experience here again with my tea friend but I am pretty sure this tea room is on it’s way out simply by the fact that they are down to one single table. That’s never a good sign. Anyway, if you’re a local to brampton you should book this tea time table for a casual lunch with a friend.  For me, on this visit, my queen of afternoon tea rating is 3 out of 5 but more like 2.7 or 2.8. Last year my score was 4 out of 5 so this is quite the downgrade. 

Let me know your impressions of this tea time aesthetic in the comments and please follow me for future tea time reviews. I am about to take that state-side road trip I’ve been talking about in recent videos wink wink nudge nudge. Stay tuned tea friends!