February 2025

Location, location, location! I do love a grand venue when taking afternoon tea!
The good, the bad, the ugly, and the yummy of afternoon tea, Biltmore hotel edition.

During my FL tea tour, I had afternoon tea for ONE guest in the grand lobby of this fancy hotel which is in Coral Gables in Miami florida. Here you will see my review of  “afternoon tea for one guest” (not two).

Let’s dive in, starting with the Good. This venue is top notch. The grounds are gorgeous and immaculately maintained.  The hotel lobby is stunning with the high ceilings and luxury appeal. They describe their tea as follows, online: “Quote” One of the few remaining Miami locales offering traditional afternoon tea, the Biltmore is arguably the most elegant venue, with its soaring vaulted ceiling, magnificent lobby and majestically mantled fireplace. The refreshing repast is served daily and is complemented with an elegant harpist. “End Quote:  And I cannot agree more. I was seated right in front of the harpist and it was lovely.  So this venue is definitely very good.

The food itself was also good. Allow me to tell you about it.

There were 16 teas to choose from and I chose the “7 citrus russian tea” and it tasted very good. It was loose leaf tea served in a very pretty tea pot with a lovely tea cup. All of the china dishware here was beautiful with flowers, leaves, and butterflies. Don’t you agree?

The savouries included a starter amuse bouche of foie gras.

Then on the tiered plate there was a cucumber cream cheese with cilantro cream on malt bread, and a deviled egg with candied bacon. Both of these items tasted good. The deviled egg had a nice smokey flavour so that was unique. And I am a big cilantro fan so this flavour with the cucumber was delish to me. However, I was surprised that they chose this herb as many ppl dislike cilantro.  These first 2 items pleased me.  

Next I ate the curry chicken salad on pumpernickel and the roast beef with quail egg and capers on multigrain bread. This looked quite interesting with the quail egg presentation. It tasted okay to me but wasn’t my favourite bite. The curry chicken sandwich was nicely filled and had great flavour. I decided I didn’t need the top bread and ate it open-faced. Overall, all 4 of these savouries tasted good.

Other guests received a smoked salmon mousse but b/c I don’t eat salmon and I got a second cucumber sandwich instead. The neighbouring table let me take a quick photo of theirs and you can see that pink coloured item in the middle, is the salmon.

Next I like to eat the scone tier. Each guest receives one scone here. The scone was a citrus scone and it was served with devonshire cream, lemon curd, and apple butter. I am thrilled to report that they are serving authentic clotted cream here or pretty close to it as far as I could discern, and I do know the difference, so I was happy with discovering that.  The scone itself was fresh and a reasonable size. It was a cakey scone and tasted good; I didn’t love the citrus pieces in it but it didn’t make too much of a difference. I do prefer when guests are served two scones at afternoon tea and this venue should, especially at its price point, serve each guest two scones: One plain for those who like plain and one flavoured to add some flair, in my opinion.

Keeping with the good - we can talk about the sweets. Each guest receives 5 sweets here which is quite nice and ample. You can see they are different shapes and textures.

The first item i tried was the lychee & cherry Verrine; this item tasted good, I really like the cherries in the bottom.  Next I tried the pistachio financier which was really delicious; I love how a properly made financier is moist and nutty.  Then I had the passion fruit eclair; passion fruit is a lovely flavour and works well with an eclair b/c the choux pastry has no flavour on it’s own so it can transport the mild passion fruit flavour well. Next I tried the orange tart which had good flavour and the biscuit crust added some texture to this experience with a bit of crunch.  And finally I tasted the chocolate caramel torte. A torte for me is a bit richer than this. For me this was just a layered chocolate cake versus a torte. It was light and tasted nice. As you may recall, I love chocolate so I am always pleased to see a chocolate item served with at afternoon tea. Overall these sweets tasted yummy and I like their diversity in shapes, flavours, and textures.  So overall, the food and venue here were both rated as good.

Moving onto the bad - the only thing I did not like was the foie gras amuse bouche. I did take a bite but it wasn’t for me. If you’re into this delicacy you would classify this as good and not bad; but this is my review it’s the one bad aspect I found.

The Ugly - nothing here was ugly. This venue was gorgeous and the service was very good too. Shout out to Nestor, who not only serves afternoon tea but sings happy birthday to guests in multiple languages. What a guy!

For the yummy - I would classify the chicken salad as my favourite savory bite, the real clotted cream was yummy, and the pistachio financier on the sweet tier hit the mark for me.

This afternoon tea costs $94 USD per person which includes the base price of $72 for the tea itself, tax and a 20% auto gratuity. This equalled $140 CAD which is a very hefty price tag, for me. Shout out to Andrea and Kate in California who made a generous contribution to this florida tea tour and covered the price of this experience; thank you ladies!

  I also left an additional cash tip b/c the bill suggested we could, or should?  For this high price tag, I would like to see a second scone and some fresh fruit added to this afternoon tea. If this tea wanted to go above and beyond they could make it “unlimited food” like some of the UK tea rooms (and the drake in chicago) which makes you appreciate the extravagance of paying this price. Based on my experience, the venue, and the price my queen of afternoon tea rating is 4 out of 5 stars.

Have you been to the Biltmore for afternoon tea? Would you go? Please LIKE, and share and Comments below and please follow and subscribe for more tea reviews. Next up, we’re still in Florida for more of the florida tea tour, stay tuned tea friends!