August 2024
A little mother daughter Afternoon Tea at Windsor Arms in Toronto 2024
We drove down to the WINDSOR ARMS HOTEL in Toronto this week to enjoy some quality time together and my my it was divine!
We used valet parking b/c we are posh like that. and were able to check in when we arrived mid-afternoon. Our room was a stunner - I loved the dark colours and antique furniture which adorned our room. But first, it's time for afternoon tea. Got this clip of Mom placing her fascinator, very mindful, very demure, very cutesy, she's very demurtsey. And we were off to enjoy afternoon tea, something we've enjoyed doing together for decades.
there are 3 rooms at Windsor arms where afternoon tea is served so they take it pretty seriously. when I was here 8ish months ago I was in the blue room but today we were seated in the purple room. So lavish, so classy.
There were over 40 teas to choose from. I chose the Yuzu Earl Grey and Mom chose blackcurrant black tea. We both really liked our tea choice and appreciated proper loose leaf tea with personal strainers.
with 40 tea options there's certainly something for everyone here. I am a milk and sugar or Splenda girly for my tea, how about you?
soon after, our 3 tier plate was delivered. everything looked great on this serving. we each received 6 savouries, including a warm quiche. The roasted veggie on tomato bread tasted pretty good; I liked the asparagus in this one. The "Creole Spice Chicken Salad Roulade" had a bit of a bite to it, so was just ok for me. The beef sandwich tasted good and I liked the dark rye bread for this one. I dont eat salmon but my mom ate both and said she loved them! Then the quiche, it was mushroom and goat cheese and it was delicious. It was a my favourite bite on this tier. The cucumber cream cheese was a double decker so it the ratio was a bit off for me - too much cream cheese which made the bread pretty mushy. Overall, I liked the variety of the savoury offering; varied breads and colours was nice.
we each received two scones - which is the exact amount i truly prefer to be served at afternoon tea so i was happy to see that. One scone was plain and one was raisin (there were a lot of raisins for a non-raisin fan). It was served with this shared trio of accompaniments. A peach compote, a berry compote and a house made cream mixture. There wasn't enough cream for our liking and we love butter so we asked for some of that too and got a huge bowl of it. The scones themselves were fresh - quite cakey and not very flaky. The cream was edible and fairly close to a legit clotted cream so no complaints with that other than more is needed for 4 scones than this small serving. The scones with accompaniments were an 8 out of 10 for me.
onto the top tier - the sweets - this is where tea rooms can really set themselves apart from each other! Here, each guest received a macaron, a pistachio bite, a mango-something cake, and a chocolate mocca opera cake. The sweets were just ok for me. I needed more textures. However, I appreciated the varied flavours and colours of this tier; it was very pretty! The best sweet bite for me was the chocolate coffee opera cake; i do love my chocolate!
The service at this afternoon tea was excellent. We felt welcomed and pampered. This experience costs $65 on week days with an additional $20 surcharge when you go on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
overall, this afternoon tea experience was definitely a good one.
I'll eventually be getting onto youtube and when I do, this tea experience will be getting a score of 85% using my new detailed score card. Stay tuned for that!
The Windsor arms is in the 2024 ONTARIO TEA ROOM JOURNAL (this is my filling out the page) and it will certainly stay in for the next version too as this is a noteworthy afternoon tea option in Ontario.
After our tea party we walked around YORKVILLE which was really nice as it was a nice COOL summer evening which is rare now since our planet is on fire.
The next day, after a nice sleep in the comfortable bed, we had breakfast in the blue room. I got that delicious yuzu earl grey tea again and some eggs with toast and potatoes. Everything tasted good and service was pleasant and it was the perfect end to our stay, before hitting the Toronto traffic to get home!
overall, we were both really impressed with our Windsor arms "tea time" getaway. We were treated like royalty and it was perfect for us tea queens!
