Review: Afternoon Tea @ Starhill Tea Salon, The Lounge JW Marriott KL

Apart from yum cha sessions, my family enjoys having traditional English teas. So, when we heard that there is a new high tea place at Starhill, we immediately find ourselves sitting at their plush chairs, soaking up the Alice-In-Wonderland-esque decor, and not to mention, the rather luxe surroundings. 

Starhill Tea Salon - sandwiched by Jean Paul Gaultier, Loius Vuitton and the likes. Feels a little like Singapore's TWG in Marina Bay Sands and ION

Starhill Tea Salon is one of the places to be seen in Kuala Lumpur. I've spotted several ministers, renowned DJs and socialites in one single trip. In spite of this, I think high tea aficionados should pass the afternoon tea here. First, it's way too pricey for standard high tea fare. It's RM 70 per set mind you and there is nothing remarkably special. Second, service is extremely poor. As my table kept asking for a glass of still water (four times!), one of the waiting staff actually threw a huge tantrum that is good enough to draw a crowd at the kitchen counter! Third, each person is entitled to have only one pot of tea. Strictly no refills. 

Macarons here are not too bad. 

Considering the aforementioned points, I rather have high tea in Ritz Carlton (Rm 68 ++ per set) which is only a stone's throw away. 

Still, I had to blog about it. I think no matter how bad the place is, there is still some good to it. I think by just dissing off this place, I am doing it no justice. Similarly, no matter how bad a person is, there is still some conscience lying within the person. You just need to tease it out from the bad lot. 

We ordered two sets to share among the four of us, in case the portion turned out really big. Apparently, they were just alright. You can sort of tell from the spaces of the plates. 

We ordered the Oriental Afternoon Tea for Two and the English afternoon tea for two. As we were not full enough, we ordered one more triple chocolate cake, which was divine! 

Oriental Afternoon Tea: 

Standard stuff

The oriental afternoon tea comprises of deep fried yam puff with chicken filling,  pan fried chicken dumplings, steamed barbecued chicken buns, baked custard bun, egg tarts, deep friend spring rolls and fish balls, and assorted sushi and maki. The dim sum items are taken from Luk Yu tea house.

A bit boring. 

There was nothing remarkably special about the maki. The fish component for the sushi were fresh though. I wished there was more. 

Decent but quite forgettable. 

The dim sum items were pleasant. I particularly enjoyed the yam puff even though there was not enough yam in the puff. The rest were just alright.

The buns and dumpling were alright but the oh-too-white fishball was not. 

I actually liked the baked bun, the steamed BBQ bun and the dumplings even though they were not the best that I had. I think this is one of the aftermath of having too much of a good thing in Hong Kong. You just start comparing every single yum cha item to the stuff you had in Hong Kong. T______T

The fishball lacked the taste of fish ball and it is quite rubbery. Let me guess, too much of starchy goodness going on?


English Afternoon Tea set: 

The English tea set was rather enjoyable but I wished that they had more scones and savories

 The English tea set consisted of freshly baked scones, assorted sandwiches, french pastries with macarons (sometimes praline...) and a tea of your choice. Speaking of tea, it really irks me that the teapot has no tea bag at all! This means: NO REFILLS. I might sound el cheapo here but I think compared to the more luxe high teas out there (i.e. Hilton KL, Shangri-La and Ritz Carlton), Starhill Tea Salon is really stingy with their tea. Also, there is no mention of the tea's brand (Mariage Freres, Ronnefeldt, TWG??)

I actually don't mind paying for the tea but I think many of you out there may BEG TO DIFFER, no?

Strange looking caviar

Sandwiches here looked and tasted good. I particularly liked the strawberry and cheese finger sandwich. However, I have an issue with the prawn and caviar sandwich. The prawn may be fresh but the caviar looks a bit off... Plus, since it's RM 70, I figured that they should use better artisan breads instead of ones that look stale.

Plate looks empty, again...

 Enough of ranting, now back to the positive side of things. I find their cakes pretty decent. Most of them are pleasant to have with tea. None of them were extremely sweet. Most cakes were moist but the eclair was slightly bad news. Nonetheless, there was nothing to shout about.

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It was towards the end of our tea that we started to enjoy our food. We were given coffee chocolate macaron. I found it to be one of the better macarons I had in Kuala Lumpur. The meringue shells were smooth. There was only one teensy air pocket on the corner. The shell did not break into a gazillion pieces upon the first bite. The ganache was perfect and chocolatey. The texture bordered between crispy and moist. We loved it. 

Triple Chocolate Cake (Rm 18)

Since my dad was not full enough, we ordered the triple chocolate cake. Boy, it was one hell of a chocolate cake! In a good way! The chocolate used to prepare the cake had floral notes, with a slightly bitter note. The biscuity base offered a nice contrast to the creamy mousse and rich ganache. Best of all? The cake did not make you feel like you are ready to die of sugar overdose.



Overall, I feel that not all of STS is bad. However, as I've said earlier, just pass the afternoon tea and go straight for the cakes. Also, don't bother ordering teas because they are no refills. Unless, there's a change in the system... Hopefully.


Little things: 

-Ambience: Pretty refreshing. Nice use of tea tins. Rather colourful. Good place to be seen and to see others.

-Service: Extremely poor. If not because my dad knows one of the servers there personally, I think we won't even be served at all! And as I've mentioned earlier, one of the staff threw a huge tantrum!!

-Portions: Quite small for Kuala Lumpur's high tea standards.

-Budget: Damage done was RM 232! It's really really pricey!

-For more information: Click here and here.