Afternoon Tea Buffet @ Pavilions Lounge, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur

The Life of a Tai-Tai...

"Tai tai" is the term used to describe ladies of leisure and usually afternoon tea is an activity associated with "tai-tai's". Well, I'm not exactly a tai-tai but I do enjoy indulging in afternoon tea and enjoying what it's like to be a tai-tai once in a while.

So, one afternoon I was joined by Veron (Quay Po Cooks) and Mei Yee (iamthewitch) at Sheraton Imperial for their afternoon tea buffet. Both Mei Yee and I have read several glowing reviews about the afternoon tea so we decided to try it since we both can utilise our Starwood cards . Unfortunately, from the minute we sat down, it all went pear shaped.

Firstly, we arrived and was surprised to see a small table set up with  less than 15 items of desserts/cakes and this was what they called an afternoon tea buffet. We wanted to catch up, so we thought ok, a small selection is okay as long as they're decent.

Before we came, I called to tell them that we had 2 Starwood cards and wanted to use them to get the 50% discount (there was 4 of us so 2 persons on each card). The girl said that it wouldn't be a problem. However, when we told them at Pavilions Lounge that we wanted to use 2 cards, they insisted that we couldn't and we would have to sit at separate tables. It's really silly as the place was practically empty and they could have easily just opened 2 bills and let us sit together since the cards were under different accounts. Finally, we asked to speak to the manager and they reluctantly let us sit together. I thought that they handled the situation really badly.

The afternoon tea buffet

Back to the afternoon tea selections. The scones were hard and the cakes were dry. The donuts were decent and the raspberry tart was quite nice. The chocolate balls were also quite good. We asked what flavour the macaron was, and they had to get the pastry chef out, and when we asked him what flavour it was he said "macaron" LOL. In the end, we managed to find out that it was banana flavour. The texture of the macaron was a little too crunchy. Quite a disappointing selection.

Raspberry tarts

Scones - too dry

To go with the scones

Donuts

Biscuits which are too dry

Cakes - well, at least they replenish them often

Cupcakes and fruit skewers

Chocolates - these were quite good

Banana macarons

At least they serve good quality tea here.. TWG. And the steel pot they used keep the tea warm for a long time.

Veron kindly brought some of her kumquat macarons for us to try and this was the highlight (food-wise) of the afternoon for us! Thanks Veron.

Though the food and service was bad (it was hard to get their attention for a tea refill and I had to walk up to get our bills), the place itself has quite a nice (quiet) ambiance and great for catching up with your friends. I have to thank the two lovely ladies who were great company and we sure had a good chat and laugh together.

Pavilions Lounge

Veron, Baby Sumo and Mei Yee

Verdict: Will probably not return here, unless they improve on their service and food quality and selection.

Full set of photos available to view here.

The afternoon tea buffet is available Mondays to Fridays from 2pm-6pm.

Parking: RM8 flat rate.

Price: RM38++ per person, but we got 50% discount with Starwood card.

Location: Pavilions Lounge, Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur Hotel, Jalan Sultan Ismail, 50250 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03 -2717 9900

GPS Coordinates: 3.158813, 101.700203