The weather so far on this trip has been utterly dreadful. The two pictures from the old town, below, were taken in a rare moment of sunshine, in between bouts of heavy rain.
I have a reservation for two people for afternoon tea at the Munich Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten. The afternoon tea is served in a small but opulently appointed lounge just off the main lobby. There are four parties expected for tea today, of which my companion and I are one, which makes for rather an intimate setting.
The table is very nicely laid out with silver cutlery and a small bouquet of flowers.
First, the waiter brings us the tea menus. There is a wide range of the usual black teas, as well as some fairly unusual choices by Ronnefeldt Teas. We settle on an Assam from India and a Juwel of Nuwara Eliya from Sri Lanka – both of which are fairly strong, malty teas. The waiter brings us the two teapots with ramekins to put the tea sieve. He also gives us instructions to remove the tea from the water after about two minutes.
While we wait for the food to arrive, we are brought a non-alcoholic cocktail on the basis of a cold Earl Grey, which is lovely.
The service is done by a gentleman in his forties, if I had to guess. His manners are impeccable, but without coming across as being overly formal. He’s obviously very knowledgeable about the teas.
We start, of course, with the savoury dishes. I think it’s quite daring of the Kempinski to decide to do away completely with the traditional finger sandwiches. Having said that, their selection of savouries is excellent. In the bottom left corner in the picture below is a Ceviche of scallop with avocado on a sourdough cracker. Next comes a veal carpaccio with pickled onions on toasted brioche. Then come the artichoke hearts on dark bread, and finally the cauliflower chimichurri crêpe in the top right corner. There is also a vegetarian option for the savouries, which you can order at the time you make the reservation.
Next up are the scones. There are two plain ones, and two with sultanas. Kudos to the Kempinski for serving real clotted cream. With that alone, they’ve already won me over. In addition to the clotted cream, there is also lemon curd. For jams, there is one with exotic fruit and another with fruit of the forest – both of which are very good, obviously made inhouse, and go well with the clotted cream and scones.
The sweets are served on a glass platter over a bed of moss, which looks rather nice. In the top left corner in the picture below is a white peach cheese cake, in the top right is a blueberry mousse praline, in the bottom right corner is a macaron with lime butter, and in the bottom left corner a berry tarte with meringue.
As far as I’m concerned, this was certainly one of the better afternoon teas I’ve had recently. Certainly better than that on the Bürgenstock, and lightyears ahead of the New York Plaza. I also think that it’s exceptionally good value for money for what you get.
As far as I’m concerned, there are three killer criteria that make or break an afternoon tea: the locality, the service, and quality of the food. The Kempinski ticked all the boxes. The tea room off the main lobby was nice and quiet. The waiter was really excellent, charming and obviously very well trained. And the food was excellent, and not just because they had real clotted cream!
After the tea, we decide to go for a walk. But it’s no use, because the rain is showing no signs of letting off any time soon. So eventually we catch the U5 back to our hotel.
