The Waldorf Astoria sits on the prestigious Herengracht of Old Amsterdam. It’s Christmas soon, after all, so I think that’s a good enough excuse to drop in for afternoon tea. Not that I ever need much convincing to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes…

The afternoon tea is served in the Peacock lounge on the upper ground floor. The place is fully decked out for Christmas and there’s a pianist sitting in the corner softly playing festive tunes.

The Service & Staff

A young waiter approaches and welcomes us to the hotel. He asks for the name of the reservation and then quickly ushers us to our table. He shows us the menu and quickly explains how the afternoon tea is served at the Waldorf. He checks for allergies and then tells us he’ll return shortly with the tea and then the food.

The staff in the lobby are attentive. But the service is perhaps overly polished, in the sense that their politeness is so exaggerated that it feels put on.

While we wait for the afternoon tea to start, we are offered a choice of champagne or blended fermented tea.

The Meal

Two different teas are paired with the food. The savories are served with a Silver Moon green tea, whereas the sweets are paired with a Cream Caramel Rooibos tea. As a rule, I don’t much like Rooibos tea, but this one work rather well in combination with the sweets.

The Savories

Oyster with pine-infused dressing and goat cheese

Salmon with Wasabi cream and Tobiko pearls

Vol au vent with sour pumpkin cream, pecan nuts, parmesan, saffron parfait, and beetroot

Chestnut crumpet, mushroom, cedar, anis, hazelnut

Toasted brioche with smiked wagyu, black truffle and artichoke

Mousse of ham, sauerkraut and juniper berry cream

The Sweets

Cranberry compote, bitter irange, star anise mousse

Gibgerbread spice cake, pumpkin, milk chocolate, spiced crumble

Gazelnut ganache, coffee caramel, bergamot, hazelnut praline

Cloves, caramel, chestnuts

Glühwein patéde fruits, cinamon ganache, coconut marshmallow

Candy cane mousse, cherry compote

The savouries and the sweets are okay, but the whole experience is still a bit of a letdown. The savouries have way too many uncoordinated flavours going on for them to be really enjoyable, and the sweets all pretty much taste the same and frankly lack variety of textures to be really interesting.

The Scones

There are two types of scones: ginger and orange, and lemon. The scones are fluffy and moist and quite tasty. However, the condiments they are served with are a bit strange.

There’s a small pot of vanilla custard, one with lemon curd, and a third with apple compote. I know I’m a bit of a traditionalist where my scones are concerned. Nonetheless, I feel that this combination is just a bit too far removed from the original idea of an afternoon tea than I’m comfortable with. There’s also not enough of the condiments to go round for four scones.

Conclusion

By the time we finish the afternoon tea, it’s gone 17h30. I have tickets to see Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi at the national opera. I step out into the cold and take a long, leisurely walk in the fresh, cold air until it’s time to head for the opera.

While the staff at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam were attentive and polite, the quality of the food was a bit disappointing. A lot of the items were gimmicky, and looked as though the main concern in creating them had been for them to look good on an instagram feed – and not to taste nice.