The afternoon tea at The Empress is a bit of a Victoria institution. Probably even more so on a day like today. It’s New Year’s Eve and the weather is just gorgeous.

Location

The Empress is located on the upper ground floor of the original building that makes up the Fairmont Empress Hotel of Victoria. We’re lucky enough to be given a table right be the windows overlooking the bay, with the low winter sun shining in. Outside there are people sitting around heaters, some of them eating fondue.

The Service & Staff

The staff at The Empress are just lovely and so friendly. The service is laid back, but not in the sense that it’s sloppy. Rather, it feels relaxed and unrushed, which is how I like my afternoon teas. Our waiter takes us through the list of teas, taking his time to explain each one as we go. Eventually, we settle for a pot of the mint tea and a pot of the blend designated Grand Bazaar, which is a first flush Darjeeling with notes of cardamom.

The Afternoon Tea

The afternoon tea is served on fine bone china in one of the hotel’s signature designs. It’s an elaborately ornate pattern. The tea cups and plates feature a little crown which looks as though it was inspired by St. Edward’s crown.

The Empress gets extra brownie points for also providing a small candle lit heater for each tea pot to keep the tea warm. Our waiter inquires how long we’d like our teas steeped. He sets the sand clock on our table, and returns punctually a few minutes later to remove the tea bags before the tea turns bitter. It is, in essence, a perfectly prepared tea. Well done!

The food arrives on a three tiered étagère. As with the afternoon tea we had in Seattle, our waiter recommends we start with the scones while they‘re still warm. We don‘t.

We start with the savouries. We have a turkey with stuffing sandwich, a cucumber with dill sandwich, a smoked salmon with salmon mousse canapé, a ham and lemon preserve éclaire, and a butternut squash quiche.

Next, it‘s the scones. There‘s one scone per person. They’re fluffy and quite moist. My only complaint is that they only have raisin scones and no plain ones. But there are worse things.

And then come the sweets. We have a Black Forest tartlet which is very rich. It‘s basically chocolate with chocolate in chocolate and a cherry inside. Then there’s the hazelnut boule, a piece of minty buche noel, fruit cake, and a strawberry macaron. Oh yes, and there are also two shortbread biscuits.

Conclusion

The afternoon tea at The Empress was rather nice, which I was kind of expecting because everything else about the hotel was so nice. My impression was that a lot of thought had gone into creating a carefully curated experience for guests that was perfectly matched to the season. There was definitely a Christmas vibe going on, but without being tacky.

Tomorrow I‘ll be heading back to Seattle to catch a flight back home. I‘ve greatly enjoyed my visit to Victoria and I‘m certainly planning to come back some day soon, perhaps in the spring or summer.