The Waldorf Astoria occupies a tall and imposing new building on Budapester Strasse, close to Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station and the shops on the Kurfürstendamm in what used to be the beating heart of defiant West Berlin.

Location

The afternoon tea at the Waldorf Astoria is served in the so-called Library on the fifteenth floor of the hotel. The view of the ruins of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche is just brilliant. The room itself is a bit strange, though. If I had to guess, I’d say that it was once used as the members’ lounge.

The Service & Staff

The service at the Waldorf Astoria Berlin is not necessarily polished, but I think it’s rather obvious that the staff are doing their best to make the afternoon tea an experience for their patrons. What is a bit unusual about this tea, because you don’t often get that, is that there is no menu to choose from for the teas. The pairings have been prepared in advance. And I must say, each tea that is served has been properly prepared. From the descriptions we’re given by our ‘tea sommelier’, though, I think it’s patently obvious that he hasn’t really got much of a clue about tea. We start the afternoon tea service with nicely scented cold towels.

Afternoon Tea at the Library of the Waldorf Astoria Berlin

In the sum of all things, this afternoon tea is not really remarkable and comes across as being lacklustre. However, I think it would have potential with just a few minor adjustments. I think there are basically two choices a house needs to make if it decides to go down the path of offering an afternoon tea service. You can either offer a traditional afternoon tea, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. Or else you have to be bold and offer an afternoon tea that sets itself apart from the others because it explores new angles to serving this British classic. The problem with the Waldorf Astoria, I think, is that they likely lacked the courage to be truly bold. The outcome is okay, just not remarkable.

The savouries arrive on a three-tier étagère. On the bottom tier we have two finger sandwiches each – cucumber with mint and boiled egg with prosciutto di Parma. On the middle tier we have two savoury pralines – the dark one is oxtail, while the other is fish. I don’t try the oxtail one, and the white one is offputtingly fishy – even for a dish made with fish.

And then on the top tier, we have another praline made with feta cheese, honey, nuts, and cranberries. This one is rather nice. It combines sweet and savoury flavours rolled up in a rather subtle creation. In contrast, the savoury Swiss roll with smoked salmon and roe is a bit meh. Mainly, because it’s clearly not the best quality salmon they used in the preparation of this item. I also find it a bit odd that the chef who brings out the étagère describes it as being decorated with caviar, which is clearly not the case – it’s roe, and I think that’s a distinction that’s important to make.

Once we’re done with the savouries, the waiter comes to remove the étagère. Full brownie points to the staff for removing our plates and cutlery and replacing them before we start with the sweets, which are also served on a three-tier étagère, with the scones in the middle. There are two plain scones and two with sultanas. They are served with home made rhubarb and thyme jam and a jar each of clotted cream. While the latter may not look as attractive as having an open bowl of cream, I think the hotel gets extra brownie points for going out of their way to find authentic clotted cream. The scones are rather small, but they’re nice and fluffy and taste rather good.

On the top tier we have an espuma of black tea served with red velvet cake crumble. This dish is a mistake. The taste of the black tea is far too strong and overpowering. It’s so strong that the tea they used to make it has actually turned bitter. And then at the bottom we have three small pastries – a rhubarb macaron, a white chocolate and thyme cream on shortbread, and a lemon cheesecake topped with green tea crumble. These three items are much, much better than the black tea espuma, and are quite refreshing.

Conclusion

I think I already summed up this afternoon tea experience at the Waldorf Astoria Berlin in my comments above. They’re definitely making the effort. However, the quality of the individual dishes was a bit inconsistent and the ingredients that were used varied quite a bit in quality as well. The service was a bit of a mixed bag. I think the staff were great and put a lot of effort into their delivery of the afternoon tea experience. However, I think they would likely greatly benefit from a bit of training on the finer details of the art of creating a polished afternoon tea like the one I experienced in Hamburg, which was quite exceptional.