Granduca Afternoon Tea

So I've heard about the Tea at Granduca and have been meaning to try, and now finally got a chance.

 We got the Traditional Tea Set, which comes with finger sandwiches.  You have an open faced salmon, open faced cucumber watercress.  At the bottom layer, you have chicken curry, egg salad, and ham and mustard.  The chicken curry is not common, but not bad.  What was bad was the bread they used, which was a bit stale and hard.  It's pretty hard to do for sandwich bread, and these are supposed to be made to order...

 Assorted dessert, you have an apple cake, chocolate dipped chocolate cake, cream tart, macarons, and a nut chocolate combo treat.  And as much as a sweet person, I actually found non of them too impressive.

 And no tea is complete without scones... As my friend pointed out, the texture is more like a biscuit than a scone, and it's true, there's more layers like the golden biscuits.  I can taste more butter than normal, I know there's cranberries but can't really taste it.  They also have a plain version as well.

 For your scones, they have clodded cream, which you can tell it's made in house.  There's blackberry jam and raspberry jam.  Not bad.

For macaron, it is the one-inch size.  The shell is nice and soft, you can tell it was frozen, but managed to be soft in the shell, but I cannot tell what's in the inside... it was still chilled.

Of course, for tea, it's best to make a reservation ahead of time.  They do ask you for your credit card to save the reservation.  And when you do, they will ask you which tea set you want, because they are different food than the traditional set.  Also, they will ask you to confirm the number in your party.  They specify that if you have less people than what your reservation is for, they will charge $30 for the no-shows.  So make sure you confirm.

When I arrived, it wasn't clear where the tea seating was going to be.  The hostess was nowhere to be found, and when you ask the hotel staff they were confused too.  That was kinda awkward.  The seating area is very beautiful and nice, definitely transform you to a different setting.  Our server was very attentive, but the kitchen was behind.  Which was to our surprise because if we have the reservations ahead of time, they should be ready with the food.  Very strange...

Granduca Tea
1080 Uptown Park Blvd.
Houston, TX 77056
713-418-1104
http://www.granducahouston.com/dining/afternoon_tea/