The W Hotel is a modern and trendy 5 star hotel in Brisbane city centre. The hotel offers a unique, elevated take on a traditional high tea. Here is my full review of the W Hotel high tea.

The W Hotel high tea is held in the Living Room Bar of the hotel. The menu is ever-changing, with themed high teas running for a few months at a time. You could come here for high tea several times and it would be different each time.

We visited in February and had the Golden Glow High Tea, inspired by the seasonal flavours of Australian summer. They will shortly transition to the Easter High Tea, then the Mother’s Day High Tea. I love theming in my high teas so I think this is a great idea. Speaking of themed high teas, check out my review of this festive Brisbane high tea.

I took my 9 year old daughter Rose for a high tea here, and specifically picked the W Hotel because they have a dedicated kids high tea menu, something more of the Brisbane high tea venues need to offer.

The Setting

The W Hotel high tea is held in the Living Room Bar on the ground floor of the hotel. This is a very swanky bar space and would be a great spot for a cocktail in the evening. It was all glass and mirrors and cool furniture with a floor to ceiling bar. This is not a traditional high tea. It’s a modern interpretation of high tea, and the setting definitely matches this.

High tea is served on low tables and armchairs making it a little awkward to eat as the table is very low to the ground. We did also have a swinging egg chair at our table which was great fun for Rose.

We were there at lunchtime so there were very few people around meaning not too much atmosphere. Probably later in the afternoon there would be more of a buzz in the bar.

The tea is served on a “W” shaped tiered stand. Very unique and on-point with the hotel branding and I liked this extra touch.

The Tea

There’s a selection of black, green and herbal teas on offer. These have a very Australian twist – there’s no English breakfast tea in sight on this menu. I chose the Australian Lemon Myrtle tea which is served without milk and had a very pleasant background note of lemon myrtle.

For the kids high tea they have have juice, babychinos, hot chocolate or any of the adult teas to choose from. As Rose is becoming a high tea purist just like her mum she went for the vanilla fruit tea, and then later tried the apple oolong tea.

Good to know: The high tea experience lasts 2 hours and in this time you can have unlimited tea and coffee for the adults, and unlimited tea or juice for the kids.

The Savouries

This is a modern high tea remember, there’s no sandwiches for the adults. If you’ve read any of my other high tea reviews you’ll know I’m a high tea traditionalist and strongly believe you should stick to sandwiches for high tea. The ultimate traditional high tea is The Ritz in London. Check out my thoughts on that here.

Instead of the sandwiches I had a selection of little tartlets and a chicken wrap. These were more like canapes or elegant party food. The kids high tea did have an egg mayo sandwich and also the same chicken wrap plus a veggie skewer and a mini beef pie.

The highlight of the savoury tier was the tomato bruschetta which had an insane amount of flavour packed into such a small morsel.

The Scones

Now this is where we really went off-piste from the traditional high tea. For the adults there is a savoury pecorino and pepper scone. No scones with jam and cream on this high tea. The savoury scone was served with a sweet whipped cream which was a little strange. This would have paired much better with a herbed butter or a whipped goats cheese – something savoury at least.

The savoury scone itself was served slightly warm and was absolutely delicious.

On the kids high tea they do get a sweet scone with jam and cream.

The scones are small which isn’t a bad thing considering the amount of food to come.

The Sweets

The top tier of our “W” stand was the sweet selection. The high tea really came into its own here. The Golden Glow High tea is a summer high tea, and everything was yellow, white or golden coloured.

On the adults high tea I had a vanilla madeleine, passionfruit tart, guava profiterole and a mango slice. On the kids high tea there was a lemon cupcake, vanilla macaron and the same passionfruit tart and mango slice.

The vanilla and cherry madeleine was by far and away the highlight. Although the plainest in appearance, the taste of this was incredible. The guava profiterole was a close second. From the kids high tea the vanilla macaron was the highlight.

The sweets were very elegantly presented with exquisite fine detail befitting of a hotel of this calibre.

There’s a lot of cream in all of the sweets so if you’re not keen on that this may not be the high tea for you.

The Interactive Part

On every high tea at the W Hotel, regardless of the current theme, the high tea ends on a flourish with an interactive element. For the Golden Glow High Tea it was a build your own passionfruit parfait.

We had piping bags full of lemon cream, passionfruit parfait and whipped cream, plus a little bowl of crumble and some mini meringues. You end up with something resembling a deconstructed pavlova once you’ve created your masterpiece. It was really delicious and surprisingly light.

The interactive element is great fun for kids, and this was the highlight of the whole high tea for Rose. It’s nice to end on a high like that, leaving you with a lingering feeling of fun.

The Service

The service is excellent and very attentive. Before we could indulge in the interactive build your own parfait we did have to wait for the piping bags to be taken away and cut so we had a small delay here.

On the whole we felt very looked after and the service was superb, as you would expect from an upmarket hotel like this.

W Hotel High Tea: Final Thoughts

The W Hotel high tea is an ultra-modern take on a traditional high tea, matching the hip and stylish personality of the W Hotel itself.

The menu is constantly changing which makes it feel fresh, and the interactive element is something a little different and adds a touch of fun to this very chic high tea.

Fun for both kids and adults, don’t come into this high tea expecting anything traditional, just go with the flow and you’ll have a great time.

Information

The adults high tea is $79 including unlimited tea and coffee. You can upgrade your high tea to include a glass of champagne or a cocktail.

The kids high tea is $45 and includes unlimited tea, juice, babychinos and hot chocolate.

The W Hotel is a 5 star hotel in the middle of the Brisbane CBD. For current hotel rates click here.

If you’re looking for other things to do in Brisbane click here for some more ideas.