Aria - Melbourne

I've always wanted to high-tea with one of those traditional three-tiered stands. But I've never been able to set my eyes past the chocolates and cakes offered by some less traditional high-tea places. So when my partner came across the high-tea/chocolate bar weekend offer at Aria in Langham Hotel, I was all there.

I was very excited as we got seated. A nice friendly waiter told us the ins and outs of the package - we get bottomless tea/coffee/hot chocolate, a three-tiered stand of "savoury" treats, and unlimited Chocolate Bar rounds.

I ordered the 'white rose' tea, whilst my partner started on the 'apple tea' (which was really quite apple-y). He later swapped it for an un-interesting Earl-grey tea.

Classy plate and serviette

The stand came with sandwiches - two of each kind. There was the smoked salmon sandwich, cucumber ribbon sandwich, egg mayo and cress sandwich, and the cream cheese and chives sandwich. Apart from the smoked salmon, the others were quite subtle and delicate in taste.

There were also scones. I'm not a big fan of scones. But these... quite impeccable. It was nice and warm and just sooooo light and soooo fluffy and just sooooo... wow!

Our three-tiered stand

Close up of the sandwiches

But speaking of Wow - the chocolate bar is Wow WOW~
Words can not describe how Wowness the display looked in real life, nor can it describe the wowness of my table being right next to this fantastic display.

Fantastic Chocolate Display

According the the waitress, the chocolate used to create these lovely little tasty bites are imported from all over the world - Switzerland, Tanzania, Belgium, Mexico, etc.

White chocolate mousse cake with white peach and kiwi mirror

Dark chocolate and strawberry chocolate mousse

Lime and green tea mousse

Tanzanie chocolate cream pot with golgi berry

My first choice of tasty tidbits - words cannot even start to describe how wonderfully awesome these are~ there's the nut cluster, pistachio biscotti, super sweet strawberry, and the green tea and lime mousse.

Then there's the dark chocolate and strawberry chocolate mousse, and dark chocolate ganache cake thing (I forgot the name - sorry!). And more strawberries ~ ahh... balanced diet.


My partner's choice - Tanzanie chocolate cream pot with golgi berry - taste a bit like chocolate, egg custard and sago (mmm... not bad). Then theres the other two things... one's a blueberry lemon custardy thing, and... I'm not sure what the orange bub thing is, but it wasn't bad tasting.


We also got a complimentary chocolate chip souffle - nice and hot and fluffy and airy. My partner was quite amazed by this - and if he had the stomach, I'm sure he would have stolen mine too!


Overall, this definitely satisfied both my high tea and chocolate craving!
It's absolutely fantastically amazing!
But it's so rich and so high in calories - probably can't be eaten every weekend.
Also, did I mention that it was $55 per person? Doesn't cost an arm or a leg but definitely will start chopping off toes if it is on your weekly agenda!

Ratings:
Food - 9.5/10
Service - 9/10
Ambiance - 10/10
Value for money - 7/10
Overall - 35.5/40

Aria - Langham Hotel
1 Southgate Ave
Southbank, Melbourne
Victoria, 3000
Tel: (03) 8696 8888