Panorama Lounge - RACV Royal Pines Resort

Last Saturday, I went to Panorama Lounge with a couple of girlfriends for 'High tea'. Panorama Lounge is located in the lobby/reception area of Royal Pines Resort. The seating area was well lit and comfortable.

Seating

Counter

I had made a booking for 3 people. One of my girlfriend's vegetarian, so I had to specifically ask for vegetarian sandwiches for her high tea set. When we arrived, we walked up to the counter and asked to be seated. The girl behind the counter just pointed in a general direction and said we can sit wherever we wanted to. So.... we picked a table and sat down. Then she came to take our drink order just as we sat down. I would've liked more time to decide on what to drink, or for her to explain to us what was included for drinks with the high tea. (I know there was a glass of champagne, a tea or coffee, and unlimited soft drink/juice). I asked her to bring us the champagne first while we decide on tea/coffee.

One friend and I decided on earl grey and another friend ordered the chamomile tea. All the tea were looseleaf and came in pots, which was pretty good. We were also able to refill the teapots with hot water too.

Our high tea towers arrived shortly after! On the very bottom there were the ribbon sandwiches, which consisted of smoked salmon, chicken, ham and cheese (for the vegetarian tower, the sandwiches were salad, egg salad and grilled vegetables). In the middle section, there were scones with jam and cream, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and a raspberry cake/tart. The top section were all sweets, including chocolate mousse cup, cream cheese mousse cup, profiteroles, lemon meringue tart and blueberry tart.

All the food was very nice! My favourite was definitely the lemon meringue tart! The profiteroles were a bit dry and hard in my opinion. I wasn't too fond of the ham and cheese sandwich though. Also, I thought there was too much icing sugar on top of the scones....... it was quite funny, because when we took a bite of the scone, we all had white power on our lips!

Left: Normal high tea     Right: Vegetarian high tea

Closer photo of the normal high tea

Vegetarian high tea, earl grey, champagne

Top section of high tea tower

Second section of high tea tower

The high tea experience was quite good overall. It was great to catch up with my girlfriends over high tea, just chatting and eating! We sat there for such a long time! There were other diners who also ordered the high tea. We saw a high tea tower on another table that had fruit and jelly (we later found out from the waitress that this was the 'gluten free' high tea).

Cost per person is $27, quite a reasonable price for the quality, especially with unlimited soft drinks and juice. I though the customer service was only so so (we weren't acknowledged straight away when we arrived; we weren't given time to choose drinks; had to ask for the champagne to be brought out and they didn't come to offer us juice/soft drink when our tea was finished). When the waitress brought the juice to us, she spilt it on the table! 

The Panorama Lounge also has a normal menu besides high tea, which looks quite appetising without the huge price tag.

High Tea Menu
Dining & Beverage Menu
Panorama Lounge Website