Food reviews

Tea Palace

The Tea Palace is very girlie. Serving brunch and afternoon tea in purple and cream surroundings that look like granny’s tea shop in Eastbourne goes to Soho, all net curtains, lavish lampshades and stylish swirly wallpaper. And very beautiful cream china. No wonder that the clientele on out midweek lunchtime visit was entirely female.
The tea menu is beyond extensive – it’s vast, and a real task to choose just one. Black tea, white tea, green tea, flavoured, floral-infused and tea tonics are just a few of the categories, each of which contains multiple options and variations. When you do choose, you are brought a tiny dish of tea leaves along with the pot, so you can sniff the pure stuff. My Earl Lavender Grey was infused with lavender and bergamot while my friend’s Lapsang Souchong was smoky and intense. The brunch menu is girlie and delicate – eggs Florentine was delicious, creamy with perfectly poached eggs in a decidedly girlie portion. Scrambled eggs with crispy bacon came arranged prettily in dainty stripes. Afterwards, of course, there was cake: carrot and honey, and cheesecake of the day, mandarin and blood orange. These are not rustic slabs – they’re formal-looking patisserie with sculpted icing and glazed tops, served on plates drizzled with decorative juice. Again, Eastbourne meets Soho. If you’re too late for brunch you can have afternoon tea, which is what we’ll do next time.  PH