Afternoon tea at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise has been on my bucket list for a while now. Last month, I got to check it off when I treated my mom to her very first afternoon tea for her birthday!
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Afternoon tea was served in the Lakeview Lounge with spectacular floor-to-ceiling views of Lake Louise and the Victoria Glacier. Once we were comfortably seated, the first ordeal was the tea. Our server was extremely knowledgeable about the teas, and patient in explaining the different characteristics and ingredients of each.
My usual go-to is green tea but for this special occasion, I decided to go wild and ordered the Market Fresh. It was very sweet and heavy on the floral note. This is the one tea you certainly don’t want to oversteep.
We were served three 3-tier stands; two incorporated two adult afternoon tea sets and the third incorporated one adult and one children’s afternoon tea set. My mom was a little surprised at the delicate size of each item. To be honest, I was too. My one other afternoon tea experience was in London (in the UK) and I don’t recall the portions being so small. However, the meal was unexpectedly filling and absolutely delicious.
On the top tier were the scones. We each had to choose two of three flavours, and we all went with the traditional buttermilk scones and Saskatoon berries white chocolate scones. Both scones were very light and fluffy while the Saskatoon berry and white chocolate scones had the right hint of sweetness. The scones were served with Devonshire cream, jam, marmalade, and lemon curd.
The middle tier was an assortment of bite-sized sweets. This included a passion fruit truffle, salted caramel pot de crème, olive oil and berry cake, lemon meringue tartlet, Chantilly cream with berries, and a macaron. Plus a special 'Happy Birthday' chocolate piece for the birthday girl!
My favourites were the passion fruit truffle and salted caramel pot de crème!
The children’s tea set included a dipped chocolate chip cookie, sprinkle cupcake, mini donut with jelly centre, and a chocolate dipped strawberry.
The third and final tier was the savoury portion. It consisted mainly of finger sandwiches: county ham cheese choux puff, blackened tuna BLT on a petit croissant, honey comb with double brie on brioche toast, a curry chicken sandwich, and prawns in an avocado dip.
The children’s savoury portion included a mini ham and cheese croissant, peanut butter and jam sandwich, and cucumber finger sandwich. Nothing fancy or remarkable but rather, everyday homely sandwiches that most parents are experts at.
Overall Impression
I really enjoyed our afternoon tea experience at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise in terms of the quality of the food, variety, and service. At $65 per person, I find it quite reasonable. However, I would not recommend bringing young children. Given the dull, ordinary selections on the children’s menu, $35 per child is not worth it.
Having said that, I would love to enjoy this again sans kids.
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