Afternoon Tea at H Tasting Lounge in the Westin Bayshore Hotel Vancouver

Coal Habour's Newest Afternoon Tea Spot

I was on twitter one day when I noticed a tweet from H Tasting Lounge promoting their new afternoon tea service. A real sense of excitement came over me as I LOVE discovering new afternoon tea spots. Actually, the week before, I had checked if the newly revamped Westin Bayshore Hotel would be offering afternoon tea since I was in charge of arranging a tea date for a group outing. To my dismay at the time, there was no afternoon tea service listed on the menu. After seeing the twitter post about their new tea set, we decided to head down not knowing anything about the new tea service but totally willing to try anything.

The Glamorous New H Tasting Lounge

The new tea service is held in the H Tasting Lounge which is one of the two newly unveiled dining establishments in the Westin Bayshore, the other being H2 Rotisserie which serves homestyle, upscale comfort food. The design of the lounge and menu selections are influenced by the glamourous Hollywood era of billionaire Howard Hughes, one of the most successful men of his time and a previous penthouse resident of the hotel.

The New Western Afternoon Tea Set

Instead of tea sets of different sizes at various price points, guests can choose between two dramatically divergent tea sets: Western or Eastern. I was really impressed with this unique offering and found it an exciting proposition since I always choose the grandest tea set possible if given the choice. This one was different and I liked that. It reminds me of TWG Tea where they offer so many different types of tea sets that it reads almost like a novel. At H Tasting Lounge, they make it a bit simpler for you; I chose the Western tea set because it had a macaron in it. Yes, the macaron made me do it and it was a good choice 🙂

Thanks for joining me on another tea date. Until next time.

XOXO,

Mimi

The lounge uses some of the most high quality dishware with a woodsy floral theme.

Left to right: bacon filo cup, lobster roll, orange duck wrap.

Left to right: taro chips, smoked salmon and cucumber sandwich.

Left to right: lemon meringue tart, passion fruit mousse, tiramisu.

Left: Alcoholic beverages can be ordered as it is a fully licensed establishment. Right: green tea panna cotta in a dainty shot glass.

Notable Points:

- One of the newest afternoon tea offerings in Vancouver. (Hy Tea Lounge being another one.)

- Uber photogenic fairy floss tree.

- Unique tea selection including a Canadian/Pacific Northwest collection, two of which uses a Canadian-pioneered processing technique and Canadian ingredients, respectively.

- Glamorous new lounge setting with lots of natural light.

- Alcoholic beverages available for order.

- Good selection of coffees.

- Valet parking.

Ambience: Glamorous and chic lounge that is newly renovated. Although it is big and spacious - making it conducive for big parties and events - the many nooks and booths sparingly placed around the lounge provide a sense of intimacy and privacy for smaller parties. Large skylights allow plenty of natural light to pour through. This is the place to be inspired with a perfectly balanced dose of millenial pink, powder blue and brushed gold.

Scones: The regular sized raisin scone is so crumbly and buttery. Like the famous scones at the Fairmont, they are one of the best scones I've had in the city. It's served with vanilla butter and house made berry confiture. I loved them!

Savoury: 4 savouries & a dish of taro chips. Although not listed on the menu, the taro chips were a surprise hit as they were very fresh and crispy. I also enjoyed the bacon filo cup. The smoked salmon, duck wrap and lobster roll all left just a little something to be desired.

Sweets: Between the savouries and sweets, the sweets are the stronger offering in this tea set. They were all delicious and I was impressed with my delicious and perfectly baked lemon macaron pop. I loved how each piece was so dainty and multi-dimensional. They were all on the small side.

Tea: Unique tea selection including a Canadian/Pacific Northwest collection. Within it, one uses a Canadian-pioneered processing technique, and the other, Canadian ingredients.

The tea selection is small but unique. Instead of separating the teas by type, they are separated into these 4 different categories: Canadian/Pacific Northwest (4), Chinese (4), Traditional (4), Health and Wellness (4). There is a mix of caffeinated and non-caffeinated selections among these 16 different teas.

Tea Ware: The lounge uses some of the most beautiful and high quality tea ware in the city. The mint green fairy floss was spun on a silver "tree trunk" display and was perched on top of a marble plate adorned with brushed gold flowers. Following this woodsy floral theme, the scones were served nestled inside a matching silver bowl that had a white and gold calla-lily flower spiraling along the outside. Next, the savouries and sweets were brought out on a chic 3-level open back book case display in silver. The elegant porcelain gold tea cups matched the general theme while the glass tea pot with a separator was more utilitarian.

Alcoholic Beverages: Alcoholic beverages are available. It is a also a licensed drink lounge in the evenings.

Service: There was only one server for the entire lounge along with one manager serving 3 groups, including us. We were checked on constantly and never felt neglected. The server did not know much about the afternoon tea service; as per my intro, it is a very new offering for the lounge. Later, the manager did come by to provide more information and offered us some bubbly.

Other notes: