High Tea at the One&Only

Vista Lounge

In search of an early start to the week­end, I took off to the One&Only Hotel at the V&A Waterfront. Having been lucky enough to enjoy High Tea at The Palace in Sun City, I wondered if Sol Kerzner’s new offer­ing at the Waterfront could match up.

Afternoon Tea is served from 14h30 to 18h00 every day in the Vista Lounge. The double volume lounge is cer­tainly quite opu­lent with a mag­ni­fi­cent view of Table Mountain (when not obstruc­ted by clouds) and the water­ways which sur­round the two man-made islands that house 40 of the 131 rooms avail­able at the hotel.

Choosing couches at the 8 metre high win­dows, we pre­pared ourselves for a true indul­gence – tea and cakes in Cape Town’s premier new hotel dur­ing work­ing hours (bliss). We were greeted with a huge smile by our waiter and presen­ted with an extens­ive cock­tail menu. I will def­in­itely return to sample some cock­tails (the candy floss con­coc­tion I saw delivered to another table cer­tainly has me intrigued), but our focus on this day was High Tea, so order­ing a pot of tea for 4, we set to the task at hand.

One of three tiers

While the selec­tion may not be as large or as var­ied as at the Mount Nelson, the del­ic­ate desserts and savour­ies on offer are as tasty as they are visu­ally appeal­ing. From tra­di­tional favour­ites like black forest cake and lemon meringue to home grown favour­ites like koek­s­isters. Caramel éclairs, scones with jams and clot­ted cream, chocol­ate slices (my favour­ite), pan­nacotta, ban­of­fee and tiram­isu pots … there is some­thing for every­one in this selec­tion. Yum!

One of the things I really liked was that this High Tea allows you to try as little or as much as you like. While the High Tea at the Mount Nelson will set you back a tidy R150 PER PERSON irre­spect­ive of whether you eat like a rab­bit or pig­let (can’t say I’m the former), here at the One&Only you can choose a 3-tiered selec­tion of sweets and savour­ies for 2 per­sons (includ­ing tea) for only R180 or choose two of the cake slices for R50. This actu­ally makes it quite afford­able, even in today’s penny-watching times.

My only real cri­ti­cism is the over­power­ing floral scent in the foyer (think bath­room deodour­iser on ster­oids … though I hear they were aim­ing for vanilla). This is a per­man­ent fea­ture (I know, because of a recent visit to The Maze Restaurant) and one I don’t really understand.

On the bright side, after we’d tried just about every dessert on offer, the private walk­ways out­side the hotel provide the per­fect oppor­tun­ity to try to burn off some the much-enjoyed cal­or­ies. A moment on the lips …

If, like me, you enjoy cel­eb­rat­ing South Africa's colo­nial her­it­age with High Tea, the Vista Lounge at the One&Only Hotel is a great option. Treat your mother or a friend and make it a tra­di­tion here or at another of Cape Town's Premier Teatime Spots.

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