Every time I visit Goodwood Park Hotel, the sumptuous buffet spread on display at L’Espresso is always such a tempter. This cafe is situated right next to the hotel lobby on level 1 and has an extensive afternoon tea menu that includes lots of hot items. Since my girlfriends and I tried out the afternoon tea at Four Seasons Hotel’s One-Ninety Bar during our last meet-up, we agreed to organize our next one at L’Espresso. I was excited to finally give this a go!
- Our order:
- English Afternoon Tea With Local Favourites for 4 ($62++ per person)
- Iced flavoured tea ($5 additional top-up for 2 drinks)
- Spent: SGD$300.56
There are three seatings to choose from for weekends and public holidays so do refer to their website for the latest time slots when you make a reservation (we opted for the middle slot from 1.30pm to 3.30pm). I arrived 20 minutes ahead of our time slot and to my surprise, a substantial queue had already formed along the walkway.
Anyway, we were eventually seated near the window with lovely natural light streaming in. However, as the weather was hot that day, our area started heating up quite a bit (which was okay for me but fairly uncomfortable for my friend). Consider sitting further indoors if this is an issue for you.
Each person is entitled to two beverages from the base coffee and tea menu that has a unique range of options. I went for the bai mu dan tea as my first choice. Perusing the rest of the beverage menu, my friend and I were enticed by the iced flavoured teas that required an additional top-up of $5 for two glasses. I ultimately chose Peach Perfect (black tea and peach) while my friend opted for Lychee Lady (earl grey tea and lychee). After trying both drinks, we concurred that Lychee Lady was nicer and sweeter.
Almost all the savoury food we had was delicious! It was also great that the chefs’ workspaces were right behind the buffet tables so they could easily assist guests if needed. The standouts for me were the flavourful signature laksa (even though it was a tad too spicy given my low threshold), the creamy leek soup, the fragrant smoked salmon with caviar and chives open-faced sandwiches, as well as the succulent roasted pork neck from the carving station. Additionally, I liked the mini pandan donut, castella cake and the bread and butter pudding, all of which were moist and light. The only thing to avoid is the vanilla crème brûlée that tasted like medicine.
Do note that the bulk of the sweet items are displayed at The Deli, the hotel’s grab-and-go shop located just across the L’Espresso indoor seating area. We only realized towards the end of our time slot that we completely missed out this dessert section! As a result, we scurried to try some of them but frankly speaking, you won’t be missing out on much as most of them tasted generic and overly saccharine. Only the mango pomelo pudding and the mango cheesecake were yummy.
Throughout our seating, Joyce was the one assisting us with most of our orders. She was very bubbly and always with a smile, ever-ready to attend to our requests. She certainly made us feel welcome with her warm demeanour.
Regrettably, the amout of time per seating was one thing that left a slightly bad taste in our mouths. Typically, most people come for afternoon tea to relax and enjoy their food at a leisurely pace, as well as have conversations with those they are dining with. Unfortunately, the staff here are made to chase and hurry guests as they have a really tight turnaround time. As such, we were compelled to cut short our conversations and wolf down whatever we had left before making a quick exit. That wasn’t the nicest way to end this experience as we felt like we couldn’t fully appreciate the food and the company towards the end given the undue sense of urgency.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. For a spread as wide as this, it was really amazing that they managed to maintain consistency across items in terms of quality and taste! Most of them were above average in my opinion, with only a handful not meeting the mark (especially the desserts). The ambience was pleasant and great for catch-up conversations but if you’re there on a hot day, you might want to request for a seat further indoors as it can get rather warm near the windows. Service was lovely – Joyce, in particular, took really good care of us. Alas, they are quite strict about adhering to the seating time slots and will understandably hurry you out when you’ve overstayed your welcome. In any case, I’ll definitely be back should the opportunity arise and this time, I’ll be sure to employ some nifty time management strategies 😀
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
Dania Experiences 