Table: Capstone Tea & Fondue
It's been forever since my last review post! I'm so busy now that I wish I had time to sit down with friends and while the afternoon away. That reminds me of the last time I went to high tea with friends. Anata, another friend, and myself went out to Capstone for their afternoon tea special. Since we used a groupon, they gave us servings for four even though we only had three people at the table.
The requirement is that you have to make reservations in advance, so it's not quite for a on the spur moment thing. But taking time to schedule in afternoon tea is nice and relaxing - I can't wait until I'm less busy!
The afternoon tea menu is set with a variety of items under their three categories. In total with the groupon, since the servings are for four, you get four of each item. The items seem to be pretty standard but maybe changed up every few months, as I saw postings and pictures on the wall of the restaurant that suggested different items than what we had on the table.
The regular afternoon tea comes with a choice of the house teas, but if you want a special tea or a flavoured ice drink, you can substitute it at cost. The wonderful thing is that drinks are unlimited so even with a special drink if you're sitting for a while it's worth it to pay a few bucks more. Anata ordered a sparkling earl grey tea with mango. It looked rather plain but you could see the little bubbles in the glass, and drinking it was an interesting experience. It had a very light and subtle "sparkle" to the drink, with the fizz being very toned down, but enough to add lightness to the drink. It's really wonderful on a warm day and has a kind of delicate and fruity lightness to the palate.
I ordered the herbal "beautify your skin" tea, and it was a nice herbal tea. It wasn't overwhelming, very well balanced, but I could pick out the lemongrass, lavender, and peppermint mixed amongst the other herbs (neroli, nettle leaf, rose petal, yarrow, daylily, verbena). I did get refills, and when the servers came by they even asked me if I wanted to try a different tea flavour!
Our friend ordered the house green tea, which was simple and standard.
The food comes in platters that are meant to be shared, and the food is distributed in sets of two per four platters. Since we had the groupon for four, that meant we had 8 small plates on our table!
The pepper and pickled beet on crostini was really tasty. I loved the pickled beet as it had strong flavour that was offset by the bit of dill laying atop the beet. Lovely bite with nice notes of vinaigrette from the seasonings. The cream cheese tied it down and added earthiness to hold it together.
The mushroom and eggplant quiche was a hit at the table, with even Anata (who considers eggplant to be his culinary adversary) saying that it was tasty! The pastry was light and flaky, and the mushroom and eggplant were handled really lightly even though their flavours can be really strong and earthy.
The macarons were not our favourites, but we had mango+coconut and rooibos+passionfruit with mango and passionfruit ganache inside. They were sweet, as all macarons were, but I'll admit that they weren't as bad as I thought they would be. The sweetness wasn't too strong, and it was helped along with the tartness of the ganache. They were super cute since they were so small, and since the serving was small, it meant that the sugar wasn't too overwhelming.
I really liked the mini creme brulee in a chocolate tart pastry. My favourite pick for the desserts :) Even though they were small, they had the brulee crust and the chocolate pastry wasn't sweet but more a darker and very satisfying cocoa flavour. Super balanced, not too sweet, and oh so satisfying!
The pineapple tart was a small morsel that seemed to be mostly pastry and I didn't get too much of the "pineapple" coming through. It wasn't too sweet and made for a nice filler, but it ultimately didn't stand out against the creme brulee or the macarons.
The santa fe salads in the little wrapper nests made for a cute and attractive visual, but I think the flavour was really lacking in the bite. There was some good texture with crunchy pastry and soft vegetables, but ultimately there wasn't any marinade or taste from the vegetables to highlight their freshness or flavour. Mostly the bite was.. the pastry. Good idea but the lack of flavour in the execution made it not very successful.
The caprese panini with pesto and tomatoes were really yummy and full of great flavour. The pesto really brought it to the little sandwich and I liked the alfalfa sprouts on top. Anata said it was a little weird because he thought the tomatoes were smoked salmon at first, but aside from that it was okay. I thought it was the most successful of the savoury bites, but the mushroom and eggplant quiches garnered better accolades from Anata and my friend.
Their scones were small but because of that I think it really made them very successful as they were crisp with a glazed shell on the outside but still moist and slightly crumbly on the inside. A really well done scone, of which we had lemon and cranberry as our selections. I was totally a fan of these, as most other scones I come across tend to be quite dry, but I was pretty impressed with how well these ones turned out.
We were also served honey butter and raspberry jam as our spreads, and they complimented the scones quite well. The honey butter was very popular at our table and we had to ask for more!
Overall we really enjoyed our afternoon tea and though at first we had a bit of apprehension with the venue, we got to relax and after tasting the food we ended up having a good time. At first my expectations were kind of low and I had a bit of a bias since the place wasn't like other tea places I've seen, but I grew to like it and the food and tea were quite good. I think the only thing is that all the fare we were served was vegetarian, so that might be something to keep in mind if you're going there.
I would say that our groupon really made the trip worth it, and that yes the regular price seems a little high. But there's always some kind of deal for afternoon tea on groupon or social shopper, so if you've the inclination for tea, it's worth it to invest in a coupon and redeem it before it expires for a lovely afternoon :)
The requirement is that you have to make reservations in advance, so it's not quite for a on the spur moment thing. But taking time to schedule in afternoon tea is nice and relaxing - I can't wait until I'm less busy!
The afternoon tea menu is set with a variety of items under their three categories. In total with the groupon, since the servings are for four, you get four of each item. The items seem to be pretty standard but maybe changed up every few months, as I saw postings and pictures on the wall of the restaurant that suggested different items than what we had on the table.
The regular afternoon tea comes with a choice of the house teas, but if you want a special tea or a flavoured ice drink, you can substitute it at cost. The wonderful thing is that drinks are unlimited so even with a special drink if you're sitting for a while it's worth it to pay a few bucks more. Anata ordered a sparkling earl grey tea with mango. It looked rather plain but you could see the little bubbles in the glass, and drinking it was an interesting experience. It had a very light and subtle "sparkle" to the drink, with the fizz being very toned down, but enough to add lightness to the drink. It's really wonderful on a warm day and has a kind of delicate and fruity lightness to the palate.
I ordered the herbal "beautify your skin" tea, and it was a nice herbal tea. It wasn't overwhelming, very well balanced, but I could pick out the lemongrass, lavender, and peppermint mixed amongst the other herbs (neroli, nettle leaf, rose petal, yarrow, daylily, verbena). I did get refills, and when the servers came by they even asked me if I wanted to try a different tea flavour!
Our friend ordered the house green tea, which was simple and standard.
The food comes in platters that are meant to be shared, and the food is distributed in sets of two per four platters. Since we had the groupon for four, that meant we had 8 small plates on our table!
The pepper and pickled beet on crostini was really tasty. I loved the pickled beet as it had strong flavour that was offset by the bit of dill laying atop the beet. Lovely bite with nice notes of vinaigrette from the seasonings. The cream cheese tied it down and added earthiness to hold it together.
The mushroom and eggplant quiche was a hit at the table, with even Anata (who considers eggplant to be his culinary adversary) saying that it was tasty! The pastry was light and flaky, and the mushroom and eggplant were handled really lightly even though their flavours can be really strong and earthy.
The macarons were not our favourites, but we had mango+coconut and rooibos+passionfruit with mango and passionfruit ganache inside. They were sweet, as all macarons were, but I'll admit that they weren't as bad as I thought they would be. The sweetness wasn't too strong, and it was helped along with the tartness of the ganache. They were super cute since they were so small, and since the serving was small, it meant that the sugar wasn't too overwhelming.
I really liked the mini creme brulee in a chocolate tart pastry. My favourite pick for the desserts :) Even though they were small, they had the brulee crust and the chocolate pastry wasn't sweet but more a darker and very satisfying cocoa flavour. Super balanced, not too sweet, and oh so satisfying!
The pineapple tart was a small morsel that seemed to be mostly pastry and I didn't get too much of the "pineapple" coming through. It wasn't too sweet and made for a nice filler, but it ultimately didn't stand out against the creme brulee or the macarons.
The santa fe salads in the little wrapper nests made for a cute and attractive visual, but I think the flavour was really lacking in the bite. There was some good texture with crunchy pastry and soft vegetables, but ultimately there wasn't any marinade or taste from the vegetables to highlight their freshness or flavour. Mostly the bite was.. the pastry. Good idea but the lack of flavour in the execution made it not very successful.
The caprese panini with pesto and tomatoes were really yummy and full of great flavour. The pesto really brought it to the little sandwich and I liked the alfalfa sprouts on top. Anata said it was a little weird because he thought the tomatoes were smoked salmon at first, but aside from that it was okay. I thought it was the most successful of the savoury bites, but the mushroom and eggplant quiches garnered better accolades from Anata and my friend.
Their scones were small but because of that I think it really made them very successful as they were crisp with a glazed shell on the outside but still moist and slightly crumbly on the inside. A really well done scone, of which we had lemon and cranberry as our selections. I was totally a fan of these, as most other scones I come across tend to be quite dry, but I was pretty impressed with how well these ones turned out.
We were also served honey butter and raspberry jam as our spreads, and they complimented the scones quite well. The honey butter was very popular at our table and we had to ask for more!
Overall we really enjoyed our afternoon tea and though at first we had a bit of apprehension with the venue, we got to relax and after tasting the food we ended up having a good time. At first my expectations were kind of low and I had a bit of a bias since the place wasn't like other tea places I've seen, but I grew to like it and the food and tea were quite good. I think the only thing is that all the fare we were served was vegetarian, so that might be something to keep in mind if you're going there.
I would say that our groupon really made the trip worth it, and that yes the regular price seems a little high. But there's always some kind of deal for afternoon tea on groupon or social shopper, so if you've the inclination for tea, it's worth it to invest in a coupon and redeem it before it expires for a lovely afternoon :)