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Review: Afternoon Tea Emirates Palace
If you’re just tuning in…welcome! You’re amidst the journey of a lifetime, one that is taking my family around the world on a surprise trip for my mom’s 75th birthday. As I’m sure you can tell by now, the Monkey Miles family loves Afternoon Tea. My mom didn’t know we were headed to tea when we left the hotel. Instead of going straight to the Emirates Palace we visited the Etihad Towers Observation deck. From there we were looking down on the palace and you could see just how grand it is, and while we had a light refreshment and enjoyed the view we surprised her that we’d be heading there next….for Afternoon Tea.
The Deets:
- When: April 2017
- Where: Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.
- Cost: 320 AED for two people
- Hours: 2pm to 6pm
Served in Lé Café
Tip on making a reservation
I initially reached out to the hotel to make a reservation via email. The Emirates Palace serves their Afternoon Tea for 2 people. Since we would be 3, I was hoping they would just serve a half set, but in the corresponding with the hotel they intimated that we would need to buy a 2nd set for 2 people. In addition to this, they required me to give them my credit card to hold the reservation.
I didn’t like that. And ultimately let the reservation slide, and we didn’t get a spot held. This was the day before we arrived into Abu Dhabi.
When we arrived at the Ritz in Abu Dhabi I asked the concierge if he could make a reservation for us and requested the same exact time – thinking there was no way someone would take our spot in the few hours that had passed, but the concierge told us they were fully booked.
Not easily deterred…I hopped on Skype and called the hotel myself. +971 2 690 7999
What did I find out?
They had a spot. We didn’t need to get two sets. I could order a la carte or we could split the 2 sets three ways. AND – no credit card deposit required. Gooooooooood to know.
The Tea:
I had requested we have a vegetarian tea over the phone. Not only did they do a veggie tea, they did one that was gluten free. If I did this again I’d make sure to explain that we weren’t gluten free, and just wanted vegetarian, but it was nice they went the extra mile to accommodate us.
With that being said…for being gluten free it was tasty!
I also ordered a vegetarian panini off the a la carte menu and it was fantastic. In hindsight, I probably didn’t need to order any extra food as the tea for two was more than enough for 3.
The service
Outstanding, attentive, and personal.
Overall:
This is an excellent value at $43. Having done a lot of Afternoon Teas around the world you will be hard pressed to find anything that compares to this in regards to service, ambience, and overall cool factor. The Emirates Palace is iconic and very expensive. I think they could easily get away with charging twice this price and people would pay it. Both the Burj Al Arab and Khalifa charge 3x this price.
Was it the best afternoon tea I’ve ever had? No…but then again the food was gluten free, and we aren’t. I’d come back just to try it out as it’s designed to be served, just without the meat. You can’t really compare a gluten free scone to a normal one…
The Emirates Palace is a tourist attraction in and of itself, and I’d recommend walking around just to see the grandeur.
You don’t have to stop here. Check out how we paid $5k and took a $125k Surprise trip Around The World to celebrate my Mom’s 75th
Flights:
- Boston to Beijing
- Beijing to Singapore
- Singapore to Bali Roundtrip
- Singapore to Dubai
- Abu Dhabi to Cannes, France
- Etihad Airways First Class Apartment A380 Abu Dhabi to London ($8k)
- Etihad Airways Business Studio A380 Abu Dhabi to London ( $3500-5k)
- British Airways Club Europe A321 London to Nice
- Cannes, France to Dallas
- Lufthansa Business Class A321 Nice to Frankfurt ($10k)
- Lufthansa First Class A330 Frankfurt to Dallas
Hotels:
- Boston
- Beijing
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
- Club King ($250)
- Singapore
- Bali
- Singapore
- Dubai
- Abu Dhabi
- Cannes, France
- Intercontinental Carlton Cannes, France ($300)
- Dallas
- Grand Hyatt DFW ($150
- JW Marriott Beijing, 1 Bedroom Suite ($450 for 5 nights)
Lounges
- Boston
- Hong Kong
- Beijing
- Singapore
- Bali
- Singapore
- Abu Dhabi
- Etihad First Class Lounge
- Etihad Business Class Lounge
- Etihad Shave Experience
- London
- British Airways First Class Lounge LHR Terminal 5
- Nice
- Living Room Azur
- Frankfurt
- Lufthansa First Class Lounge Frankfurt Terminal A
Afternoon Tea
TIPS:
- When to look for Cathay award space
- How we booked 3 Singapore Suites
- Etihad Last minute award space
- 5 things we loved doing in Singapore that avoided the heat
- Never trust the concierge
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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