Reviews

Review: Afternoon Tea Emirates Palace

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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.

a group of tall buildings
View of the Etihad Towers from the Emirates Palace

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

a group of people inside a building

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.

a stuffed animal on a chair

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.

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With that being said…for being gluten free it was tasty!

a three tiered tray with desserts on it

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.

a sandwich on a plate

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.

a stuffed animal on a railing in a building


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

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Flights:

Hotels:

Lounges

Afternoon Tea

TIPS:

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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