Afternoon tea for five

Oh my lordy, I've never had such an afternoon tea, where I'm so full, that I refuse to have another mini tart. I am after all, the dessert queen.

My oldest sister suggested to go for our Mother's day celebration, the week before the actual date, to beat the crowds.

The waiting room is a swanky, classy sort of bar-place that is near the lobby in the Crown. The lobby where all these posh cars line up, and I always wonder where the people are...lol. From what I've seen anyway! 

I've always had a good experience dining in Crown, like at Bistro Guillaume, Kitchen workshop and also when the Brasserie was still there. I'm pretty darn lucky to have sisters who know their food around Melbourne :)

 We had two tiers, one to be shared with three people and one to be shared with two people, since there was the five of us. We first started with scones on the top, then savoury and then back to sweet!

I really enjoyed the scones. They had a crispy exterior, and a soft texture in the inside. The lemon curd was really nice, and I also had it with the'clotted cream' (which doesn't sound appealing to me.. it sounds like blood clots) and jam. We were given 2 each, and it was so filling!

The savoury selection was quite interesting, and different. I particularly liked the chicken and walnut mini ciabatta and the prawn remoulade toast. I thought the rest of the selections were average. The menu said 'tomato and avocado on a crisp pita'. What I got, was a really soggy pita, and I know it was probably due to the avocado but I was disappointed with that because I loveeee avocado on anything.

Lemon tart above

Dessert menu: earl grey chocolate mousse, lemon meringue tarts, apple and blackberry crumble with ice cream, banoffee roulade, strawberry tarts and the pistachio sponge. I thought that all the desserts were delightful, all executed well to a dessert lover's expectations. The only one I did not like so much, was the pistachio sponge. A little bit on the sweet side for me, but it wasn't too bad. I can't pick my favourite, because I loved all of them! We even got to take some desserts home, because we had left overs. I happily ate them the next day.

I actually can't pick which dessert was my favourite, but I thought that the pastry of the tarts were pretty darn good! Buttery, crumbly and crisp. The chocolate mousse was intense and rich, but in a good chocoholic-lover's way. I was also quite surprised with the lemon tart. I'm usually not a huge fan of lemon tarts, because they're either too sweet or too sour for me, but this one was just right! Plus that meringue on top was pretty cute. The blackberry crumble with the vanilla ice cream was really,really, really good, I think I ate 3 of those. My sister and my dad didn't eat theirs. Banoffee roulade was nice, but I would've liked a bit more of caramel.

We also had this raspberry sorbet with basil pesto to have it as a 'palate cleanser'. Personally, I did not think it was necessary, and I found the sorbet too sweet. And although, basil has been used in desserts before, it was a little weird for my taste buds to combine pesto and sorbet.
 P.s: I apologise for the grainy pictures, the room was SO dim.

Thank goodness I went to district cross country the next day.. I'm actually through to the next round, at zone cross country! I was so surprised, I came 14th, barely scraping it, since the top 15 goes through the next round. However, I don't think I am able to go because it's during my work experience.

Would I go again? Yes. Only if my family (or someone kind enough) takes me, because you have to remember that I'm a sixteen year old student who can't afford fancy high teas or dinners in the city. But, you just wait for a few years my friend :)