Sunday, April 5, 2009

Miss Marples Tea Room - 382 Mt. Dandenong Tourist Rd, Sassafras

Today saw my much anticipated return to Mt. Dandenong, and Agatha Christie's character inspired Tea Room: Miss Marples Tea Room. The day was planned so that we were to wake early (before 10am) and head out for a breakfast of scones, cream, jam, and sorts.


Miss Marples was packed as usual, if not more so. We were told that it would be a 30min wait for a table of 2, which wasn't unusual for a Saturday. Or any day for that matter.

After a leisurely stroll to the tea shop next door, we returned to find our table ready for us. A young friendly waitress greeted us as we self-escorted ourselves to "the table under the big oval painting", that Soup of the Day was Pumpkin Soup with a french Crusty Roll, and that Special of the Day was Waffles with jam, cream, and ice-cream.


After much careful consideration weighing up the pros and cons, I decided to forego the ice-cream for the pumpkin soup. The fact that 2/3 of tables had ordered and it was a much missed rainy cold Autumn day , and of course with the promise to return in a fortnight and have my dessert fare swayed my final decision. So the final order consisted of: Pumpkin Soup, Welsh Rarebit Fingers (Mature English Cheddar, eggs, Guinness, mustard & spices), one of each scones (Plain & Fruit), and a Teapot of Taylors - apparently voted 'best cup of tea in England' by the British Tea Council.

Now as I mentioned before, Miss Marples on any given day is understandably busy. Hence I'm usually quite lenient with the service. However. Having said the above, there is this one blond waitress who continuously looks as if someone's substituted every dairy intake of hers with sour cream. We were unfortunate enough to score her as the waitress who took our orders - she walked off mid-order! And when we called her back to finish off our request her impatience was all too willingly displayed across her frowned forehead with the same amount of clarity as suggestions for a prompt personality transplant.



Nevertheless, Miss Marples's 'world renowned' Devonshire Scones were definitely, as always, worth the 30min wait on top of the hour plus drive, and even the sour-faced waitress. The mouth-watering ensemble, served together with 'Miss Marple's Own' delicious home-made jam and generous amount of freshly whipped cream is a true 'melter' in the mouth. The Rarebit fingers were surprisingly nice, and the pumpkin soup was well received also.


Food: Scones - 9.5/10; Fingers - 7.5/10; Pumpkin Soup, 8/10; Overall: 8.5/10
Coffee: N/A - although the Devonshire tea was superb - 8/10
Service: It would have originally been an 8, minus 1.5 from the rude waitress - 6.5/10
Value: The quality and experience is definitely worth the 2 scones (1 of each) with whipped cream and jam for under $8 - 8.5/10
Ambiance: English, romantic, unique - 8.5/10

Overall: 40/50
Encore: an all time favourite, craving-worthy!

1 comment:

  1. Are you serious , the scones taste like day old microwaved pound cake and our tea on both occasions on visiting miss marples was luke warm,,so would we be willing to wait close to 40 minutes for this experience again ,,I THINK NOT

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