High Tea at the Silo Hotel

Before I embarked on my mini sabbatical overseas I had a bunch of vouchers left over from my last birthday, work year-end functions, events and such that I still needed to use.  One of these was a voucher for high tea for 2 at The Silo Hotel in their beautiful Granary Café which is situated on the 6th floor of the hotel and therefore boasts some of the best views of the city & harbour you’ll find.

I invited my friend Melain (from iammelain.com) to join me so we could do a proper girls catch-up before I jetted off, and I have to say, a more luxurious setting we simply could not have asked for.  Just have a look at this:

The Silo Hotel does 2 different tea offerings:

• Afternoon Tea
  Enjoy their pastry chef’s selection of sweet treats including the cake of the day as well as a variety of savoury snacks @ R160.00 per person.
• The Royal Tea
  Enjoy their pastry chef’s selection of petit gateaux and exquisite teatime treats as well as a selection of savoury delights exclusive to their Royal Tea experience @ R225.00 per person.

We were there for the latter.  Just an important note:  They do require 24 hours notice for the Royal Tea.  So booking is essential.

The first step upon arrival is selecting your tea.  Being a massive Early Grey lover, I opted for their French Earl Grey infused with citrus fruits and French blue cornflowers…

It was beautiful – not just the presentation, but also the taste…

Then we were ready to dig in…  The items are selected for you by the chef, so that unfortunately does mean that you likely won’t love everything.  I find this a common problem with all set high tea’s like this one.  Nothing quite beats the Afternoon Tea at the Mount Nelson with their Lounge Buffet where you can choose whatever your heart desires.  That said, I enjoyed most of these items, with only about 2 items standing out as not really my vibe (if I recall correctly the spicy mini carrot cake was one).

The final verdict?  It may not be the selection the Mount Nelson offers (but then again their afternoon tea does cost R365 pp), but at the price I think it’s a lovely option.  Also the setting and views make it quite memorable.

A top tip (thanks to our lovely waiter on the day) is to also book a spot on The Silo Rooftop so you can head up after your high tea for a drink (or two).  The Silo Rooftop is normally only for hotel guests, but is available to the public if you’ve made a prior reservation.  Luckily our waiter took the initiative to do this for us and we were so happy that he did, because it’s beautiful up there.

There’s nothing quite like bubbles with a view…

For high tea reservations at the Granary Café (and that table at The Silo Rooftop after), contact the hotel on:

• 021 670 0500
• dining@thesilohotel.com

High tea is served from 2pm onward and the rooftop is open until sunset.

xxx