As Dan and I ended up being in the air on Valentine’s Day because we were flying home for my friend’s wedding, we postponed our celebrations until we came back to the UAE. Not that we are overly romantic or anything like that, but it’s just a good excuse to do something nice :).
When we think of doing something nice, afternoon tea is one of the first things that always comes to mind. However, these days (especially in the UAE) afternoon tea has kind of become a pretty standard thing to do and it really doesn’t have a very special feel to it anymore. I think that’s mainly got to do with the fact that so many places stick afternoon tea on their menu, but it’s not really a proper afternoon tea that they are offering.
For me, a proper afternoon tea is the ones they do in London, where you start with a glass of champagne, choose your tea (as many different ones as you like) and have your tray replenished with your favourite items as often as you wish! I will never forgot having afternoon tea at the Dorchester in London just after Dan and I got engaged. It was incredible and I have been pining after one that comes close to that ever since.
I have been to so many afternoon teas where you choose one tea at the beginning and you have to stick with that one throughout, and where you get one plate stuffed with food and when it’s gone it’s gone – no top up’s, no tea change, no champagne – is that really afternoon tea? Saying that, I am usually quite happy without the champagne; I am a Nanna at heart and would prefer the tea, but it’s nice to have the option lol and Dan will gladly drink it on my behalf.
It came as no surprise that the best afternoon tea that we have found so far in the UAE was in Dukes Dubai, which is located on the Palm Jumeirah and is the sister hotel to Dukes London in Mayfair. This hotel aims to provide “true British hospitality in the UAE” and that’s exactly what it does!
We arrived at the hotel and made our way up to where the afternoon tea was being held, in the Champagne and Tea Lounge. We were given the option of two different rooms to sit in. Both rooms were so gorgeous but they were completely different. Together they offered a mix of modern and contemporary designs. The first room consisted of a number of different styles of furniture with pale pink and gold being the dominant colours. The interior of this room was right up my street and I really wanted to take home at least three different chairs that they had lol. The styles were completely different but all worked really well together.
The second room overlooked the beach and the newly developed Ain Dubai ferris wheel, had funky colourful furniture and an entire wall dedicated to prints and paintings of pretty teacups and flowers (two of my favourite things!). I felt as thought this wall was designed especially for me lol!
The biggest decision of the day was choosing what room to sit in lol, but of course we opted for the pale pink and gold room. Next decision was to choose which seat we wanted to sit at lol. Luckily for us, we went there on a Sunday which is a working day in the UAE so we had the entire place to ourselves and our choice of seats! There were so many different cute little tables set up, some with big armchairs, some with sofas and some with more contemporary style chairs. I loved them all so it was a tough choice lol.
Once we were seated we were given the menu, which set out the food we would be served. We were also presented with the aroma menu, which was for choosing which tea we wanted. It came in two boxes (one for black tea and one for green tea) and had test tubes full of loose tea leaves for us to smell. I am not fussy about tea but this was definitely a nice touch :). To begin with, Dan choose the Assam and I choose the Lapsang Souchong.
Then our food arrived. We were given a selection of sandwiches and sweets, and they informed us that our scones would be served warm whenever we were ready for them (the best news ever!). We made our way through each item and every single bit of it was delicious, which is something that I think is rare at afternoon tea. In my experience anyway, there are usually a number of nice things mixed in with a few things that aren’t so great or the odd random sandwich here or there that I am not keen on.
This menu was simple but delicious and we enjoyed all of it. When our sandwiches were finished they asked if we would like some more. This is how afternoon tea should be, but I don’t think I have ever been to one in the UAE where they offer you a top up.
Then we made our way onto the sweet stuff, which is always my favourite. On this particular day the menu was very clearly Valentine’s Day themed so everything was pink and red. I’m not sure what their menu is like on a normal day, but if it is anything like this one, it will also be delicious. Again we loved the sweet selection and we even got a second cake pop because these were AMAZING!
At this point we also changed our tea choice. This time we went for the Celebration Tea and the Choco Sweet. These had a distinctly sweeter aroma and flavour than the first two and complemented our deserts perfectly :).
Last but not least, they brought out our warm scones (plain and raisin), with clotted cream, lemon curd and raspberry jam. Again, these were so delicious but we didn’t manage to finish them. We shouldn’t have had that second cake pop! Lol.
We spent quite a while there just relaxing and enjoying the food, the tea and the surroundings. It was such a lovely afternoon and it just so happened to be raining in Dubai on this particular day, which made the whole experience feel even more like a traditional London afternoon tea :).
The staff were also really lovely and when we were finished eating and drinking tea, I spent some time taking photos for this blog post and one of the girls even offered to move around some of the tables and chairs for me. This was completely unnecessary as everything looked great just as it was, but it was very kind of her to offer anyway :).
That was it for our belated Valentine’s Day treat at Dukes Dubai :). I hope you enjoyed this kind of blog post and have a great weekend :)
Claire x