It’s no secret that Japan is a second home or at least a No. 1 holiday destination for many Singaporeans like you and me! With this comes the influx of Japanese trends we obsess over every other week. You’ve seen Japanese street food, Japanese restaurants, and Japanese convenience store snacks go viral on social media. But have you ever had a Japanese-inspired afternoon tea experience?!
Well, I haven’t, but InterContinental Singapore’s The Lobby Lounge is bringing back its patron-favourite Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea for a limited time only —I can check my first-ever afternoon tea experience off my bucket list!
Back by popular demand, the Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea was a hit last year, so I just had to give this a shot! This is our honest, full review of everything you need about this exquisite experience.
The Lobby Lounge
Whenever I picture afternoon tea, a quintessentially British tradition, my mind conjures images of a swanky set of plush sofas next to low tables in a refined lounge or tea room decorated with vintage motifs as soft music plays in the background.
And wow, InterContinental Singapore did deliver in this aspect. The Lobby Lounge perfectly encapsulated my vision. Quite literally situated in the hotel’s lobby, the lounge has a gorgeous open setting with high ceilings adorned with sparkling chandeliers casting their warm glow over the place and adding a touch of grandeur.
As for our seating? The low, white marble table we were given was one of the bigger sets, with a long sofa on one side and two plush, teal armchairs sitting across each other. There wasn’t any live music playing, but the soft tune that floated in the air still added to the sophisticated ambience.
One thing that might be a minor grumble for some but not for me is that since it’s an open setting, you aren’t exactly allotted a private experience, especially if you’re seated closer to the lounge’s entrance. Thankfully, we sat at the very back of the lounge and throughout the experience, I never felt as though prying eyes were watching me not so glamourously eat my fill.
But the ambience isn’t all that if the food can’t match up to it! So here are our thoughts on everything we had from the Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea.
Savoury
The Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea comes in a golden, three-tiered, serving stand meant to resemble a bird’s cage, judging by the equally golden bird perched on its top! In this afternoon tea set, you’ll be treated to three different types of bites, mainly Sweet Fancies, Savoury, and Scones!
There isn’t a specific order to how one should go about eating your way through the tower of food, but I’ll go floor by floor and start with the mostly savoury bites on the highest tier as it only feels right for sweet desserts to end the meal.
In the savoury section, you’re practically spoilt for choice! I wasn’t sure where to start but I decided to go down the line according to how the items were listed on the menu. This year’s version of the menu has been updated and reimagines classic Japanese sweet and savoury delights.
Off the bat, we started with the Seafood Inari with Shoyu Ikura. Inari is a Japanese dish consisting of sushi rice stuffed inside a fried tofu pouch, while shoyu ikura is soy sauce marinated salmon roe which can be found sprinkled over the bits of seafood sat atop the inari.
The Lobby Lounge’s version of inari is a bountiful seafood heaven, filled with Hokkaido scallop, jumbo lump crab, octopus, seasoned wakame (seaweed), the aforementioned salmon roe, and a wasabi-yuzu dressing.
Biting into the inari, it was a nice, albeit slightly mild blend of savoury and sweet. While I enjoyed the sticky texture of the rice against the soft, thin fried tofu as well as the tenderness of the seafood, there wasn’t as much umami as I had hoped.
From research, I learnt that an inari’s fried tofu pouch should have been cooked in a dashi broth-forward mixture but I guess that either wasn’t the case for The Lobby Lounge’s version or they just didn’t include enough umami. There was a little kick from the wasabi-yuzu dressing and the bursts from biting into the salmon roe though which helped in giving the inari flavour.
Nevertheless, this was still pretty inoffensive sushi so I didn’t have huge complaints!
Continuing the seafood trend is the Japanese Lobster Salad Sandwich, which in all honesty, didn’t seem like a sandwich to me as the lobster, alongside the mentaiko, shredded itokiri togarashi (shredded chilli pepper), and tobiko (flying fish roe) were laid on the toasted brioche rather than being wedged between two slices of said brioche.
The Japanese Lobster Salad Sandwich was probably one of my favourite savoury dishes of the tea set! The tender lobster together with the rich and creamy mentaiko was the perfect pairing, but I guess mentaiko goes well with anything really. As for the shredded itokiri togarashi and tobiko, they provided small hits of spice and flavour.
Together with the soft toasted brioche, this sandwich was a pleasant and light bite I enjoyed. It made me curious how delicious it would be if it were in a regular, larger sandwich size, as I could pop this sandwich into my mouth in one bite which meant I could only savour it for just that short moment.
Then we have the Baked Miso Black Cod, a dish consisting of Atlantic cod, miso eggplant, roasted sesame, and micro cress (young plants harvested when they are a few weeks old). Admittedly, I am an eggplant hater so I wasn’t too thrilled to see eggplant in this dish but I decided to give it a chance as it isn’t on its own.
Tasting the components separately, the Atlantic cod was tender and flaky, falling apart easily with just a bite. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of this item stops here. The miso eggplant sadly couldn’t make me a convert. I have never been able to be convinced by the eggplant’s taste and unfortunately, even with miso in the mix, it didn’t do much to take away its distinct flavour that I dislike.
This dish would most definitely gain the approval of those who enjoy eggplant, but for me, I’d just pick it off the dish and enjoy the cod.
Finally, the last bite we tried that I was most excited about was the Charcoal Barbeque Eel Quiche! I was buzzing with anticipation for this dish in particular as one, I’ve baked my own quiches before because of how much I enjoyed this particular tart and two, I don’t think I’ve had eel before.
Quiche is traditionally a French tart so it was interesting to see a Japanese twist to this! A good quiche usually consists of a flaky pastry crust and a creamy, smooth filling in the middle so these were the two main aspects I looked for.
The Lobby Lounge’s version of quiche seemed to tick the boxes of what a quiche should be like, with your standard pastry crust and a smoked unagi baked into the custard filling. The only element different is the cube of tamago crowned atop the quiche.
Will the quiche meet or exceed my expectations? Well, after taking a bite, I have a few thoughts. Quiche can be served either hot or cold and this particular quiche tasted cold. Personally, I prefer my quiche hot as it allows you to taste the crispiness of the crust and creamy texture of the filling.
So owing to this preference, I couldn’t enjoy this quiche as much as I would have liked. The filling was creamy as it should be and the crust had some flakiness to it, but because it’s cold, it came across as firm and not crispy at all.
As for the unagi, it’s tender and smooth but I wish more sweet and savoury flavours were incorporated. Personally, the tamago didn’t do much and tasted rather standard so overall, I can’t rave over this quiche as much as I wanted to but if you like cold quiche, this could be a hit for you!
The Sweet Fancies
Next up are the sweet fancies! This section consists of six sweet treats with the first on the list being a Mizu Shingen Mochi. Remember the raindrop cake trend? That jiggly, transparent, raindrop-like dessert is exactly what the Mizu Shingen Mochi is! I didn’t hop on the trend when it first spread around social media like wildfire, but now I can do so!
As customary of the Mizu Shingen Mochi, it also came with kinako roasted soybean flour and kuromitsu black honey. We were told that the kuromitsu black honey, in particular, has an interesting flavour profile which I will spill when I get into its taste!
Now onto the taste! Most reactions to the mochi have described it as dissolving almost instantly when consumed and tasting like nothing and I can agree. It’s like a flavourless jello, though I can’t exactly say it dissolved in my mouth. The flavour mostly comes from the soybean flour and the kuromitsu black honey which was exactly what I got.
This is where I could understand the intrigue of the kuromitsu black honey. Instead of being just sweet like regular honey, it was a blend of various flavours at once! With a deep sweetness, it carries hints of smokiness and even some bitterness. This honey wasn’t exactly my thing but I can see the appeal.
As for the kinako roasted soybean flour, it was akin to peanuts — nutty and slightly sweet. It added much-needed flavour to the dish! Overall, this was a hit with one of my colleagues and it definitely was an interesting experience for me taste and texture-wise.
Another jelly-like dessert in the sweet fancies list is the Yuzu Kumquat Mame! This dessert has three main components, namely yuzu soya panna cotta (Italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatin and moulded), muscat grape consommé (clear soup made from clarified richly flavoured stock or broth), and candied kumquat (fruit that resembles an orange).
There are many elements in this dessert I had yet to try before, so this certainly piqued my interest! Appearance-wise, it is similar to a jelly or a pudding and when broken into with a spoon, has a similar consistency to these two desserts too! And when it comes to taste, it was pretty decent but wasn’t a favourite for us.
While it was indeed silky, smooth, and creamy like a panna cotta should be, there was something about the overall taste that though we couldn’t describe it, was not pleasant for us. Perhaps it was our personal preference and as badly as I wanted to like this dessert, the combination of flavours from its different elements simply didn’t sit right with us.
No list of desserts can go without cakes which is where the Kurogoma Ryokucha Mousse comes in! In Japanese, kurogoma refers to black sesame which in this dessert, is used to make black sesame cream that is cleverly piped to mimic the stringy soba noodles Japan is known for! The mini cake itself is a genoise sponge, and it sports a bright red as it sits in a spoon-like bowl.
So far, of all the desserts in this afternoon tea, this came out on top in my opinion! Despite how simple it was, I delighted in every bite. Light, airy, moist, and fluffy; it’s everything you’d want in a sponge cake. The fairly neutral taste of the genoise sponge allowed the black sesame cream to take centre stage, its smooth, velvety texture and its rich and nutty taste I immediately took a liking to!
Well, if you thought this was the only cake on the menu, enter the Japanese Matcha Roll, which spoiler alert, is another hit in my books! After all, how can we talk about Japanese desserts without including at least one matcha dessert? This roll cake includes the quintessential matcha, a roasted almond sponge, and hojicha mascarpone cream.
All these flavours are pretty standard so I’m more curious about how The Lobby Lounge’s version of a matcha roll will match up to other matcha roll cakes. And well, safe to say that while this wasn’t a showstopper, it was another sweet favourite.
Similar to the Kurogoma Ryokucha Mousse, this was a soft and light bite. The flavours, as expected, melded together seamlessly. Some minor gripes I have with this cake though would be that they could’ve been more generous with the hojicha mascarpone cream. The two white chocolate pieces that came with the cake also completely overpower the cake itself if you were to eat the cake together with the chocolate.
Nonetheless, this was still a cake I had no complaints about. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with a roll cake so I would recommend this of all the desserts on the list.
Last but not least, we have the one and only tartlet here, the Okinawan Tartlet! What makes this dessert related to the city of Okinawa? Well, the answer lies in the dessert’s highlight, the Okinawan sweet potato crème. The other main component is the caramelised macadamia which covers the entire top of the tartlet.
Taste-wise, to put it simply, this dessert is rich, sweet, and earthy. Every bite is pure creaminess from the Okinawan sweet potato crème while the caramelised macadamia provides a nutty, crunchy contrast.
While it’s true that the Okinawan Tartlet is the last of the sweet fancies, there’s one more dessert that’s also included in the Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea set but it isn’t served in the serving stand. The dessert in question is ice cream, which comes in an ice cream trolley!
One memorable moment of our experience I have to mention is that when we had yet to collect our scoops of ice cream, the Lobby Lounge waitresses had informed us that the ice cream trolley would be closing soon so we initially wanted to quickly go over and collect them.
In a surprise, kind gesture, they had helped us scoop and serve the ice cream to us so shout out to the amazing service! Since it was near its closing, we could only sample two flavours, mainly the Mixed Berries Sorbet and the Vanilla Gelato.
Both desserts were the perfect end to this section, with each bringing its own distinct flavour and sweetness. I personally preferred the Vanilla Gelato as I lean towards creamier types of ice cream, but the Mixed Berries Sorbet is also just as good! My colleague mentioned that the Mixed Berries Sorbet was a bit too sour for her so that could be something to consider when you’re choosing from the ice cream trolley.
Scones
What’s an afternoon tea session without some good ol’ scones? Scones and afternoon tea are a combination you can’t separate and The Lobby Lounge have two scones in this afternoon tea set for you to try!
Of course, we have the classic; English Buttermilk Scones and in line with the Japanese theme, we have the Ichida Hoshigaki Scones. You can have them plain but they do come with three condiments, mainly Devonshire Clotted Cream, Sakura Peach Preserves, and Strawberry-mint Marmalade.
First up, we’ve got to taste-test the English Buttermilk Scones, a basic but classic in the scone world. This scone checked off all the boxes of what a scone should be! Moist, soft, buttery on the inside and slightly crisp on the inside, this scone did its job. Scones tend to be on the drier side though so I opted to smother it with the condiments.
With the Devonshire Clotted Cream, it’s on the thicker side, with a luxurious and velvety feel. This cream is pretty mild in sweetness but this mildness was much welcomed as it matched the lightness of the scone.
Then we have the Japanese-inspired condiment, the Sakura Peach Preserves. This condiment is definitely sweeter than the Devonshire Clotted Cream so for those with a sweet tooth, this can be your go-to spread!
As for the Strawberry-mint Marmalade, just like the Sakura Peach Preserves, it’s a fruit preserve but with minty notes that make this both sweet and refreshing taste.
The other scone in this afternoon tea set is the Ichida Hoshigaki Scone, with Ichida Hoshigaki referring to dried Japanese persimmons. With the bits of dried Japanese persimmons, I expected this to be a sweet scone but was left mildly disappointed. I think there weren’t enough persimmons in this scone as I couldn’t taste them at all. Unfortunately, this scone didn’t do much for me but it was still an interesting new scone flavour.
Tea
Afternoon tea is not afternoon tea without the tea itself, so we got two teas to try! The Lobby Lounge has an impressive selection of teas, with so many flavours that it spills over into two pages worth of teas to choose from.
We weren’t given any recommendations, so I decided to pick two found on the top of the list on the first page, i.e. the InterContinental Heritage Tea and a premium blend, the Poetic Star.
As soon as we saw that there was a tea named after the hotel itself, we had to get it as it must be the signature of the hotel! The InterContinental Heritage Tea, as described in the menu, comprises a blend of exotic fruits which references Singapore’s vibrant cultures. It’s mainly a green tea which promises a touch of spice and a harmonious blend of flavours.
I haven’t had much tea in my life, so I mostly went in with some apprehension and anticipation. Luckily, this tea wasn’t a disappointment! It was light, refreshing, and a great palette cleanser. The promised hints of spice were also present, adding an interesting kick to the drink.
Before I forget to mention, both teas come in teapots which you have to serve the tea yourself as well as a crystal sugar stirrer and a cookie!
And to end off our afternoon, we have the Poetic Star, which has just as poetic of a concoction. This tea is composed of blue tea and black tea sprinkled with lemongrass and blended with the subtle fragrance of pure jasmine blossoms. One minor gripe is that I couldn’t make out much of the lemongrass but that wasn’t a big deal as I still relished in the tea’s seamless melding of flavours.
Of the two teas, I formed a preference for the Poetic Star. The floral notes of jasmine blossoms contributed a floral, fragrant sweetness while the black tea wasn’t too robust. Just like the InterContinental Heritage Tea, this is another great palette cleanser.
Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea Details
For a first-time afternoon tea session, I would say that The Lobby Lounge pretty much provided a memorable experience and has made me interested in delving deeper into afternoon tea! I could see why this particular afternoon tea was brought back, given Singapore’s love for Japanese culture and the interesting array and melding of flavours and cultures in this set!
The Flavours of Japan Afternoon Tea runs for a limited time only! So what are you waiting for? Book yourself a session on InterContinental Singapore’s website now!
🗓️Date: Till 12 November 2024
📍Location: InterContinental Singapore, 80 Middle Rd, Singapore 188966
💲Price:
- Weekdays: S$65++ per person
- Weekends, Eve of, and Public Holiday: S$70++
*Prices are inclusive of one serving of loose-leaf tea/coffee and unlimited ice cream
*Additional S$28++ for a flute of Champagne
⏰Time:
- 1st Seating: 1pm to 3pm
- 2nd Seating: 3.30pm to 5.30pm
For more information, visit InterContinental Singapore’s website or their socials on Facebook and Instagram.
Photos by Pauline Caoile of the DANAMIC Team.
