Review Lobby Lounge - Sydney

Had high tea, the quality is very good. Had some savoury nibbles, not only sandwich, petite four was excellent. Scones were ok with raspberry jam and normal cream. Coffee was ordinary, but sparkling wine and loose leaf tea was good. Nothing fancy about the tea wear. Service was good, friendly staff. There is no view because it’s literally in the lobby right next to the cloak room if you are expecting the harbour view. It was $55 for each including the bubbly, so I guess it’s worth what I paid for.

First time visiting the Shangri-La in Sydney and was a lovely experience. The decor is a little dated but the service at The Lobby Lounge was not. Had the high tea, they didn’t have my reservation but quickly resolved that for us and prepared our table. Food was served quickly, and dishes were explained including what drinks were provided and the scones were probably some of the best I’ve had. Unfortunately the savoury food was a letdown but the desserts were good. Big call out to Anna(?) who I believe is the manager there. She was professional, polite and connected well with her customers. Would definitely come back.

Get your high tea fix here - remember to book ahead. Convenient lounge with good service and quality foodstuffs. My current favourite is the tuna sandwich and the energiser freshly squeezed fruit juice.

Service was fine but the high tea was not value as 5 star hotel. Quite disappointed... scone was the tasty one

We booked for afternoon tea prior to arriving. Our online confirmation of reservation didn't get through by the confused looks of the serving staff. Afterwards we were told to sit on a lounge that had food scraps littered at the feet (this is a high end hotel I presumed) and the lounge looked like it belonged back in the 80s, was impractical for high tea. After moving us to a cleaner table, we had to constantly get up and go to the counter to ask for basic necessities such as teaspoons and tea refills. The food itself was adequate, not worth the high cost they ask for.

I really enjoyed our high tea today highly recommend

Good friendly service, high tea was delicious and not too overly sweet. Unlimited tea per high tea ordered, so you can try every variety! Had the Annas Mess here too. Delicious. However we couldn't smash it as the hotel would not let us.. Too messy. U need to take away the mess if u want to smash it. March 2018 Came here again for aeroplane bunny Easter dessert and it was delicious! And the mushroom cappuccino soup was divine!!!

Disappointing beyond belief. A family of 4 ... we were treated like second class citizens when we went for afternoon tea and Anna's Firecrackers. Staff were appalling - rude and unattentive, we were ignored, moved from a table which was apparently reserved (curiously there were multiple 'reserved' tables, but never occupied). Making it worse ... there were plenty of staff on duty and the lounge was only a quarter full. I don't know why the staff were so aloof ... its really not that special a hotel/restaurant. We were not hotel guests and after experiencing such disgraceful service, we never will be. Please Anna Polyviou, honestly you should leave for somewhere more worthy of your talents and not risk damaging your fantastic brand. By the way, the Firecracker was great - minus the fire as it could not be lit inside (or outside either).

Came here to try the Festive High Tea by Anna Polyviou and was really impressed with the presentation and flavours in the set. I loved the playfulness of the menu and the wide variety of sweet and savoury options on the stand. In particular, the scones and the turkey croquettes were exceptional to me. On top of that, the customer service and atmosphere were fantastic.<br/><br/>If you'd like to read more of my reviews, please check out my Zomato page and visit @cynthiaeats_ on Instagram for more photos!

Staff were friendly but the high tea and atmosphere was very below average for a five star hotel. Food took a while to come out so I thought maybe the scones and hot savouries would come out fresh and warm but they were cold. The meat pie, cheese toastie and roll made the high tea appear really cheap. My friend didn’t even have hers. The decor and furnitures was old. Quite disappointed and I wouldn’t recommend it.

Of all the high tea experiences I have had I am sad to say this was the least impressive. The lobby lounge in the Shangri-la Sydney. I was gifted by my friend for my 60th birthday. We were there 1st June 19. Some of the issues. One of the savoury items was a cheese toastie! Which like the party pie was not hot or even warm. Also the scones were served cold. They did not have available the tea I chose from the menue. Overall very dissapointed in food quality, location and price. Will not be returning.

SHANGRI LA<br/>We ate here and had the Christmas inspired high tea. It was beautifully set up and the sweets where very nice. Personally I would have liked a few more savoury dishes .

Took my mum for high tea in the Lobby Lounge and had a pleasant afternoon nibbling on delights created by the lovely Anna Polyviou.<br/><br/>We opted for the traditional high tea with the champagne. It was an absolute treat! <br/><br/>Loved every bit of it. The savoury tier is creative and elegant. The seafood mousse cone was a delight. <br/><br/>The scones are the softest I’ve ever had. The texture was amazing and they were delicious when topped with the berry jam and clotted cream. <br/><br/>Anna is known for her sweets and the top shelf lives up to the hype. Chocolate, caramel, mango, berry, cream. You name it, it’s there. The stand out was the mango pearls that burst in your mouth atop of the mango cake.<br/><br/>

Coffee and Scones - delicious <br/>Premises is very well kepy <br/>staff in Lobby Lounge are great. Friendly and attentive.<br/><br/>Great location <br/>Day Spa and Health Club Fantastic

Delightful high tea experience at Shanghai-La.<br/><br/>We debated on the decadent chocolate high tea, however, we chose the traditional high tea menu. The food was lovely and just the right amount!<br/><br/>Pros:<br/>- Lovely light filled venue.<br/>- Delicious food.<br/>- Excellent service, friendly and quick.<br/>- Very reasonable costing for high tea a a glass of champagne.<br/><br/>Cons:<br/>- Venue was very warm.<br/>- No tea was offered to my 10 year old (we paid the full adult price). Only water was provided after we declined the juice option.<br/>- Noisy guests (children partaking in the “Barbie high tea”). Whilst not the hotels fault, a quiet word would be nice.

This Masterchef pressure test dish is made up of layers of roasted milk chocolate, peanut grue, raspberry marshmallow, raspberry cold set brûlée, peanut butter cremeaux, chocolate soufflé sponge, raspberry gel, roasted milk chocolate mousse in a tempered chocolate shell. . You light it on fire and it doesn’t bang but the flavours are amazing! No matter which way you eat it. We shared it between 4 of us but you could probably share between 2 as well if you are hungry.

High tea ninja<br/><br/>Its that time of the year again when the gang at Shangri La goes all out and celebrate Xmas the right way .... <br/><br/>This year they built a 2000kg ginger bread train and loaded of candies were used for decoration, a must visit for xmas. You can also purchase a small gonger bread house for parties or as a table centre.<br/><br/>Their high tea is a must get for a nice relaxing time with the family or an outing.<br/><br/>Until next time ... keep eating!!!

The food was amazing. The variety provided in the high tea menu was unbelievable and filled with different flavours. Their variety of tea and coffee also amazed me as it brought the perfect touch to high tea. <br/>Tip: I would be easier if they had more staff on ground to assist customers.

Went to the lobby lounge for some desserts and coffee. Desserts are reasonably priced at $6.50 each. Coffees were expensive and they were also $6.50. We bought a firecracker ($25) to take away and that was a lot of fun to light. Service was polite and non-obtrusive. They also had a man playing the piano - very nice and relaxing environment.

The seating is comfortable an the service pleasant. HighTea looks nice, some fancy sandwiches, the crab and eggplant one was delicious, 4 pieces sweets (a tad too sweet for my liking, but nice flavors and presentation). Scones were ok... i think the scones were fluffier and nicer at the hyatt. And i prefer scones served warm to hot. But these ones were room temperature, and the cream was just whipped and not a smooth thick king island style which i prefer. A good selection of teas.

[invite] Bianca: We get pretty excitable over Christmas here at FFS, particularly Alex who gets rather swept up in the whole festive spirit. Our tree went up in early November and Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Wrapped in Red’ started making rotations in September. And for those that have never listened to it…shame on you!

The festive high tea at Shangri-La Hotel designed by Anna Polyviou is available from 1 Dec 2016 through 31 Dec 2016. On offer at the Lobby Lounge, for 55AUD per person this includes three tiers of sweet and savoury delights. Starting at the bottom layer, we have some scones and cherry pies. The scones are crumbly, almost biscuit-like in texture and the cherry pies are wickedly good.

“Festive” high tea in the Lobby Lounge<br/> <br/>They must be joking with this. There was nothing redeemable about this experience.<br/> <br/>Here is a rundown of what $55 per head gets you:<br/> <br/>First up – the ambience. The Lobby Lounge is rather shabby and disorganised. You sit on faded couches that don’t quite reach the table or are at the appropriate height. The spacing of tables is good but it’s impractical for eating and drinking. Also, there was some dishevelled person sitting near us working on a computer for some reason.<br/> <br/>Then the service. It can best be described as shambolic. No one checked on us or asked how things were going. The only attention we got was trying to sell us more bottles of champagne (at $160 a bottle – well over double normal retail). It took almost 45 mins to get the high tea trays. When they did come, they came out one at a time with about 5 mins gap in between. I am a vegetarian so had a different tray to others. They brought out my tray and I thought it looked like a generous serve. A few minutes later, a waiter comes back and says “this was for 2 people” and takes the tray AWAY from the table and brings it back with only one serve of everything. Come on, even at Maccas, once it’s on the table, just leave it there. Then about 1h15mins in, we still hadn’t even been offered tea. One of the people with me remarked “gee it’d be nice to have some tea with our high tea”. Once we had finished eating, we managed to flag down someone to order tea…it was just tea bag tea (not even proper brewed tea) and pretty average tea at that.<br/> <br/>And, the food…it was the worst food I have ever been served. The food on the plane trip to Sydney was a marked improvement on what I got here. All the bread on the sandwiches was stale and the fillings uniformly tasted like cheap margarine (if I wanted a sandwich made from Helgas – which is what they were using in the kitchen – I could just go home). Another diner felt extremely ill after eating the prawn sandwich. The scone was as heavy as a rock and wasn’t even served with proper clotted cream. There was a savoury tart on there with soggy pastry and caramelised onion that was so sweet it was inedible. And then the cakes – aside from looking no more special than anything you can get in any corner bakery/deli these days, they tasted awful. They were all either too sweet or bitter. No one at the table finished any of them.<br/> <br/>Oh and the only “festive” element (which added money to the per head cost) was a tacky Christmas tree decoration on the table upon arrival with some chocolates and a few overcooked gingerbread men. These then had to be removed anyway to make room for the trays.<br/> <br/>We were gobsmacked at how awful this was and that any place would serve food this poor (let alone a place of this calibre charging this amount of money).<br/> <br/>Then, to cap it off, they took forever with the billing and didn’t even ask how anything was. Seriously, you should be ashamed of yourselves. That was an absolute joke. If we weren’t there for a birthday celebration, I would have walked out.

I visited this lounge to experience the Anna Polyviou high tea and it was absolutely impeccable. I loved all the elements of the high tea and the desserts did not disappoint at all. The customer service is of a high calibre here and you will definitely not leave hungry.

Love everything about the Shangri la, always enjoy the impeccable service & decor & usually visit this lounge on our way out when we stay here. Very good atmosphere for pre dinner drinks& of course those famous deserts-just wow!!

Service was excellent and attentive. The coffee was absolutely delicious. There was a range of delightful treats and everything tasted perfect. The green tea dessert was my favourite and the chicken sandwich with the green bread had delicious texture. It had a relaxing atmosphere and I enjoyed the whole experience

Staff are not so friendly, considering you pay big bucks here!<br/>Desserts are amazing tho, thanks to Anna Polyviou 😍<br/>

The pop up has finished, but I think Anna's Mess is still available from the Lobby Lounge at Shangri-La hotel. This is another place I frequently visit because of the desserts she makes. I actually had Anna's Mess earlier last year, before it rose to fame this year on MasterChef as a pressure test. This time I opted for the large one to share with friends (although it's actually not that large, and the small one is tiny). Last year was the Carrot Cake also featured on MC, and made everyone flock to this side of Sydney.

Stayed at the hotel for a few nights and tried the Lobby Lounge in order to try 'Anna's Mess'. Service was not great at all. The waitress brought over two things to us meant for other tables. (Hotel staff during our stay were fantastic however). <br/><br/>Coffee was average. The salad and sandwiches we ordered were really tasty though - would order again. 'Anna's Mess' was delicious. Overall, there are better places around for the amount of money it costs.

•We took the Anna's Mess (featured on Masterchef 2016) home so this review is based purely on my experience of the food<br/>•The ball was filled with goodies! And with 70 odd steps to make the dish, it sure would of had lots of flavours and textures!<br/>•The sourness from the fruits worked well however I found the other ingredients were too overpowering and sweet. It was still delicious to eat!<br/>•The best part of it was the purée and meringue, fantastic flavours and brings out texture to the dish

Very reasonably priced breakfast, absolutely delicious desserts and guaranteed a friendly face to take your order. Can go past the carrot cake, a must try! Was here every morning during my stay at the hotel, and would gladly return!

I'm basing this review solely on the limited edition Anna's Mess that's currently being served in the Lobby Lounge.<br/><br/>Anna's Mess is an insanely pretty dessert, with awesome flavour too. I loved the combination of the fruits (strawberries and raspberries), with the strawberry jelly, and the secret ingredient - pop rocks!

The desserts here are fantastic - Anna Polyviou certainly does not disappoint. The texture and flavour were on point and the flavours were beautiful

I had a wonderful time there with my girl friend! We tried the Easter special. Their food are delicious and fresh! Very experienced and welcoming staff. Price is much cheaper compare to other high tea that I went to. But $44 for parking... So... Best to catch a train.

I came here for High Tea for a friends birthday. I have only tried high tea at 2 different places so I didn't really have much to compare it to. The sandwiches were the stand out for me. The cucumber and cream cheese sandwich in particular was very refreshing. I did find the scones a little disappointing compared to other scones I have had. They were a little more dry than I would have liked however the jam and cream was delicious. The desserts were also great.

We enjoyed the chocolate afternoon tea for our anniversary. Service was pretty poor given the standard of the hotel but the sweet treats were all I expected and more. I think a small menu detailing the elements in each item would better serve to demonstrate the technique and complexity of the little works of culinary art. The server gave a description but it was hard to understand and did not to justice to them. The chocolate scones were excellent, my wife's favourite. I loved it all!

The score reflects the overall environment and service. The Lobby Lounge is a great place to relax with friends with comfy couches and jazzy background music. We dropped in for the Sugar Rush (or Sugar Hit as it was previously known) but weren't very impressed with it. We felt the banana, passionfruit and chocolate combination didn't work very well together. The Yalumba dessert wine was quite nice.

"Rushing around like nuts" - milk chocolate and banana mousse, passionfruit caramel and peanut crunch<br/><br/>Every so often we venture out of our self imposed Sugar Hit/Rush hiatus to see what's cooking. We'll go back into hiatus now.

Good atmosphere and delightful afternoon tea selection. The sweet selections were awesome, scones a bit hard to eat. Come at 2-ish pm on friday,not at busy time. The service was so so. Clueless when the staff served afternoon tea set and did not explain what are the items in the tray.

Anyone who’s known me longer than a DJ set will be aware that I’m not typically the dessert type; but who am I to pass up the opportunity to attend Anna Polyviou’s increasingly popular Sweet Street sugar festival? Some of Australia’s evilest of geniuses get together once a year to create and collaborate over some of the world’s most intense cakes and pastries. Inside, amidst the purple disco lights, Yo! Mafia drops anything from driving house to Lady Gaga remixes, in her ‘borderline-festival-ready’ DJ booth – to get us in the mood for some sugary action

You know the saying: 'let sleeping dogs lie'? Well if we were to take this purely on face value then on the off chance that I am (arguably) afforded a 'sleep in' then there are few things in this world that will compel me leave my bed to travel 40min into the city. One of those things is dessert. Let's face it, part of the reason why I never seem to loose weight once and for good is because I binge eat when studying and post-exam celebrations are met with no restraint when it comes to eating out, dessert included.

Really enjoyed the desserts! The graffiti carrot cake was really interesting although I prefer the berry tart meringue. The berry tart was not too sweet and has interesting layers of fantastic flavors in it.

the Anna's mess looked really cool with those holes, but was quite small and probs a bit too much white chocolate. the inside had a mousse, but would have preferred the rose flavour to be a tad stronger. the citrus tart was quite nice, but had a super tough cookie base. i liked how it wasn't too sweet and balanced nicely with the lemony, grapefruit (?) mousse. yay for meringue pieces!

We enjoyed our experience at the Shangri-La immensely, the scones were buttery and perfect with the clotted cream and jam. The savoury selections were tasty but I was expecting a bit more finesse with some of the elements. The salmon bagel for example, while had top quality smoke salmon was let down by the overly heavy and difficult to eat mini bagel. I ended up discarding the bagel and just finishing the salmon on its own.

I love high- teas with my favourite girl friends. Sipping tea and indulging in sweets while chit chatting the hours away ...  -- The High Tea --  (apologies for the poor photos) Three tier dessert platter (No sandwiches) Chocolate cone with chocolate mousse, Macaroon with injectable caramel sauce, strawberry with white chocolate mousse. I enjoyed the macaroon as it was fun squirting in the caramel. The chocolate cone and white chocolate mousse was slightly too sweet  Chocolate cake, white chocolate slice and eclair The white chocolate slice was quite nice, the other 2 were not that great Scones with white chocolate and milk chocolate "cream" A truly chocolatey high tea. The scones were a bit too dry for my liking The creams were special as they were out of the ordinary Overall, the desserts were below average in my opinion. However, the service was great.

Aesthetically the high tea looks pretty standard with the standout features definitely on the top tier. My first impression of my high tea experience sadly to say wasn't perfect. The waitress appeared a little flustered when I arrived as per my reservation and quickly scampered behind the counter. I also wasn't too impressed watching her unwrap the high tea from underneath it's plastic casing in plain sight.

“The pink stringy thing looks like a fizzer!” As I expected it to taste just like it, but it’s not – just a chewy and very sticky sweet goodie. I would believe this to have been the 'marshmallow' component. But you know what’s amazing? The lightness of the main piece on my plate, it was creamy, light and not overly sweet at all.

Got surprised because I was expecting something looking totally different but then I got so excited!!

I must admit I was saddened when I had to dig into the milk chocolate delice, it was so well constructed.

In Sydney, dessert playgrounds can be hard to find at night. Luckily last Wednesday, Shangri-La Hotel’s executive pastry chef Anna Polyviou gave over 500 hundred sugared up guest the opportunity to discover sweets like never before...

We decided on the Shangri-La Hotel Lobby Lounge because of the nice venue and the sampler of 3 special desserts which you get, making the $20 deal quite worthwhile

...dessert plate consists of a milk chocolate delice, a light and well balanced passionfruit curd, grue cacao crunch, salted caramel, roast hazelnut, honey thyme pear and an amazing strawberries ‘n’ crème graffiti lollipop. I loved how each of these samplers gave a different texture and feel to it. it was one amazing experience! I cant wait to try out more of her desserts!

The milk chocolate delice had so many layers I had no heart to break it! But a light tap with my fork and the thin crisp chocolate snapped, we were told it was hazelnut – but there was no BANGWHAM (thank you m'am) hazelnut on our palettes. It was subtle, however, as I kept eating – I felt like I was eating a hazelnut biscuit.

That's how addiction starts - but if I had to be addicted to anything, it may as well be Sydney's ever-evolving dessert scene. That segues nicely into this post on Shangri-La's "entry" in 2014's Good Food Month Let's Do Dessert.

Different tiers of food, different tiers of quality.  Decent but at the same time disappointing today.

While staying at the Shangri-La for the weekend, my friend advised me to try their chocolate high tea. I didn’t know what to expect – all I could think of was Godiva-like chocolates on a three tier stand. When it arrived, I was surprised it was a close reflection to traditional high tea except without the sandwiches.

I loved that the dessert wasn't too rich or sweet and that there were many textures and flavours to look forward to - including a piece of minty white chocolate hidden at the centre of the paddle pop. While I savoured every bite, my favourite part was squishing the berry-liquid-centre pearls in my mouth.

The Lobby Lounge is home of the amazing pastry chef, Anna Polyviou. I was super excited to check out this special Chinese New Year high tea, as I knew the desserts would be spectacular.

Overall, I thought it was pretty good, but maybe slightly on the sweet side for me. I tend to like dark chocolate better :)

Melbourne-based Cacao Lab made a 'Choc Dog' as one of their offerings for Sweet Street, a funky dessert pop-up event that took the Shangri-La Sydney's Grand Ballroom by storm earlier this evening. Hundreds of lucky ticket-holders were treated to a night-club style space, with pallets and industrial equipment, hawker style food stalls, cool lighting and a DJ, a vision dreamed up by the hotel's pastry star, Anna Polyviou.

You’ll also find noted Sydney pastry chef Anna Polyviou taking the Shangri-La Hotel’s Lobby Lounge in a new direction by developing a special Chinese New Year High Tea for $42/head. I hear it includes a matcha green tea macaron with toasted pandan marshmallow...

October was a very big eating month for me so I'm still catching up on writing about it... Right at the end of October, I popped into the Shangri-La to see what Executive Pastry Chef Anna Polyviou had constructed for the Let's Do Dessert promotion. If you're scratching your head, this is an annual month-long October promotion that allows you to enjoy a dessert (with no expectation to dine) across many of the high-end restaurants and hotels in Sydney, complete with a glass of dessert wine for just $20.

Birthdays are a time to pause and reflect on your journey so far, and to celebrate ten years in hospitality the Shangri-La Hotel Sydney is inviting everyone to do just that. By sharing your favourite hotel memory on their Facebook page, you could win one of ten luxurious weekends away.

With high teas popping up all over Sydney, it sure makes choosing hard! If I were to categorise this one, it has been made with particular view towards those who enjoy Dilmah Tea . Whilst the two family-owned businesses have united across all levels of the hotel, the High Tea ($42/head) is particularly special because it includes teas you won’t find elsewhere. Being breakfast, I forwent the Tattinger Reserve Brut ($62/head) option in favour of a pretty Dilmah Rose and French Vanilla . It proved a perfect match for the platter’s vivid pink macaron filled with French vanilla and rosewater mousseline (and surprise raspberry). The commitment to tea is further demonstrated by using teas in the creation of their sweet treats, including the earl grey tea soaked raisins dotting the buttermilk scones. The Shangri-La has done well to lure over Pastry Chef Anna Polyviou from The Bathers’ Pavilion , especially with a dessert she became famous for back there – the platter's standout tropi

Located in the tourist-laden district of The Rocks, visiting Shangri-La Hotel makes me feel like a tourist in my own city. It's always wonderful to see your own city through fresh eyes and it's been forever since I've set foot in this end of town. Shangri-La offers both the traditional high tea and a decadent chocolate high tea! The traditional high tea is $42 (add $8 for a glass of Chandon NV Brut, or add $20 for a glass of Taittinger Brut). The chocolate high tea features an assortment of ten housemade chocolate desserts and is $62 for two. Unlike other dedicated afternoon tea menus, the selection of tea here only spans half a page. Shangri-La hotels have partnered with Dilmah so while it's not an extensive menu, the offering is comfortingly familiar and does cover all the bases. The teas on offer include: Black Tea Brilliant Breakfast The Original Earl Gray Natural Ceylon Ginger Tea Rose

Disappointed. I have written an email to request a menu for the chocolate high tea. The menu I received only said:"Chocolate high tea for two $62 , All tea selections include your choice of loose leaf tea or espresso coffees"<br/>That is it ??!!!?! with NO detail description. I replied them by saying thank you anyway, maybe there is no menu for that. There is no further reply.... I am really disappointed!! If you really dont have any menu, You can just explain to me that there is none.<br/><br/>I know Shangri-la is an international popular hotel, and there is a new pastry chef who is also very popular in her area- she even held dessert degustation showing her great dessert technique. Even though I want to try this place, but I would not recommend to anyone because the service is a let down.<br/><br/>On the other hand, my friend told me that you have to provide credit card details to secure a $20 good food month dessert place. It is ridiculous!! I only give credit card details to reserve a degustation dinner (over $100) or some high tea (when you have like 8 people). For $20 dessert??! Really?