The day before Valentine’s Day, Karen and I decided to have Devonshire Tea at Room with Roses in the heritage listed Brisbane Arcade. One of the main facets of dining at Room with Roses is the old world atmosphere. The tables, chairs and other décor all create the illusion that you’ve been transported back to the eighteen hundreds. There are roses on every table, and several nooks where you can escape the modern world.

Although they don’t do a set Devonshire Tea, their scones are delicious, if not traditional Devonshire scones. And they’re big! They had a thin layer of raspberries, and they melted in your mouth. Room with Roses provided a good approximation of clotted cream (might just have been Paul’s dollop cream, but it was much better than is often served with scones in this country), and some very nice rasperry jam. They served some kind of leaf tea in a dainty little pot that had a very old Commonwealth Bank insignia on it. Strictly speaking, the cups were for coffee rather than tea, but I suppose it’s hard to provide bone china tea cups in a popular restaurant. Karen enjoyed her hot chocolate also. The other diners seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their lunches, too.

The only slightly disappointing thing is the noise from the kitchen. However, our table was very close to the kitchen while the majority of tables are a good distance away. Given the kind of atmosphere that Room with Roses is trying to create (and for the most part it succeeds), it would be a nice touch if orders were taken at your table rather than having to go to the counter to order. The little number sign you have to take back to your table to display for the staff spoils the effect created by the surroundings ever so slightly.

Our Devonshire Tea cost $20.20 (two scones with jam and cream, an English breakfast tea and a hot chocolate). A booking is recommended.

For Australia Day, Karen and I retreated to Mount Glorious, where we sampled the Devonshire Tea at Maiala Rainforest Teahouse and Restaurant on Mount Glorious Road. The best part was the beverages. I had English Breakfast tea from the Sir Thomas Lipton premium tea range, which I hadn’t had before. It’s almost as good as the Dilmah Gourmet Ceylon Supreme Tea. Karen was drinking hot chocolate; she’s given up coffee and tea for now. She assures me the hot chocolate was excellent – better than the hot chocolates she’s been drinking at Gloria Jeans recently. The scones, jam and cream were okay, but nothing special (we had the plain scones, but you have the option of pumpkin scones if you want). In terms of atmosphere, Maiala seems very popular with the bikies. There are tables inside and outside. If you want to sit outside, you have the choice of the roadside tables or the verandah on the side. These were all taken, so we sat inside, but still had a nice view of the garden at the back. All in all, quite a pleasant establishment, with friendly staff and efficient service. If you’d like something other than Devonshire Tea, Maiala offers a fairly standard cafe menu.

After indulging our Devonshire Tea craving, we headed to Winenhoe Outlook. The dam looks very dry from up there. The lookout was a popular place for people celebrating Australia Day. Several families had Australian flags on display, some of them quite large, while they BBQ’d their lamb chops and snags.

We finished the day by attending Clinton’s and Anthony’s house warming. They’re renting a nice place in Highgate Hill. Karen and I had a great time.

This Devonshire tea review is somewhat delayed, and considerably outside our original reviewing scope of Brisbane and its surrounds. Nevertheless, we felt that Grant’s Reserve, just outside of Belgrave in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne, deserves its own Devonshire tea review.

Grant’s Reserve is set amongst tall tree ferns and towering Mountain Ashes. Upon arriving, you are greeted by crimson rosellas and sulfur-crested cockatoos. The indoor eating area is rather small, and if you are travelling by coach it is more than likely you’ll have to share a table with some of your fellow travellers. However, extensions to the building are underway and should be finished soon, creating extra seating.

Other than the close confines of the eating area, Devonshire tea at Grant’s Reserve is a delight. Each Devonshire tea comes with two scones and enough tea for about two cups. The scones are homemade, the jam and cream come in little pots and the cups are tea cups rather than coffee cups; so all the fundamentals are right. The scones are served warm and they taste absolutely delicious. The tea is good (not sure what brand was served). The china is rather plain, but who’s going to let something like that detract from the overall experience? Unfortunately, because Devonshire tea was included as part of the tour we did with AAT Kings, we don’t know how much it cost.

Grant’s Reserve is the perfect place to stop off for Devonshire tea if ever you’re in the Dandenongs. Excellent.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a penchant for Devonshire Tea. Karen shares this weakness, and we feel it is our civic duty to review as many establishments in Brisbane (and nearby places) that serve Devonshire Tea as possible. Our first review is of the Kuta Cafe at Mount Coot-tha, which we visited on Sunday afternoon. Of course, few cafes in Brisbane can boast a more spectacular view than the Kuta Cafe, and this was, perhaps, its main attraction. The Devonshire Tea itself, while far from bad, could have been better. The Kuta served us whipped cream on a plate and jam in little plastic packets of the kind you get in hotels or on a plane. Some, including Karen, may not be bothered by this, but when I order a Devonshire Tea, I like to get my jam in a little serving dish, and clotted cream in another; I take Devonshire Tea very seriously! The scones, however, were of a high quality. They tasted as though they had been made only hours beforehand, and they were warmed to the appropriate temparature for consumption. In short, they were just right. Tea was served in two small teapots, each of which held enough tea for two cups. Although I can’t remember the brand of tea that was used, it was of a decent quality. It was rather unfortunate, though, that the vessels from which we drank were Monte branded coffee cups! This was, according to my fellow reviewer, a serious oversight. A final misfortune was that we chose a rather windy day to visit Mount Coot-tha, and needed to ensure our packets of sugar and empty jam packets were firmly anchored down to prevent them blowing off our table and into the laps of the unsuspecting guests at the next table. Overall, I think the view from the cafe terrace more than makes up for any shortcomings in the Devonshire Tea, even for the hardest to please Devonshire Tea snobs like me. :) We paid just under $10 for two scones and two pots of tea.