- Vegan
- Gluten-free by request
The Lobby Lounge at Shangri-La offers an elegant afternoon tea experience with a 3-tiered tea set comprising of assorted Nyonya kueh, savoury items, pastries and your choice of tea of coffee. This is probably the only high tea in Singapore that offers a taste of iconic local flavours catered to a vegan diet, with the flexibility of accepting gluten-free requests!
The lounge itself was bright and airy with soaring floor-to-ceiling windows that filled the space with natural light. Elegant floral arrangements and greenery were also thoughtfully placed throughout, creating a tranquil and relaxing vibe.
The highlight of the lounge would be their 10 metre tall “living wall” that serves as a visually stunning green backdrop of their bar area. My amateur photographer skills would not do it justice so here it is with a professional shot 😄
Their high tea set is priced at SGD98.00 per pax, steeper than most high teas offered elsewhere, which are usually around SGD 60.00 to 70.00.
This is the menu for the vegan high tea set. With my gluten-free request, certain items were changed out to accommodate my diet.
We started the high tea with some Darjeeling and Shangri-La tea. The Darjeeling was served with a pot of milk that unfortunately turned out to be dairy milk. The waitress was not fluent in English and looked confused when asked if it was dairy milk. I reiterated my reservation requests (vegan and gluten-free) as she took the pot of milk away, with no plant milk substitute being offered 🫤
Taste-wise it was the usual bold and robust flavour of black tea, with a slight bitter taste.
The Shangri-La tea on the flip side, was a lighter and cleaner tasting tea. It had vanilla and fruity notes with a mildly sweet aftertaste which I personally think complemented the high tea well.
Top Tier
Ondeh ondeh, a favourite dessert of mine, is a chewy coconut-coated glutinous rice ball that is flavoured with pandan juice. It has a delicious molten gula melaka centre that bursts in your mouth when you bite into it 🤤.
This ondeh ondeh was however pretty average, with the skin being a little to thick for my liking. A thinner skin would have made the filling to skin ratio better.
The Rainbow lapis was not bad, with a soft texture and adequate sweetness. This is a Nyonya steamed cake and is also known as Nine layer cake in Chinese. It is naturally gluten-free, with the main ingredients being tapioca flour, rice flour and coconut cream. I just love how aesthetic the colours look 🌈 , and love peeling it to eat layer by layer when I was a kid 😄
The Passionfruit agar with berries was a pretty sour dessert overall. The jelly, which is on the firmer side, was slightly tart and together with the sour berries, may have been a tad too sour for my liking. Sweeter fruits may have provided a better contrast.
The Mango sago dessert was my least favourite. While the mangoes were sweet and juicy, the sago was bland and tasteless. I was seriously confused as it seemed like they had just boiled plain sago and put in in the cup without adding coconut milk, salt or sugar 🤔
Now, the star of the top tier would be this Raspberry lychee mousse 🌟 Aside from how gorgeous it looks, the mousse was airy, fruity and floral 🌸 The sweet and juicy lychees in the centre contrasted well with the bitter dark chocolate layer at the bottom.
Middle Tier
Middle tier: Veggie roll, Egg mayo sandwich (NOT vegan 💀), Spiced curry potato mash
The middle tier comprised of cold savouries. I was pleasantly surprised to see Egg mayo sandwich as I love egg mayo but have not been able to enjoy it since becoming intolerant to eggs, so a vegan dupe is always better than none!
On first bite, I could tell that it was NOT vegan. The husband hilariously thought it was so good he couldn’t tell the difference 😑
Anyway the waitress was called again to confirm and she was confused again, now with the difference between the terms “vegetarian” and “vegan”. The manager later came to clarify that they had made a mistake and apologised for their lapse.
Moving on, this Spiced curry potato mash was delicious. Those who love savoury food would enjoy this as it was delightfully salty! The taste of curry was balanced, with bits of spring onion and crunchy pickled cucumber that provided a nice contrast with the smooth texture of the mash.
The Veggie roll looked stunning but taste-wise it was pretty mediocre. I didn’t taste any sauce, except for the natural taste of seaweed, capsicum, pickled radish, cucumbers and kale in this one. The seaweed roll itself was also pretty tough to chew on, making this not as enjoyable.
Lower Tier
The lower tier had 4 different hot savouries. The Corn fritter had surprising bursts of juicy corn when you bite into it, which I really enjoyed. There were also bits of onion which gave it a really nice onion-y flavour.
The Charcoal cracker was a savoury cracker with a filling of quinoa, onions and spring onions. The combination itself is simple but I’d say it worked pretty well and tasted good altogether.
The Avocado-stuffed tomato was a favourite of mine. The tomato itself was really soft and juicy, and tasted really good with the avocado that was spiced with some kind of Mediterranean-type spices.
The Grilled shitake mushroom and chillies were pretty ordinary. The mushrooms were nicely grilled and juicy. However it was not seasoned and tasted pretty plain and ordinary.
For the Scones, these were surprisingly good! In terms of texture, this was very much like the real thing. It’s not too cakey or overly dense, with the inside being fluffy and soft, with a nice crumb on the exterior.
The jams provided were however pretty boring. It would have been nicer if they had offered non-dairy cream or more interesting jam flavours to pair with.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the high tea offered a mix of highlights and drawbacks. Some treats were delightful, others less so, and the price leans steep.
The manager at Lobby Lounge kindly waived my bill in acknowledgment of the service lapses, which I appreciated despite my disappointment with the overall experience. Most importantly, I hope that measures have been taken to prevent such oversights, particularly for people with allergies who may be visiting.
The Lobby Lounge, Shangri-La Hotel
Address: 22 Orange Grove Rd, Singapore 258350 – Map
Website: The Lobby Lounge
Email: dining.sls@shangri-la.com
Phone: (65) 6213 4398
Afternoon Tea: 3:00pm – 5:00pm, Last order at 4:30pm
