Champagne High Tea Sydney Jacquart

May 26, 2024

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Want an elegant afternoon tea stop while shopping in the city? Champagne Jacquart’s new afternoon tea for two is located on the second floor of David Jones on Elizabeth Street, Sydney. And it’s an absolute steal at $55 per person and includes French champagne and oscietra caviar. So what do you need to know before going and who is this high tea best suited to?

“Is it on the 8th floor?” asks Sophia. We are both looking around for the Champagne Jacquart bar that is actually located on the 2nd floor. There isn’t much signage but we find the champagne bar tucked away on the north end of the second floor of the Elizabeth street store. We are here to try out the Champagne Jacquart afternoon tea. This originally started as an event for Mother’s Day but proved popular enough to keep going.

The area for the champagne bar is quite modest in size and while a few people order glasses of champagne we see a lot more people stop for tea, coffee and a cake. Champagne Jacquart’s afternoon tea is offered 7 days a week from 10am – 4pm. You don’t necessarily have to order the afternoon tea ahead of time although it’s best to especially if you want to come later in the afternoon to make sure that everything is available. Interestingly, they are not promoting this afternoon tea and while it is mentioned on the menu, most people just order tea and coffee at the counter. The food is made by Create Catering.

The afternoon tea is served for two but priced per person and the options are: $40 for food only, $45 for food and tea or coffee or $55 for food, tea and a flute of Champagne Jacquart which is phenomenal value considering most afternoon teas in Sydney are around $95 per person with a glass of sparkling wine, let alone a glass of champagne. There is a choice of brut or rosé Champagne Jacquart.

But there is a small catch. While the menu sounds comprehensive with 11 items, the desserts come in a single serve. That means that you either have to cut the sweets in half or choose the dessert that you want. This afternoon tea is best suited to those that love the savoury bites and champagne. Also the atmosphere of being in a department store isn’t quite as lovely as a grand tea salon. Service can range from frazzled to really lovely and friendly.

We start with the sandwiches. My first bite is a layer sandwich with stracchino and truffle mousse and porcini dust which is fresh and fragrant of truffle. It’s a very good start. The rest of the savoury items are all served in a little buns. The brie and smoked salmon mousse is paired with salmon roe. I also enjoy the Poached slipper lobster meat, Marie Rose sauce, chives, caviar on a saffron brioche bun. We both loved the pulled chicken breast salad, salsa rosa on a soft bun. The buns are soft but I can’t help but feel like 3 buns are too many and finger sandwiches are really the way to go.

One thing that we noticed was missing was the shortcrust pastry tart, mascarpone and lemon zest mousse, oscietra caviar and this was never mentioned nor replaced which is a real shame because oscietra caviar really should be given if it’s on the menu. We only noticed right at the end and if we hadn’t taken photos of it then we wouldn’t have known. Another thing that is odd is that there is only one blini. It’s topped with herb crème fraiche and what seems to be oscietra caviar instead of Yarra Valley salmon roe and chives. The blini itself is a touch dry but it would have been really nice to have two especially since the other tart didn’t come out.

As the desserts come as a single unit Sophia and I decide that we would just cut them in half so that we could try them all. The shortcrust pastry tart, dark chocolate ganache, fresh strawberry is bittersweet and ideal to eat first. The puff pastry stack is made with crisp squares of puff pastry with a citrus custard cream, a fresh raspberry and a violet flowers. One of our favourite items is the lemon curd tart topped with a whisper of Italian meringue. The tart shell is crisp and fresh and the lemon tangy and meringue smooth.

We also enjoy the Victoria vanilla sponge cake, apricot preserve, chantilly cream that is served as a half cake and is fresh and moist. Another favourite is perhaps the Coconut panna cotta, fresh mango coulis, pistachio crumb.

At the risk of being called a pedant, the menu says that the afternoon tea comes with “house baked petite scones”. However only one scone comes out. The scones are small but fresh and very good. These are served with the cream and strawberry jam. I don’t know if we were meant to share a scone but splitting a scone seems a touch odd. Even the friendly waitress realises that it is strange so she brings out another scone.

So tell me Dear Reader, what do you think of this afternoon tea? Do you think it’s good value? Or would you want to pay more and get more desserts and scones?