While the Victorian Tea Society ladies were attending Lady MH’s Royal Wedding Afternoon Tea, Lady J. was on a 28-day “Timeless Wonder Cruise” on Oceania from India to Rome. During her trip, she got to experience High Tea in Dubai. She was gracious enough to provide photos and to write about her experience for Tastes like Tea! In the words of Lady J. ….
During our “Timeless Wonder Cruise,” we had the opportunity to go on the half-day shore excursion, “Dubai Heritage Tour with High Tea at Burj,” which included a 1.5 hour lunch break for “high-tea and pastries” at Sahn Eddar Lobby Lounge (“Reception of the House” in Arabic) in the Burj Al Arab hotel, the third tallest hotel in the world.
Burj Al Arab
We went up to the 18th floor for our tea and were surprised to find ourselves in the spa area. We walked through a hallway and came to a clearing where tables of mostly ten were set up for tea. 
One could look over the railing to see the lobby down below.
View of the lobby from the 18th floor
We were able to grab a table for our nine traveling friends, including P., from the ship’s crew. 
When we arrived, the finger sandwiches and desserts were already set out on the tables. They were not set on tea caddies but on vertical stands–short stands for the desserts and taller ones for the sandwiches. I thought the stands were made of glass but TW said they were cardboard. KM disagreed and thought they were plywood, which seemed more likely.
The waiters (all men) served the sandwiches, desserts and tea. The waiters preferred that we helped ourselves as it took too long for them to serve every guest. Instead of serving or presenting us with one of each sandwich, the waiter asked us what sandwiches we wanted. It didn’t take us long to realize our waiter was not knowledgeable in afternoon tea food service styles since this was unlike any tea service we’ve experienced before.
Several times we had asked for more sandwiches because there weren’t enough to go around (i.e., there was not one for each person per type of sandwich). It had been six to seven hours since breakfast so most of us were hungry, especially the men. TW remarked that she liked the egg salad sandwich, but the rest of us didn’t get offered any. Much later, the waiter brought another plate of sandwiches that included the “missing” egg salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches.
There were four different sandwiches (rectangle: eggplant and chicken salad; round: salmon and imitation crab with a slice of egg on top). The waiter stacked the two smaller ones on top of the rectangle sandwiches on my plate, but I wanted to see them and so asked him to arrange them separately on the plate.
The hot tea, served in a silver carafe, tasted like Lipton tea. I was disappointed that teapots weren’t used. At one point our waiter was pouring tea from a teapot that matched the plates on our table. However, he didn’t come all the way around the table to where I could get a picture, and I never saw the teapot again. 
One of our friends asked the waiter what the two syrupy bowls on our table were. He said they were to put on the desserts. We then got confirmation that they were for the scones, so we asked the waiter, “Where are the scones?” We weren’t sure if he understood but he went to the kitchen and brought us a basket of the scones! The scones were typical of small round ones I’ve had in the States with raisins. 
It turned out that the 2 mysterious syrupy bowls on the table were actually strawberry and apricot “jams.” Wheras the Devonshire cream was very thick as expected, those syrups were definitely not “jams.”
When the waiter presented the desserts, he did a sloppy job and got chocolate on the other desserts. We also had a chocolate cake, fruit tart (with dragon fruit!) and a lighter cake with two mini marshmallows on top. Some of the ladies were tickled by the marshmallows since it made them feel like they were having a children’s tea rather than a tea for adults.
We did eventually get our proper share of sandwiches and started to finally fill up. However, instead of the promised 1.5 hours for tea as printed on our itinerary, our local guide gave us only 1 hour! I am used to taking at least two hours for tea so 1.5 hrs. was already too short! As a result, I was the last one at our table to finish as I was still sipping my tea. I was also late leaving the tea area as I was waiting to talk to the head waiter, hoping to get a menu from the chef of what we ate, but I was not successful.
The cucumber sandwiches had a thick cake-like bottom layer (one couldn’t call it bread) with a thin layer of green Jell-O (aspic? gelatin?) on top–we didn’t finish eating all of the cucumber sandwiches.
Would I do tea in Dubai again? Probably not. Calling it “High Tea” is a misnomer since it was more aptly “Afternoon Tea,” as there were no savories and not even close to a supper-type tea. Even though the food was not bad, the service was just not proper tea etiquette!! P., from the ship’s crew, learned much about afternoon tea from the comments made at our table! TW said I had spoiled them in how to enjoy the ultimate in tea ritual!
Thank you Lady J. for sharing your afternoon tea experience in Dubai! The fact that you could enjoy afternoon tea in Dubai is a testament to the popularity and demand for this beloved ritual. Though the service lacked attention to detail and authenticity, and the tea could have been better, the location certainly looked luxurious and unique! The food looked wonderful and most importantly, it sounded like you were among many friends. 🙂 In my book, that makes it true afternoon tea experience!
Tastes like tea 