I tried to make reservations for afternoon tea at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar over the winter holidays because my friends N., S., and I wanted to go somewhere fancy for Christmas tea. It turns out they don’t have afternoon tea service during December! Instead, they serve hors d’oeuvres (cheese, crackers, and deli meats) so my friends and I decided to wait. Fast forward 4 months later … we finally made it to the Fairmont Grand Del Mar for afternoon tea!
Making my way to afternoon tea…
Such expanses of land on the vast property, and look at the wide driveway!
Resort main entrance (photo from Fairmont Grand Del Mar website)
The bathrooms are even elegant! I especially like the full sized doors on the stalls and reusable hand towels.
Tea menu (click image to enlarge)
The Fairmont Grand Del Mar used to offer Tea Forte teas but they recently changed their tea selection, which is great! I like Tea Forte but I prefer trying different teas whenever I can. I tried the Liza Hill Darjeeling which was nice but didn’t have a strong enough flavor profile for me, even when it was steeped for awhile. The Grand Bazaar Spice tea was spicy as its name suggests and it was a nice dark tea. N. liked it a lot. The creamy Earl Grey had a wonderful aroma but like the Liza Hill Darjeeling, S. thought the tea was not strong enough.
They still have beautiful china and the individual teapots and tea strainers which I really like.
The Fairmont Grand Del Mar does offer a vegetarian menu and I was very impressed with their vegetarian sandwiches which were mostly vegan and plant based, rather than cheese based. This is my favorite vegetarian tea menu so far because all the ingredients were so fresh and so much thought went into the sandwich fillings which were delicious and innovative.
Vegetarian sandwiches (top to bottom): open face egg salad with microgreens, asparagus and tomato, open face artichoke tapenade, roasted garlic and cauliflower on whole wheat, open face roasted vegetable hummus on marbled rye
Their regular tea sandwich menu was also lovely. I could have happily eaten these too!
Regular tea sandwich menu (left to right): Open face roasted vegetable hummus, open face egg salad, open face smoked salmon, honey ham and cheese, and shrimp BLT
I love that they still offer 2 scones per person because their scones are excellent: currant and Tahitian vanilla.
The mixed berry “preserves” were so good that I could have eaten them with a spoon! It was more like a berry puree and tasted like a coulis. My friend S. declared the lemon curd was the “best” she’d ever had!
Candied lemon cake with hazelnut
Raspberry macarons and profiteroles with caramel cream and passionfruit custard
Caramel creme macarons and opera cake
Tiramisu and fruit tarts with strawberry custard
Judging by the desserts, they still have a French pastry chef on staff (yeah!). The desserts were all delicious but the profiterole was truly an experience, the most delectable dessert I’ve enjoyed in a long time. A light profiterole puff (slightly crispy on the outside, soft on the inside) filled with caramel cream and passionfruit custard, studded with a ring of crispy dark chocolate pearls. Aaaahhhh!!! I think I actually momentarily left my body and mentally abandoned my 2 tea companions while I was eating this! Is that what it means when something is so good, it’s like a “bite of heaven”? 😉
Bye, bye, thanks for the wonderful tea!
I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since I last had afternoon tea at the Fairmont Grand Del Mar–I was very impressed when I called to make reservations because my name was still in their system! In any case, I won’t wait that long again until my next visit. My only regret is that we were not able to get a table in the library but now we have a reason to come back! Thank you N. and S. for a lovely Sunday afternoon outing! 
Tastes like tea 