For the third year running, Nic, Bekah and I met up to have afternoon tea for my birthday! This time, we decided to go for Skai purely for the aesthetics – their afternoon tea tier looked really good!

Skai is located on the 70th floor of Swissôtel, The Stamford, which means that it has amazing views. Take a look:

• 

• 

Honestly, I think the views are factored in the price because the afternoon tea set here is pricier than the ones at Renku (MBS) or The Courtyard (Fullerton).

Food Review

The food though, was amazing! You can find the menu here, but in case it changes, this is what we had:

Savouries

• Mushroom Quiche
• Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Sandwich
• Crab, ikura, pickled apple (I think this is an open sandwich?)
• Egg mayo with truffle “choux” bun
• Shiitake, artichoke, and radish
• Foie gras, shiso and plum jam bun

Out of all the savouries, my favourites were the crab and the mushroom quiche! The rest were really good though – I had a pretty hard time deciding which I liked best because I liked all of them. I did think that there wouldn’t be enough, but by the time we were finishing the sweets, we were getting full!

Speaking of the sweets…

Sweets and Scones

• 

• 

• 

This is what we had:

• Sudachi almond macarons
• SKAI chocolate (cocoa bonbon, according to the menu)
• Sesame choux puff
• Raspberry pistachio sable
• Chocolate gateaux
• Parmesan cheese cake
• Vanilla scones

I probably liked the sweets better because they had a lot more standout items! While I’m not a huge sesame fan, I really loved the sesame choux – it was flavourful and light and you’re basically left wanting more. There was some orange in the sesame choux puff, which was a twist I really enjoyed. The pistachio tart was also really great and I’m normally not a pistachio person!

The only item we were a little confused by was the cheese cake – it was like a deconstructed cheese cake (Think: parmesan cheese filling covered with the pastry crumbs) and while it was good, it didn’t feel like a cheese cake.

The scones were decent and I really appreciated that they served clotted cream with it! I was also impressed with the marmalade (apparently it’s orange but it also reminded me of yuzu). I’m not a marmalade person but this one was really refreshing.

My friends were the ones who booked the afternoon tea slot and they told the staff there that it was my birthday so there was a cake! I was stuffed by the time the cake came, but it still tasted amazing, especially since it’s chocolate. If you’re celebrating a birthday, you can let them know at the time of booking.

It’s pretty amazing how all the things I liked in this afternoon tea are normally things that I wouldn’t have ordered.

Tea Review

The teas here are from TWG. The selection isn’t really big, but you only get to choose two pots so in a way, it’s probably easier to have a limited selection. This is what we tried:

Royal Darjeeling – This is light and floral, with very little astringency. We enjoyed these a lot.

Royal Orchid – I thought this was going to be a plain oolong, but as it turns out, it’s an orchid-flavoured oolong. It’s pretty sweet with strong floral notes, but I sadly couldn’t really taste the oolong.

Emperor Pu-erh – This is basically a ripe pu-er. It was pretty normal for me (I’m not really sure why it’s part of the premium selection)

Chocolate Mint Truffle – I chose this because I wanted something without caffeine to end the meal but it was the wrong choice. It’s definitely got mint, it’s got a bit of chocolate, and for some reason, it’s got a medicinal taste. I actually like rooibos, but I was not a fan of this.

The tea comes in a teabag inside the teapot, which isn’t my favourite thing because: 1) It means that the tea continues to steep as you drink so by the end it’s too strong, and 2) looking at the teabag, I’m not sure if the leaves had enough room to expand. But, like I’ve mentioned, the food was great so it made up for these (admittedly minor) complaints.

[2021 Update] Is Skai’s Premium Afternoon Tea Worth It?

Well, given that I enjoyed the food so much, it’s probably not a surprise that I went back for more. This time, I went with Ethel and we had the ‘Premium High Tea’, which costs $78++ (vs the regular price of $65++).

• 

• 

• 

Looking at the menu, the premium high tea set comes with an additional lobster dish and an additional foie gras dish, as well as three additional sweet items (dark rum Canellas, sunflower shortbread, and creme brulee cheese croissant danish). As usual, the food was very good, though we did not really get ‘creme brulee cheese’ from the danish (if you expect a custard danish, you’ll enjoy it a lot).

So is it worth the extra money? Personally, I didn’t think that it was much much better than the regular afternoon tea because both versions are great. But then again, the difference isn’t that much given the high price of the regular afternoon tea, so if you’re looking to splurge, you might as well go for this.

Conclusion: Great food, great views

Overall, we really enjoyed this! SKAI is a bit on the pricey side, but it’s worth it for the views and the food. My only recommendation is to book a table for when it opens at 3pm – the afternoon tea ends at 5pm (and they will ask you to leave at 5pm so you can’t linger), so if you want to have a leisurely lunch, you’ll need to go early.