Cinnamon grand, being the social hub that it is, has become one of the
more frequented high tea spots in Colombo. Their spread is decent at
best, but the fact that’s it’s a buffet adds value.
The Food & Tea
High
tea is a relatively new trend here in Sri Lanka, at least for the
masses. Nowadays pretty much all the major hotels offer their own take
on the midday classic. Cinnamon Grand’s high tea happens on weekends
from 3.00PM to 5.30PM. It’s priced at Rs. 1250 per head, which puts it
somewhere in the middle of the price spectrum. While most
other places stick to a menu, Cinnamon does a high tea buffet. The
catch though is that their spread isn’t the most impressive. That being
said, the fact that you can stuff your face will appeal to some.
In
our case, they had around seven types of savouries and five types off
sweets. The savouries were actually pretty tasty across the board, but
the latter was what disappointed, with very little variety. One thing we
did appreciate was the fact that they offer green tea, in addition tho
the usual tea and coffee options.
As mentioned earlier, we
were satisfied with the savouries. Particularly the bacon wraps, the
roast beef sandwiches and the grilled chicken and hummus bread. Even these won’t blow your mind, but you likely won’t end up angry.
On the flipside, the desserts were a letdown. The only thing we were really happy with was the scones which were lightly sweet and fluffy. Besides that, the cookies were just very ordinary, and the lemon cake wasn’t really to either of our liking. The chocolate coated strawberries were fine, but those hardly take any skill to prepare.
Ambience & Service
The Cinnamon Grand high tea is held at the Tea Lounge, which is the right past the fountain through the lobby. It’s actually not a very large area, so we highly recommend calling them on 0112497380 and making a reservation. One thing we appreciated was that they have live piano music which adds to the atmosphere.
Since this is a high tea buffet, it’s mostly self service. The waiter that brought us our tea was fast and attentive, well spoken and professional. One thing I didn’t quite understand was why they needed so many managers on the floor.
Conclusion
Cinnamon Grand’s high tea has its merits, but they need to step their game up in terms of variety and selection if they want to compete with the best high teas in town. We’d give it a 3 out of 5.
