When we were looking for stuff to do in Sydney in the planning stages of our trip, C brought up the idea of high tea. Apparently it’s one of the more touristy activities in Sydney – probably because of the many preserved Victorian houses in the city.
But, as these things go (and mostly because we had a fast and loose kind of itinerary), it wasn’t until our seventh day in Sydney that we finally got around to crossing this off our to-do list. Our friend P, who had been super kind enough to put us up during our stay, was incredibly talented at scoring amazing deals on all sorts of stuff online. He managed to snag for us a two-for-one promo at the Boronia House and was even kind enough to book us a table for, what arguably could be, the girliest thing ever: high tea.
As was our custom during our stay in Sydney, C and I had a late start to our day. I don’t know what it was but for some reason we felt so relaxed there that it was okay for two early risers (by necessity since we both braved Manila traffic on a daily basis) to start the day no later than eleven. We met up with P at his workplace where, after he gave us a tour, we had brunch. C and I then made our way to Mosman, an area over the bridge from where we had been staying, to go to the Boronia House.
The Boronia House is a grand colonial mansion built in 1885, now a heritage listed property that is used for events and as a venue for high tea. The house was two bus rides away from where P worked and it was our first time to try navigating the Sydney public transportation system on our own. Up until that point we had been lucky enough to be toured around by our friends (old and new found) so going around Sydney had only been a matter of following their leads. Fortunately, C had the foresight to buy a prepaid SIM for data so she used Google Maps to know which bus to hop onto.
Boronia House had a huge manicured garden out in front that I would have loved to explore but it was too hot out that afternoon. We chose one of the tables inside of the house that was right in front of the huge windows that looked out to the garden.
Probably because it was a Thursday, it seemed like we had the place all to ourselves – high ceilings and all.
The set that P got for us included a pot of tea each, this three tiered plate of goodies, a basket of scones and a glass of champagne each. I gotta admit: feasting on these items made me feel all grown up and sophisticated.
Because we had just come from brunch, we had a difficult time in finishing off the platters and it probably took us at least a couple of hours to work through them. Service was pretty good – they served us our set immediately after we sat down and they pretty much left us alone after that. I’m not a finicky sort of customer so I much prefer being left alone, but that might not be everyone’s cup of tea (pun intended, haha).
All in all I really liked the high tea experience at Boronia House. It was very relaxing and definitely a good activity to do with your girlfriends on a Saturday afternoon.
624 Military Road, Mosman, Sydney, NSW
