04 January 2015

Mt Dandenong Part 3: Miss Marples Tearoom

Western Food January 04, 2015 0

Our day trip to Mt Dandenong continued to Miss Marples Tearoom, the local famous tourist attraction and restaurant.

It was packed when we reached, which should be a good sign. By a stroke of luck, a table for 5 left almost immediately afterwards. So far so good! The store was beautifully done and the word 'quaint' springs readily to mind. Which, as the tearoom was inspired by a character in an English novel, seems appropriate.

In the corner of the store where the waiting room is (picture below), they have a variety of English tea and spread available for sale.

The food took a while to arrive, which was understandable considering how swamped the staff is.

We started off with the Soup of the day "Soup" Hot and Hearty ($11). It was tomato-base, seasoned with basils and came along with butter and a roll. It has a one-dimensional flavour with a bad lingering after-taste. My base-level for cream soup is 'Campbell's soup', and this falls below that. I have to say that the presentation was charming though.

Based on online reviews that raved on Ms Marples Tearoom's take on Devonshire Scones, we ordered both the Fruit and Plain Scones (2 for $9.50). I wanted to like it, especially after coming so far and hearing so much about it. Still, we couldn't quite shake off the lingering doubt that it tastes suspiciously like fa gao (a type of Chinese Steamed Cake), - soft, crumbly and chewy - which is about as far from a real scone as it can get. The "scones" were blockish like they were cut from a larger block. The raspberry jam was outstanding, and we bought two bottles of jam before leaving the restaurant.

Pictured: Not a scone. Sponge cake maybe.

The Welsh Rarebit Fingers ($13.50) was also quite a disappointment. It tastes exactly as if they sprinkled mozzarella cheese and some minced meat over a piece of white bread and toasted it.

The Cottage Pie with Beef ($15) was bland and monotonous in taste. There is no texture to it and it tasted like puree.

The Verdict:
The ambience was fabulous and the place was beautifully done. The service was pretty efficient: the tables were full when we arrived but we still got seated quickly.

I don't usually like to give bad reviews. But the food was so terrible that we left the tearoom wondering what the hell was going on in their kitchen, who obviously couldn't care less about the food they serve. It might be worth a visit just to check it off your Mount Dandenong list, but don't expect the food amount to anything.

Must-Try:
The jam that came along with the scones. Skip the scones and get a jar on your way out.
... The table next to ours ordered an ice cream sundae and it looks pretty good?

I took some pictures of the menu, because I'm helpful this way. Although I probably just made the lives of the folks working at Ms Marples a little harder...