Soirette Macarons & Tea - Vancouver, BC

Mr. Piglet and I have been here before to try their macarons and tea but SMT recently started serving high tea on the weekends for a pretty reasonable price.  Since the BB ladies and I had a failed dim sum gathering, we decided to have tea with just the four of us - Mrs. Teddy, Butterfly and Truckette.  Sorry Mr. Piglet, maybe next round you can wear your high tea hat with us!

This place looks just as beautiful as it did last time - beautiful displays in the windows, beautiful creations on the shelves and I still love the macaron graphic on the wall.  Not a lot seats (which is why tea sittings can only be booked for a certain length of time) but they're comfy nonetheless.  Bring on the tea treats!

High Tea - $27 per person

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Sandwich

The bread was a bit chewy for me and too much bread - it masked the fillings which were delicious but lost in the dough.  This turned out to be just ok.

Salmon and Dill Quiche

Cream cheese, dill and salmon in a light tart - it was as advertised.  Good but nothing extraordinary.  

Tandoori Chicken Cucumber Cup

Who would've thought fresh cucumber, tandoori chicken and curry sauce would go so well together?  Refreshing but with tang at the same time, this was a favourite amongst us ladies.  Too bad some of it ended up on my pant leg - what a waste of food!  This was Mrs. Teddy's favourite of the tea meal.

Prosciutto "PLT"

It was all about the prosciutto here and the proscuitto shone.  Oh man, I could have like 10 of these...  It's probably better this was a small one-biter so I would have room for the rest of the treats.  

Mini Cranberry Scone with Rose Scented Butter and Soirette Raspberry Jam

The scone was light and not too tart with the cranberry addition.  I love the rose scented butter as the rose was not too overpowering and the butter was smooth like...  butter?  Ok, I have no better comparison.  Smooth like silk?  Yeah, smooth like silky butter.  The raspberry jam tasted quite nice, very fresh and lots of raspberry flavour without being too sweet and a bit of tartness, matching very well with the scone.  One of my favourites of the afternoon.  

Lemon Meringue Tart

This is so LEMONY!  So lemony that I made one of those sour faces when I bit into it.  I love the meringue since it matches well with the lemon custard and the crust is nice and light.  And doesn't it look lovely??  A nice cleansing of palate to begin the sweet portion of the meal.

Mousseline Trifle

I love that this has a lemon creamy filling instead of the regular chocolate and vanilla layers and I find that it matches well with the raspberry puree.  I do wish that there was some kind of dark chocolate component or something to match with the citrusy flavours.  Either way, it was still good.

Mini Eclair

Airy Cream?  Check.  Light pastry?  Check.  Chocolate?  Check.  Beautiful?  Check.  Delicious?  Yup!  Yummmmm....

Chocolate Pate

Smooth chocolate with a tiny bit of bitterness.  LOVE!

Citrus Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Another delightful piece of this tea and definitely one of the more original ones as well.  It's a sweet and tart bread with blackberries and cream cheese instead of the regular gooey cheese.  I was apprehensive about this but it was absolutely tasty as the cream cheese mellowed out the tartness of the bread and blackberries.  I'm so tempted to try and re-create this at home but I have a feeling it will be an epic failure - I think I'll leave it up to the experts at SMT.  Now to just plan a return visit...

Chocolate Caramel Bar

This thing is so super rich that Butterfly has a small bite and that's enough.  I agree, this was very chocolatey and very sweet but if you're the kind that likes to buy those individually wrapped artisanal chocolates, then this would be for you.  Otherwise a small nibble was pretty sufficient for us.

Macaron

I chose the mango black pepper.  Why?  Because it sounded like the most enticing and original flavour avilable.  How did it fare?  Um, ok?  I posed it as a question because it was difficult pairing to begin with and I commend SMT for trying but I don't think it worked out too well.  There wasn't enough mango taste, just sweet, and when your tongue hit the pepper, that's all you could taste.  If there was more than twice the mango flavour, then it might have worked out.  

I would recommend that if you do like high tea, this is a place worth visiting for it.  The price is quite reasonable compared to other high tea places (and VERY reasonable compared to the $75 to a nearby tea place) and the servings were both delicious and filling.  Bon appetite!

Oinks:

• Tasty offerings as well as a nice variety
• Lower price point than other high tea places
• Friendly service

Doinks:

• Some disappointing pieces
• Small place made it difficult to really settle in and enjoy it - with customers coming up right behind you to buy macarons kind of disturbs the ambiance
• Reservations needed as there is limited seating