It’s the long weekend with Good Friday falling on 3 April! I personally like to spend my long weekends by staying in. Gasp! Haha. But for this long weekend, I packed my Saturday (2nd day of the long weekend) with yoga and high tea. Keke. And for high tea, my friend and I decided to head to The Fullerton Bay Hotel.

There’re 2 venues for afternoon tea within The Fullerton Bay Hotel. One can choose between The Landing Point or The Clifford Pier. But obviously, I did not realise that till I called. I mean, one would normally assume there’s only one venue within a hotel. No? When I called to make my reservation for high tea, I was informed by the lady on the other end that they were fully booked for high tea. She went on to suggest afternoon tea at The Clifford Pier. That of course got me a little confused since I was still not aware they had 2 venues for afternoon tea, but I just went ahead with the reservation. Ha.

And luck was on my side cause personally, I preferred The Clifford Pier over The Landing Point for its ambience. The Clifford Pier was elegantly designed, all while preserving the original architecture of the 1930s jetty. My friend and I could imagine where the ticket counters and waiting area used to be.

For anyone who’s curious about The Landing Point, one may read fellow blogger SpringTomorrow‘s high tea review at The Landing Point. And besides the ambience, the other difference between the 2 venues would be the food. Taking from their official website, The Clifford Pier’s afternoon tea menu offers Singapore dishes with distinctively local flavours, and are specially curated by acclaimed Singaporean cookbook author Shermay Lee. A selection of 8 savoury and 8 sweet items to reflect Singapore’s culinary past and present.

As such, there’s only 1 menu (pages 1, 2) at The Clifford Pier. As my friend and I came on a long weekend, the menu was priced at $59 (adult). If not, it’s usually priced at $38 (adult). And with that, we started our afternoon tea:-

1) 3-tiers tea set (above) comprised of:-

(A) 1st tier (sweets) (above) – Pineapple-vanilla thumbprint cookie, roselle jam linzer cookie, hainanese kaya bun, pandan swiss roll, sugee financier, bandung macaroon. Our favourite were pandan swiss roll and pineapple-vanilla thumbprint cookie.

(B) 2nd tier (savouries) (above) – Kueh pie tee, mini popiah wrapped in handmade nonya egg skin, nonya chicken curry in roti jala wrap, bak kwa jam sandwich, hae bee hiam french toast, otak sandwich. Chilli sauce for the 2nd tier was provided separately.

(C) Top tier (sweets) (above) – Plain scone, tropical fruit scone. Spreads like butter, clotted cream, berries jam, kaya, and pineapple-vanilla jam were also provided.

2) Savouries (above) – Kurobuta pork kong bak bao, chili crab mantou. These were served separately (from the 3-tiers tea set) on a plate. And these were refillable! Halfway through our afternoon tea, the staff came up to us with a plate filled with chili crab mantou. But we turned him down cause we couldn’t even finish what was on our table!

3) Buffet items – And besides what’s stated on the menu, we could also help ourselves to more food at the buffet station! Deep fried finger foods, noodle, rice and sushi were offered. There’s also a laksa point which I couldn’t resist helping myself to a bowl. Hee.

4) Beverage – And on the beverage menu, The Clifford Pier offered tea (3 choices), cafe-type coffee (but don’t expect any latte art for the latte) and local beverages like kopi kosong and teh tarik. I went with a cup of latte before ending my afternoon tea with a pot of warm earl grey tea. Keke. One could further help oneself to bandung, milo and soy milk at the buffet station. I liked that there’s a bowl of grass jelly for one to make chin chow (mixture of soy milk and grass jelly)! Although the soy milk was too sweet for our liking.

So yes, I will definitely recommend The Clifford Pier for high tea. It’s a refreshing change to have a Singapore Heritage Afternoon Tea where food were spun off familiar Singapore dishes. And these were very reasonably priced at $38 (on normal weekends). But make sure to come with a very empty stomach though. We couldn’t finish what’s on our 3-tiers tea set. I noticed the same goes for most tables. Service was great too. Food was replenishable, and the staff did not make us feel like we would be gluttons if we wanted 3, 4 or 5 rounds. You know how we could tell if the staff is judging? So yes, thumbs up for that!

And my strong recommendation of The Clifford Pier stemmed from the ambience, which I loved the most. It was simply lovely to be sitting back in the comfortable chair, enjoying the splendid view of the Marina Bay harbourfront and appreciating the beautiful architecture of the place with the lush ballads by the pianist-singer (Mondays to Saturdays, 3 to 5pm) in the background. My only tinge of regret was that we wasted so much food. My friend and I only managed to finish 1 portion of the 2 portions served. Take away was not allowed since it’s a buffet.

Do come at 3.30pm sharp as the afternoon tea is only 2 hours long from 3.30 to 5.30pm!

THE CLIFFORD PIER
80 Collyer Quay, The Fullerton Bay Hotel, Level 1, Singapore 6597 5266, Website
	Overall: 7.5
Opening hours:-	Food/Beverage: 7
Mon – Sun : 12:00 – 14:30 (Lunch)	Ambience: 8
Mon – Sun : 15:30 – 17:30 (Afternoon tea)	Value: 8
Mon – Sun : 18:30 – 22:00 (Dinner)	Service: 7
Sun – Thur : 22:00 – 00:00 (Supper)
Fri – Sat : 22:00 – 01:00 (Supper)

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