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| A beautiful display! |
For the last meal of my July 2011 trip I enjoyed English High Tea at the Petrossian Bar in Bellagio. I made the reservation on my first day, as they only have room for about 6-8 people in the private area of the bar where they serve High Tea, and I hadn't decided before my trip if I was actually going to have tea service or not. Luckily I was completely by myself; there were no other reservations at 2 p.m. I didn’t feel bad about taking photos at all!
There are several different price ranges for High Tea, and your server explains all the options to you for each level. I took the lowest level for $35 per person. This gets your selection of a nice pot of tea that can be refilled as many times as you wish, two blueberry scones served with clotted cream, jam, butter and honey, 3 pre-selected desserts and your choice of four finger sandwiches in any combination. Higher-priced tea services may include champagne or different options in sandwiches or desserts, but I kept it simple because I didn't know what to expect. (When two people are dining, double the number of scones, sandwiches and desserts; for three, it would be three pots of tea, 9 desserts, six scones, and 12 sandwiches, etc.)
While the finger sandwiches are being prepared, the server brings out your tea selection in a porcelain tea pot set on a warmer. The tea I chose was called “Relax”, and it contained mint leaves that really complimented the food. I had my server guide me in my tea selection, as I had no idea whatsoever what sort of teas are the best. She asked me several questions about my likes and dislikes before guiding me to the "Relax" tea, and I am glad I let her choose for me.
I chose four different finger sandwiches for my tea service: Chickpeas with red peppers and green olive mayonnaise on spiced Panella bread (very good!), Alaskan King Crab with avocado on Brioche (my favorite!), Classic Egg Salad with Quail Egg on white bread (yummy!), and Smoked Turkey, Brie and black grapes on cranberry bread (good, but my least favorite). My server said she liked the King Crab, Egg Salad and Salmon sandwiches the best, but I didn’t select the Salmon sandwich because it had caviar on it and I wasn’t sure how it’d taste on a sandwich. It just sounds gross with bread, y'know?
The chef came by my table to talk to me for awhile – nice lady! She is the head chef for the Petrossian Bar, and she hails from Georgia. I wish I'd caught her name, because she was very entertaining. The same goes for my server; I never read her name tag and don't recall what her name was at all, and she was a great help when choosing my sandwiches and tea.
I spent about an hour or so at tea, enjoying the food and tea and just taking my time. There isn’t a really quiet place to have tea in the Petrossian Bar because it's open to the casino and very close to the conservatory and registration desk, and there is a lot of "traffic" in the area. People were even looking in at ME, trying to figure out what I was doing seated up there all alone.
All in all, it was just the right amount of food for one person, and I wasn’t stuffed when I left, which is just as tea should be. I give this whole experience a 7 out of 10. If the location were more secluded for the tea service, I think I would have liked it even better. It just seems so refined and somewhat like I shouldn't be watching so many people while dining. I could still hear the piano player at the bar, which was a plus, but he was not nearly as loud in my area as the casino crowd.
Reservations can be made in person at the Petrossian Bar, by phone or on their website - check out the lovely photo on their webpage!
http://www.bellagio.com/nightlife/petrossian-bar.aspx
That actually sounds pretty good. I might give this place a try on my next trip to Vegas.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review!