Review: Afternoon tea at The Fullerton Bay Hotel, Singapore

Ringing in 30 (early) with afternoon tea

This past weekend, I flew down to Singapore to celebrate my upcoming 30th birthday with good friends. If you don’t know this already, I love, love, love the Lion City. I spent ages 22 to 26 there and had so many wonderful life growth moments. How could I not ring in a new decade with some of the people that made the last one so sweet.

On Saturday afternoon, my friend M gathered my five best girlfriends together for afternoon tea at The Fullerton Bay Hotel. With its old-meets-new glamour, it’s long been my favourite hotel in town. Currently, they offer afternoon tea at two locations: The Clifford Pier and The Landing Point. While The Clifford Pier is more beautiful, I personally prefer the food at The Landing Point.

In front of The Clifford Pier

The first time I had afternoon tea at The Landing Point (S$55 or HK$320 per adult / S$28 or HK$175 per child on weekends) was maybe four or five years ago. But I think about it every time someone mentions afternoon tea for two reasons: one, the savoury selection is great (not just boring cold sandwiches as can be the case even at 5-star hotels) and two, everything is refillable!

Luckily the selection is largely as I remember it.

From the savouries, my top picks are the Boston Lobster cornets, white truffle egg mayo sandwiches, smoked salmon sandwiches, and duck rillettes in sesame seed buns.

Because the savoury selection is quite Western, I was pleasantly surprised to see a more international spread in the sweets. I loved the pecan maple tart as it was just like a butter tart aka a taste of home (I’m Canadian). The ondeh ondeh macaron was also excellent with a very rich gula melaka (a coconut-y palm sugar syrup) buttercream filling.

In addition to the towers, there was a hot buffet station where we could get scones, spring rolls, sausage puffs, and pasta. Personally, I think this cheapens the experience; I’d prefer my scones hot and served to the table, they were warm and a bit dry under the heat lamp, and could do without the the oilier options.

The tea selection was from TWG, a lovely homegrown brand. There are ten options ranging from the classic Imperial Oolong to the creative Fullerton Express with a crystalline infusion of aromatic wildflowers. I went for something in between, the Silver Moon which was a green tea with hints of berry, vanilla and spice - very round and smooth.

Spending hours catching up with this group of girlfriends is something that happens all too rarely nowadays. When I met them in my early twenties, we hung out all the time, multiple times a week. Birthdays, public holidays, random weekdays, any occasion was a good one to get people together and hangout. In this stage of life, things are definitely busier with us juggling new adventures whether they be new degrees, relationships, serious careers, moves abroad, wedding / baby planning and more but keeping good friendships alive is always worth the effort. I’m very thankful for the few hours we had together to catch up... and stuff our faces.

Overall, I’m still quite impressed with the the afternoon tea at The Landing Point. In addition to being in a beautiful atmosphere with excellent service, the selection truly is delicious (maybe top two in my books, second only to Sketch London). But maybe I’m not as wowed as I once was. Next time I’d like to try the one at The Clifford Pier to compare.

The Fullerton Bay Hotel, 80 Collyer Quay, Singapore 049326, +65 6597 5277

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