High Tea @ Soirette (Vancouver)

Vancouver isn't exactly known for high tea, but I was sorely tempted by Soirette's offering. Situated in the beautiful Coal Harbour, this adorable boutique bakeshop offers weekend high tea at $27 per person.

The store is pretty small so reservations are absolutely necessary!

Soirette has more than 30 types of loose leaf tea to choose from. There were many interesting choices, but we ended up choosing Cassis Noir and Organic Raspberry Honeybush. Alexa opted for a London Fog (for an extra $0.50) and that was also quite delicious.

And of course, each set comes with one of their specialty macarons! Between the three of us, we tried Caramel Fleur de Sel, Cappuccino, and Matcha. In particular, the Caramel Fleur de Sel was out of this world, probably the best salted caramel macaron I've ever had! Note that Soirette also features many adventurous flavours, such as Rosemary, Mango Black Pepper, and Pink Peppercorn.

And at last- our tier of goodies arrived. It is my belief that food always tastes better when it's placed on pretty plates!

In the bottom tier, we had the savoury sandwiches: roasted mediterranean vegetable sandwich, salmon and dill quiche, tandoori chicken cucumber cup, and prosciutto "P.L.T". My favourite was the quiche. 

In the middle tier, we had citrus grilled cheese sandwich, mini cranberry scones with rose scented butter and raspberry jam. I quite enjoyed the citrus grilled cheese (filled with cream and blueberries) but the scones left a lot to be desired. 

And finally, we had desserts on the top tier: lemon meringue tartlet, chocolate pâté, mousseline trifle, mini éclair, chocolate caramel bar, and your choice of macaron (pictured here is Caramel Fleur de Sel). For the most part, the sweets were great. The problem was that there was too much of it! I was so full by the time I got to the desserts that I had to pack half of it. Later, I ate the leftovers as dinner on my flight back to Toronto.

On the whole, I really enjoyed my high tea experience at Soirette. There was certainly a lot of food and the macarons were particularly excellent.

Was I really going to leave without getting a box of macarons to go? Of course not! Macarons are priced at 6 for $11.50 and 12 for $22.

Some of the other flavours that I sampled include Earl Grey Cassis, Black Sesame, Pistachio, Rocher and Maple. In general, they were all really good, but none of the other flavours could measure up to the Caramel Fleur de Sel. I definitely will be coming back just for that the next time I'm in Vancouver!