Godiva High Tea at Keraton Lounge

When one hears about a high tea that comes with Godiva chocolate, one doesn't hesitate nor think twice. One instantly rearranges their life so as to get to the location where said high tea is being served and orders a set immediately. One waits with baited breath and prepares to be amazed, awed and dazzled by the plate of treats that is about to appear only to be...cruelly disappointed. Oh yes, sadly it is the horrible reality of this story. I found out about the Godiva High Tea at the Keraton Lounge on a list of recommended places to eat chocolate in Jakarta. I figured it must be good, better than good even. I must admit I was not disappointed by the surroundings which were beautiful and elegant. Instead I was devastated by what they served up and the price that was paid for it. Let me take you through my afternoon...

The Keraton Lounge itself is a lovely haven in the middle of the city and you are greeted by immaculately dressed staff who speak perfect English and are only too happy to fulfill any request. Once seated, I perused the menu and found the high tea section. There were four different Godiva sets but I settled on the Luxury Godiva Set and then also decided on the Indonesian High Tea set. This would give me the opportunity to sample both interpretations of High Tea. Each set came with two drinks included and I went with the Cafe Latte. 

I was very impressed when it arrived, served in a Bodlums glass with three distinct layers and a cinnamon stick. It was delicious. However it all started going downhill from here...

The Luxury Godiva High Tea set was placed on the table with its three tiers. At first glance it looked quite impressive however on closer inspection and as the food was tried, the reality was very different.

The scones on the top layer came in plain and chocolate flavour. Yes I'm Irish, yes we eat lots of scones, yes I grew up watching my grandma bake delicious scones so I had high expectations. These scones were old, at least they looked rubbery, felt rubbery and to me that means old. The chocolate one had this strange aftertaste that I just couldn't quite understand. These were definitely not baked fresh on the day. I have never been able to reduce a scone to crumble with just a few pinches, these were so dry that it took me a couple of seconds to do it. Appalling!

On the second tier there were some canapés. Again, they looked old, like they had been stored away somewhere and dug out again because someone happened to come in for high tea. I didn't even try all of them, the cabbage leaf canapé was seeping out the bottom, the prawn tasted very fishy, which made me feel like it wasn't fresh and the Brie cheese had a ridiculously strong smell from it. The caviar and egg, again, looked flattened and dull. 

On the bottom tier were the chocolates that came with two cups of hot (luke warm) chocolate. I tried two chocolates...the nutty one which was dry and crumbly on the inside and if that really was Godiva chocolate then how disappointing. Not rich, not creamy, not satisfying. It was dry, bland and tasted like cheap supermarket chocolate. The almond chocolate tasted similar. I bit into half of it and left the rest. I never say no to chocolate...that's how bad it was.

To accompany the scones there was a tray of preserves including apricot jam, strawberry jam, lemon curd and fresh cream. The apricot jam had been made with orange peel and was quite good. The lemon curd was more like lemon cream and had a good tangy kick to it, the strawberry jam was pretty regular and the fresh cream...well, it tasted like cheese!

Then my attention switched to the Indonesian high tea. I mean we are in Indonesia, surely this must be better. It was, slightly...

The top tier had some Indonesian biscuits including a pineapple tart. The biscuits were fine but I wanted a 'wow' factor result. They didn't make me want to gobble them all up.

The second tier had some Indonesian kueh or cakes. There was a kueh lapis or layer cake that tasted ok and a kueh dadar (green) or coconut stuffed pancake that was very sweet and the pink cake that was slippery and slimy. Again, just no one cake that made me luck my lips.

The bottom tier was full of gorengan or fried Indonesian snacks and included fried tofu, fried banana and fried croquette. All were mediocre. I have eaten better snacks like this from the side of the road. 

Needless to say, I would NOT recommend this high tea to anyone, especially considering the Godiva set will cost you Rp. 250,000 - an extortionate amount of money for something lacking in taste, flavour and quality. No wonder I was the only one eating it. If I was responsible I would do a complete overhaul of the high tea and create fresh, delicious delights that would tantalise the taste buds and bring all those people with way too much money in their pockets living in the city running for high tea. At the moment, I would say don't bother doing it if this is the standard you will continue to offer because you are cheating people of an awful lot of money.