If you are looking for a place to relax and enjoy an afternoon tea in Bangkok, let us delightfully introduce you to an experience at The Ritz-Carlton (One Bangkok).
Dear Readers,
If you are someone who loves to spend your afternoon well, sipping tea and slowly savouring your sandwiches and desserts, then you’re in the right place. I’ll be introducing you to an honest review of the afternoon tea I just had at The Ritz-Carlton Bangkok for this season!
Why did we choose Afternoon Tea at The Ritz-Carlton?
For context, The Ritz-Carlton just joined the AMEX 1-for-1 campaign this year, which lets you get a 2-person set for the price of 1 person! Through this campaign, we’ve tried several afternoon teas in Bangkok, such as Capella and Park Hyatt. But I won’t be talking about those today because our main star is the Ritz-Carlton. For your record, this is not sponsored.
For today, we booked our table at 1 PM since we always have afternoon tea as our lunch, which we also recommend you do too, as the amount of food served is usually enough to fill our stomachs.
How to get there
Starting with the location, The Ritz-Carlton is located at One Bangkok, which is connected to the MRT Lumphini. For those with a car, you could either park your car inside the department store and walk over to the hotel, or alternatively, just valet right in front of the hotel.
The afternoon tea is served at Caleo, a cocktail bar that also opens in the daytime as an afternoon lounge.
The Experience
Click here to jump to our conclusion of the experience.
Starting off with tea selection, the hotel staff will bring you a box of tea for you to learn, smell, and choose your favorite. We chose Silk & White Peony.
Silk: Oolong tea with sweet floral, honey, and fruity notes
White Peony: White tea with honey, floral, and fresh-cut hay notes
The Menu
On to the sequence, they will serve:
- Welcome refreshment
- Amuse-bouche
- Savory delicacies
- Scones & preserves
- Signature tier
- Confectionary trolley
When we first read this, we were like, “Wow, but what are those items?” Let’s not panic about Afternoon Tea terms, even if this is your first time! I’ll explain each one.
Welcome Refreshment is their signature drink to freshen you up and get you ready for the meal. They mentioned it’s a blend of signature tea, pomegranate juice, and tamarind juice.
This was really refreshing and already had our hopes up high.
Amuse-Bouche
Second coming along is the Amuse-Bouche. This is basically a tiny bite-sized starter before the actual meal begins, like a little teaser to wake up your taste buds. For today, it’s foie gras terrine. The crust tasted similar to the crispy part of khanom buang (ขนมเบื้อง), one of Thai people’s favourite desserts, while the little spice at the end from the pepper and the subtle flavor of the foie gras made this such an interesting flavor combination.
A croque monsieur was then served; it was a delight. It would be the most blissful of days if this were on the table at breakfast.
Savory Selection
Now on to Savory Delicacies, which many hotels usually serve as sandwiches, and the Ritz-Carlton also follows the book. It’s 4 types of sandwich:
- Wholewheat bread with chicken filling
- Beetroot bread with salmon filling
- Kale bread with cucumber
- Pumpkin bread with cured egg
Honestly, we were a bit disappointed with this part. The sandwich fillings were somewhat too light, especially when paired with the denser texture of the bread. It is a little too heavy and didn’t leave much impact, unlike the welcome refreshment or the amuse-bouche. We’re not experts here, but maybe with stronger fillings, we would enjoy their savory delicacies more. Along with the portion where we each get 4 pieces of sandwich, it felt a bit too much.
For small eaters, we’d recommend asking them to pack some as takeaway. But for fillings like salmon that have raw salmon roe, it would be best to eat that one right away.
Scones & preserves
I am a big scone eater, probably much more than my partner. They served plain and orange scones paired with preserves: clotted cream, marmalade, and apple cinnamon. I find marmalade to be something that almost every hotel serves along with scones. But the apple cinnamon?! That’s new, and very well-made.
I have to say this, though: preferably, we would recommend eating the scones as the last thing of every Afternoon Tea set, even after the signature tier they bring out, because scones will fill your stomach very quickly, and your signature tier might not taste as good as it should.
Signature Tier
Called signature tier, but all we heard was ‘dessert time!’ The moment we’ve all been waiting for. As a sweet-tooth person, I secretly had high expectations.
For two people, we got 11 pieces of dessert with a total of 6 different flavors. Now you may wonder why it’s not 12. Well, the last piece is HUGE.
Dessert Explained (Detailed)
For those who wants to keep the first impression fresh, jump to our recommendation.
Charlotte Framboise
Raspberry Charlotte, a revisited French classic
This is a raspberry sponge with raspberry cremeux filling inside, fresh raspberry, and raspberry chantilly on top with jelly. So yes, it’s the full raspberry combo! As a sour-lover, this was such a perfect treat after all the dense sandwiches and scones. But for my partner, who isn’t really into sour flavors, this might be a bit much for him. Still, he enjoyed it.
Baba à l’Abricot
Apricot baba, delicately soaked
Just like the name says, it’s a baba, which is basically a soft little cake soaked in syrup, so the texture is very moist and juicy. This one is soaked in vanilla and citrus syrup, with vanilla cremeux in the centre. The base is sable biscuit, with an apricot glaze on the outside and vanilla chantilly on top. It has a very gentle fruity aroma. The apricot gives a soft, sweet-sour touch, while the vanilla keeps everything smooth and comforting. It feels light, elegant, and easy to enjoy.
Tartelette de riz au lait vanille
Vanilla rice pudding tart
This tartelette has riz au lait and rice mousse fillings, along with sticky caramel and caramel glaze on the outside. It’s very creamy, mellow, and comforting in a way that feels familiar. The flavor is soft and round, with that milky richness that slowly melts in your mouth. Very substantial, very gentle, and quite a cozy dessert overall.
Canelé Trompe-l’œil Citron & Noisette
Hazelnut and lemon canelé in trompe-l’œil style
What a hard name to read. Anyway, it’s hazelnut mousse with chocolate sable, lemon jelly, lemon cremeux inside, and sponge hidden within as well. Now, this one is a bomb. The moment you start to enjoy the hazelnut, you get hit with lemon. It was very lively for me, but for my partner, it felt like quite a sudden flavor change. I personally found it quite fun.
Religieuse exotique mangue & passion
Chef’s creation is inspired by tropical fruit flavors and a journey through Thailand
This might be the most Thai flavor you’d get to try today. With a sable biscuit on the bottom, it has jasmine mousse with mango and passion fruit jelly inside. On top, there’s mango and passion fruit cremeux and coconut flakes. Super Thai fruit combo! This one is also very bright and vibrant, with tropical flavors that make it feel playful.
Saint-Honoré au chocolat
Classic Chocolate Saint-Honoré
This is the piece that you’ll share with your afternoon tea partner, as it is big.
On the base inside is buckwheat feuilletine with chocolate sponge and coated with chocolate cremeux. On top, there’s chocolate chantilly, chocolate choux, and more chocolate cremeux, a super chocolate combo. This delighted my partner, who is a big chocolate lover. It’s rich, deep, and properly satisfying—the kind of dessert that feels indulgent in a very classic way. If you love chocolate, this one will definitely make you happy.
The Confectionery Trolley
“Wow, I’m full,” I said. We ate quite a lot, and now it was time to relax with our tea… Hm, did we forget anything? I thought, oh yes, the Confectionery trolley!
The staff surprised us with a trolley full of snacks, from macarons and chocolates to cookies. I wish I could try all of them, as they really encourage you to, but I was already too full. But the macarons are a must-try if you can’t finish everything like us.
The chocolates and other items we tried are all up to a standard taste profile and quality, nothing too impressive, but not a let-down.
The Closing (Our Verdict)
We also came here to celebrate our anniversary, and they surprised us AGAIN with tea panna cotta. The presentation looked amazing and felt like such a thoughtful little ending for the occasion.
Overall, this was one of the more memorable afternoon tea experiences in Bangkok we’ve had so far.
Rating: 7.5/10
+Welcome refreshment
+Amuse bouche
+Tea
+Desserts
-Sandwiches
If you are looking for somewhere else to eat, we rocommend checking out our cafe picks!
Happy Afternoon,
Travel Tegami