Introduction
This year, we traipsed through Asia, exploring some of the many exquisite desserts that it has to offer — starting with a Chinese New Year-themed high tea in Kuala Lumpur, comparing two of the best kuih shops in Penang, hopscotching through Singapore’s best traditional high teas, escaping the pandemonium of Hanoi by taking high tea in the clouds, slurping bowls of che admist the glowing lanterns in Hoi An, feasting on exquisitely-crafted cherry blossom high teas and hunting down the best wagashi in Tokyo. And in this latest volume of our dessert travel adventures, here’s a guide to the three best high teas featuring Thai desserts in Bangkok.
Thai high tea at Erawan
Dessert destination: Erawan Tea Room, Grand Hyatt, Bangkok. - Budget: Approx USD $25-30.
- Best for: Generous dessert platters.
- Short and sweet story: Of all the Bangkok high teas on this list, Erawan was our favourite because of its wide array of desserts. With savouries counting just five albeit delicious bites, desserts were instead the focus at Erawan and were both of a fusion and traditional variety. In the fusion style, there was nothing to fault with the pear tart swirled with lemongrass cream, a mango passionfruit choux pastry ball, a lusciously soft pandan cake layered with coconut cream, a lime basil mousse cake, and a mulberry cheesecake. The more traditional Thai desserts were just as scrumptious, and included a coconut pancake (kanom babin), a thick swirl of pandan pudding (khanom piak), a refreshing bowl of som chun, and another bowl of pink pomelo sorbet.
Oriental high tea at the Mandarin Oriental
- Dessert destination: Author’s Lounge, Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok.
- Budget: Approx USD $30.
- Best for: Well-considered savouries.
- Short and sweet story: Whereas high tea at Grand Hyatt’s Erawan was all dark teak woody tones, high tea at the Mandarin Oriental was taken in a light-filled atrium lounge, graced by twin cascading staircases and American plantation-style white rattan chairs. Served by way of a trio of vibrantly-painted Chinoiserie dining ware, the savouries were numerous, and the highlight of the high tea food offerings. They included jasmine flower dumplings, a chunk of grilled chicken, and delicately-crafted bites of papaya salad, lemongrass shrimp salad, duck salad, pomelo salad, and spicy tofu. Desserts were lesser in number, by comparison. Distinctively traditional Thai in craftsmanship and flavour, we especially loved the small mung bean marzipan morsel, a pretty flower-shaped steamed pandan butterfly pea layer rice tapioca cake, and a crucible of water chestnuts in coconut milk. Save space for extra cake from the dessert trolley.
Mystical Thai high tea at Divana Cafe
- Dessert destination: Divana Cafe, inside CentralWorld shopping mall.
- Budget: Approx USD $30.
- Must-eat: The flower jelly!!
- Short and sweet story: We love shopping as much as we love desserts, and Divana is the one place in Thailand that melds our two loves together in one. 😛 In a space exuberantly draped with wisteria blossoms, Divana was a rather elegant pitstop in the middle of a shopping mall. The high tea arrived literally smoking…and once the mist cleared, a fairyland of desserts was revealed. They were spread across the dessert spectrum, from traditional Thai desserts (eg. mango sticky rice and lychee mung bean cake), to desserts crafted in a modern French patisserie-style but infused with Asian dessert flavours (eg. pandan scones, mango mousse cake, mango passionfruit pannacotta, a green tea dessert creation). The most unique dessert that we have had in a long time can be found at Divana — have you ever had a jelly that looked like flowers were embedded inside, but there were not actually flowers? Absolutely exquisite dessert art.
Dessert adventure checklist
- ☑ Dessert destination: Bangkok, Thailand.
- ☑ Budget: $-$$.
- ☑ Sweet irresistibles: Thai high teas.
- ☑ Travel notes:
- How long? Similar to NYC, 3-4days is a good starting point for the first time visitor to Bangkok.
- When to visit? Some months are rainier than others, but otherwise, the temperature doesn’t shift significantly from 25-35 degrees Celsius and high humidity.
- How to get there? So many people warned us about Bangkok traffic. Compared to NYC traffic, it was on par. Nothing to fear 😛 …but do expect about 1 hour to get to/from the airport to the city centre.
- Where to stay? We stayed near the shopping district, near Siam Paragon and Central World, and highly recommend it for shopping, a diverse range of food options and connectivity via the BTS trainline to many parts of the city.