Macalister Mansion Afternoon Tea Set Review + Mini Tour

Hello everyone, welcome to Episode 8 of Cafe Hopping with Eros and Fufy! For this episode, Fufy and I were joined by my brother Euri. The three of us visited Macalister Mansion and tried out their Afternoon Tea Set and chilled in their luxurious grounds.

Address

222, Jalan Macalister, Georgetown, Penang, 11400.

Opening Hours

Daily: 8am to 11pm (The Living Room)

Afternoon Tea Set

Monday to Friday: 3pm to 6pm

Saturday & Sunday: 2pm to 6pm

A little intro, Macalister Mansion is a luxury colonial mansion turned hotel located on Macalister Road. It's quite near KDU UC, so my friends and I have passed by it a few times and were always curious about it (I mean it looks so luxurious from the outside).

Macalister has several themed rooms, namely: the Living Room, the Dining Room, the Cellar, the Den, the Lawn and the Eight Rooms. The Afternoon Tea Set is served in the Living Room, but guests are free to walk around the mansion as well (except for some places).

Do you see what I mean about luxurious, like there's legit a minimalist/artsy head sculpture thing on the lawn. Before I show you the food lemme just show you fancy this place was!

You have to pass by the Cellar before getting to the Living Room, but I *unfortunately* don't have any nice pictures of it. I do have snaps tho:

The Living Room was bright and consists to two rooms. First this main one with the cashier and cakes:

then this attached second room with more decor and books.

As you can see, the decor inside was really nice:

There were also vintage and fashion related books on display. Fufy had a meeting here the other day and according to her, the owner collects things like these books.

The book covers were so exquisite! I know that Wicked has a musical but I didn't know that there was a book as well.

And among the fashion books was this Alexander McQueen biography. I read a few books about him in KL a few months back and I find him quite interesting~

The main room has doors that lead out to the Lawn, which has outdoor tables and a pool.

And that was a brief tour of the mansion. I feel like the decor and ambiance of the place really enhanced my experience as a guest and made me enjoy an afternoon of luxury. I may seem a bit bouji, but let's be honest it's not like a college student like me can afford this kind of thing everyday hahaha.

So! On with the menu!

MENU

Again, I messed up and accidentally took a photo of the set lunch menu instead of the Afternoon Tea Set, so special thanks to Fufy for the shot below:

The Afternoon Tea Set cost RM88 and consisted of:

Savouries:

Chicken Caesar Wraps

Sardine "rilettes" Sandwich

Filo Pastries with Salmon and Teriyaki Mayo

Quiche of Spinach and Mushroom

Smokehouse Chicken Burger

Cream of Mushroom and Potato

Pastries:

Matcha and Red Bean Mousse

Mix Fruit Choux Puff

Chocolate Macaron

Selection of Mini Cakes

Scones:

Homemade Daily Scones with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Jam

Served with two coffee or tea.

I actually researched beforehand and this set menu was different from the one that KenHuntFood had wheh he reviewed it last year. So just a heads up, I think they constantly update their menu.

Aside from the set, they also have a selection of cakes and biscotti you can choose from.

On with the food porn shots!

Afternoon Tea Set | RM88

The set comes on a tray instead of the usual 3-tier serving plate stand that other high tea places like Winter Warmers or 2PM use. 

Scones are essential to afternoon tea (to me at least), and I'm sad to say their scones were a bit dry. It was okay, but I've had better, buttery ones before. The chicken caesar wraps, sardine sandwiches and filo pastries were all delightfully savory. The quiche's mushroom flavour was surprisingly not as strong as I expected but I enjoyed it all the same.

The smokehouse chicken burger and mix fruit choux puff (the tart looking ones) were so-so, nothing special. The macarons were the small type and sub par compared to others I've tried before (or maybe it's just because I have a sweet tooth and it wasn't that sweet hahaha). Contrary to the quiche, the cream of mushroom and potato's flavour was really potent. Fufy found it a bit too much, and at first I did too. In the end I liked it but I feel like it would have been better on something like garlic bread. The tiramisu cake was light and I would have preferred a bigger piece hahaha. Lastly, I really enjoyed the matcha and red bean mousse!

Overall, for RM88 I would say that this afternoon tea set wasn't a mindless splurge, neither a pocket friendly bargain. I definitely recommend trying it out at least once for experience's sake (and the picturesque rooms omg), but if you're looking for a place to solely eat/drink/have high tea, there are slightly cheaper sets with more pastries available elsewhere.

I give this set a rating of 4.5 stars out of 5!

Passion Fruit Tea

Macalister offers quite the assortment of TWG teas (I don't have pictures of the full menu), and the waitress recommended the Passion Fruit Tea as it was the most highly requested flavour.

The tea was nice and really complimented the cakes and pastries.

We also ordered a few more treats that afternoon:

Tiramisu Yogurt | RM6

This wasn't anything memorable for me, just another tiramisu flavoured thing. I remember comparing it with the cakes that came with the tea set and liking the cakes better.

I rate this a 2.5/5.

Strawberry Puff | RM8

This puff was delightfully airy and sweet. It reminded me of the strawberry desserts I used to have in Cameron Highlands and now that I think about it I really want those treats. Hmm.

I rate this 4.5/5!

Pistachio Mille Feuille | RM8

The pistachio had the right amount of sweetness, and mixed with the crisp pastry it was the perfect combo. My brother Euri and I found it really nice but Fufy didn't really like it.

I rate this a 3.5/5.

The bill came up to RM110, meaning they don't charge GST and service charge! That's definitely a thumbs up. Its so hard to come by a place that has such a good ambiance/good food that doesn't exploit customers by charging people BOTH GST and service charge. So MM, good for you!

So that's it for this review. The place is definitely worth a try at least once, and when I have more money I actually want to try their dinner sets in the other room as well.

The three of us (Fufy, Euri and I) decided to coordinate that day, and here's a few OOTD shots:

And that the end of another cafe hopping post. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you guys enjoyed this post!

For more of my cafe hopping posts, please click here!

See you all in the next post!