For high tea with an unconventional twist, you may wish to consider The Moluccas Room, the latest fine-dining restaurant at Marina Bay Sands that has a very unique concept: authentic Indonesian cuisine executed by French cooking techniques! And if you are as into anything-coconut-pandan-gula melaka as I am, this is one place you will enjoy!
High tea means tea, and at The Moluccas Room, there’s a wide variety of Gryphon Teas to choose from. To help you make up your mind, there’s “sniffing boxes” (haha, are they called that??) filled with dry tea leaves for you to get a feel smell of the different types of teas!
Aloe vera smells wonderfully sweet so I settled for that. Tried Chamomile Garden too, a classic favourite. Then at the end of the meal, I had another pot of Earl Grey.. Drank so much in one day! Haha.
For a little bit of everything, get the Moluccas Posh Tea Society for 2 ($32++) to share!
Served on elegant 3-tiered stands (admit it, high tea is not high tea without these classy stands, aye?), there’s lapis legit (a.k.a. kueh lapis), gula melaka macarons, battered bitter ballen (croquettes stuffed with creamy chicken ragout), lemper ayam (sticky rice with spiced chicken filling), udang serabi (prawn blinis), and martabak telur istimewa (samosa-shaped egg pancake)~
Besides Posh Tea Society, there’s also Moluccas Chocolate Society ($28++), which I’m sorry to say, is very disappointing. Merely a plate of preserved dried fruits and nuts with a spicy Belgian chocolate dip on the side, I think this lacks sincerity since you and I can easily assemble this at home.
If I’m you, I’d just go for the more outstanding ala carte desserts.
Personal favourites include serabi ($12++, above), traditional Indonesian pancakes with fragrant jackfruit pulps and generous drizzles of molten palm sugar sauce, and pisang saleh ($12++, below), grilled banana slices paired with homemade coconut milk ice cream!
Another interesting pick is a duo of sri kaya crème brûlée ($12++), one flavoured with pandan, the other with gula melaka. Guess which one I prefer!
Sincere thanks to Karen and LeRoy from FoodNews for the invitation, and for hosting the afternoon tea!
The Moluccas Room
#01-81 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands
6688 7367
