Afternoon Tea at the Grand Hotel: Worth It?
The Grand Hotel in Zhongshan is one of Taipei’s most beautiful and internationally-recognized landmarks. Established in 1952 by Madame Chiang (Chiang Kai-Shek’s wife) as Taiwan’s first five-star hotel, it has played host to many significant political events — and that tradition continues as it remains a go-to choice for events held by President Tsai Ing-Wen. It also happens to be one of the tallest classical Chinese buildings in the world, dominating the nearby landscape with 14 stories of palatial grandeur. The more we learn about the historical and architectural significance this building has to Taiwan, the more impressed we become. There’s no doubt about it: the Grand Hotel is iconic.
With all that being said, we’re actually embarrassed to admit that we had never visited before — we’ve never needed to rent a room in Taipei, and it had never occurred to us to visit one of their four restaurants. So when one of our friends suggested organising afternoon tea at the hotel for a goodbye party, we jumped at the chance.
Afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel is held at The Garden Cafe on the ground floor. You can choose to order individual items from their menu, but since it was a special occasion we decided to reserve their set menu for afternoon tea, which consists of five courses with a choice of tea or coffee at the end, priced at $680 + 10% service fee.
We chose to supplement the set menu with a round of Salty Dogs ($150), a simple cocktail made with gin/vodka and grapefruit juice. We tried asking which spirit this drink was made with but gave up after several unsuccessful attempts. Whether it was gin or vodka, these were nice to sip on, though they weren’t particularly strong.
The first course that came was the soup, which on that day was clam chowder. Frankly speaking, this did not impress us — it was rather uninspired, and though there was nothing offensive about it, we wondered why they had even bothered to serve it to us. The best part of the soup course was easily the two bread rolls that accompanied it.
The next course was a pork neck salad with sesame sauce, and it was much better. There wasn’t much to the salad vegetables-wise, but the pork was reasonable and the sesame salad dressing was as delicious, though we suspect it came straight from the bottle. Overall, the salad course was fine, but not exactly Grand Hotel-worthy.
The pasta course, which featured penne and clams in a tomato sauce, was about as good as the soup course. There was nothing terribly offensive about it and it was totally edible, but the pasta was a little on the soft side and the tomato sauce was a tad watery. Would we send it back? No. Would we order it again? Absolutely not.
For the main course, there was a choice between fish (pan-fried John Dory fish with a spice cream sauce) and chicken (roasted chicken leg with spice and red wine sauce). The fish was beautifully presented, but in our opinion was the biggest let-down of the dinner: bland, boring and pointless. The meat was soft and without any discernible taste, and we couldn’t figure out if the batter was supposed to have any texture at all. The only saving grace was the vegetables, which were fine. We felt quite strongly about this dish, but do note that others at our table thought it was okay, so perhaps we were being a little unfair.
On the other hand, we actually really liked the chicken course. The chicken was well-seasoned and tender, and the red wine sauce complemented the meat very well. The vegetables were very nicely cooked and we thought it was beautifully presented, too. If only the rest of the lunch could have been as good!
By this time we were all absolutely stuffed — we had no qualms with the serving sizes, which we felt were spot on — but were determined to make room for dessert, a brownie. We weren’t sure what to expect from this, and in all fairness, it really wasn’t the worst. The brownie was very chocolatey and dense and probably would have been an amazing dessert if they had let it sit at room temperature for a bit. Unfortunately, it had clearly just been pulled from the fridge, which slightly compromised both the flavour and texture. It was still pretty good, but it could have been much better if it had been allowed to warm up a smidge.
After dessert, we were given a choice of tea or coffee. This was an easy decision for us, since we were there for afternoon tea, and we unanimously voted on some tea, waiting to be impressed. We were not. This was probably the detail that offended us the most out of the entire experience: the tea was served unceremoniously in a small white cup with the teabag left in. No teapot. Just the limp string of the teabag flying around your fingers while you sip. Now, we hate to be precious, but when you pay a certain amount of money to enjoy an afternoon tea at a nice hotel, you are paying for the experience of being served tea, and putting it in a teapot should be common sense to a luxury hotel. The tea itself was delicious — black tea from Ten Ren, a great choice — which made it all the more offensive that they took zero care in its presentation. Thank you, next.
The omission of the teapot may have been the final straw, but in all honesty, most of the meal was lacklustre. We’re not sure if everything on their afternoon tea menu is as mediocre, but if our meal was any indication of the quality, it might just be. Now, with that being said, we did still enjoy the experience of the afternoon tea, just not (most of) the food. Being at the Grand Hotel was enough to make the occasion worth it, and we’d even consider coming back another time. We probably won’t be giving their set menu another chance, but the restaurant was very pretty, and it was a nice place to enjoy a drink and soak in the atmosphere. We just wish they’d do better!
Have you ever had afternoon tea at the Grand Hotel? What were your thoughts? Comment below, we’re dying to hear them!
Check out their menu:
What’s the vibe?
Incredibly beautiful world-famous hotel with (in our opinion) a lacklustre afternoon tea. Customers were mostly tourists and ladies or couples enjoying a spot of tea with friends.
Worth it?
It was worth a visit and we loved the experience of being there, but the food was not worth the price we paid. We strongly recommend against wasting your money on the set meal.
Would you go back?
Absolutely, but not for the food. Being at the Grand Hotel was incredibly exciting and worthwhile, but now we know better than to eat there.
Last updated February 2020
| Grand Hotel |
| Chinese Name: 圓山大飯店 |
| Hours: 11:30am - 10pm |
| Phone: 0228868888#1221 |
| English Address: No. 1, Section 4, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 台北市中山區中山北路四段1號 |
