Girls' Getaway English High Tea - The Great Room/The Resort at Pelican Hill

The Resort at Pelican Hill is a five star hotel located in Newport Beach, CA. On top of its nearly panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean, Pelican Hill also offers 18 holes Fazio-designed golf course, Forbes Five-Star rating spa, and exquisite dining selections. 

Weeks of hard working has drained out all my energies and the very last bits of my brain juice. It's time for a little girls' getaway, go somewhere pretty, nibble on beautifully crafted food, perhaps with live music playing in the background? And of course lots of chit-chat with the girl friends. 

The afternoon tea/high tea is offered at The Great Room, which is basically the lobby when first stepping into this grandiose resort. 

Our table was near the floor to ceiling windows, where we can enjoy a little bit of California sunshine and a snippet view of the ocean (if we stand up).

Afternoon tea menu -

The tea set basically comes in two selections: Tea Time Renaissance $50 and Luxury Tea $60. The only difference is that the Luxury Tea also includes a glass of sparkling wine. 

Click on the picture to enlarge the view.

To help us undecisive girls, our waitress brought over a wooden box. From there you'll find little bottles with all the tea leaves assortments offered on the menu. You can open up the lid and smell the aroma before making a choice.  

We chose organic green, organic Assam, and vanilla rooibos. 

The weather was nice, so we walked outside and checked out the view before the high tea tiers are served.

View on the left, you can also see a part of the ocean view golf course here. What a life -

View on the right -

Outside patio -

View from the patio area -

Other restaurants here at the Pelican Hill have even better view of the ocean, such as the Italian fare Andrea and California inspired cuisine Pelican Grill. If you don't feel like having girly girly high tea, maybe give these restaurants a try instead. Not sure about the flavors but at least the view is going to be breathtaking.

Our teas are here. The teapot covers help to keep the tea warm. There are also cute little strainers that can be set on top of the tea cups. So the leaves can be filtered through when pouring out the tea -

All sorts of sugar and honey for the tea, if desired -

Our photogenic high tea set -

The first/very top tier comes with savory items, second/middle tier comes with English tea cakes and chef's selection of tea pastries, and the bottom tier comes with freshly baked scones.

Details of the items from the first tier: smoked salmon and black caviar on squaw, cucumber with tomato marmalade on white bread, prosciutto ham and Persian melon balls on white bread, and egg salad with tomato concassé. 

Squaw is a type of bread made with rye and molasses. Tomato concassé basically means diced tomatoes.

Some of the items from the second tier including berries tarts, pistachio pastries, and coffee cakes -

The pistachio one has a strong but pleasant nutty aroma, goes especially well with my organic green tea. 

Also macaroons and lemon cakes -

My favorite is always the scones. The Great Room also did a good job on these buttery scones, on par with the Tea Lounge from Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas, and the well known scones from Smith & Hsu in Taiwan -

These scones are served with Devonshire cream, lemon curd, and berries preserves. 

Our quality girls' time was further enhanced with a harpist playing lovely music in the background -

Final bill for three -

Kind of pricey but to me, it's definitely worth it. Great service, good food, and absolutely elegant and relaxing environment, that's exactly what I needed and couldn't ask for more.


Cindy's rating: 7


Other afternoon tea places in southern California:
New hype in Los Angeles - not cronut knockoffs, but real mille crepes from Lady M
Quality high tea time - Boxwood Cafe at The London by Gordon Ramsay


The Resort at Pelican Hill - The Great Room
22701 South Pelican Hill Road
Newport Coast, CA 92657
(855) 315-8214
http://www.pelicanhill.com/dining/great-room/

*Afternoon tea is only available Friday through Sunday from 2 p.m. to late afternoon

*Reservation for the afternoon tea is highly recommended so the pastry chef can prepare the freshest sweet and savory treats on the day of reservation

*Live music available Thursday through Friday at various time slots; call in for the exact schedule if needed

Plum Tomatoes and Two Cheeses Blend Tarts Using Puff Pastry Sheet

Soon I'll be off to Taiwan for one or two months. As a result, finishing whatever is left in the fridge becomes my major task in the kitchen. There was an open box of frozen pastry sheet, seems like it has been sitting there for quite some time. Finishing up the whole box at once might be an daunting task, not mentioning the buttery calories hiding in between the flaky (but oh so delicious) layers. 

Good thing I started the fridge cleaning process early on. Let me use one puff pastry sheet for a savory tart recipe first, and finish off the other once I managed to burn off these oh so delicious calories. 

Plum tomatoes and two cheeses blend tarts -

Ingredient (makes two tarts):

• 1 sheet of puff pastry sheet 
• 2 ripe plum tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups of Cheddar cheese (I used 4 Cheddar cheese blend)
• 1 cup of whole milk ricotta cheese
• 1 large egg
• 1 sprig of basil
• Some salt
• Some freshly ground black pepper
• Some Tabasco sauce (optional)

How?

To defrost the frozen puff pastry sheet, I took out one sheet from the box and wrapped in clear foil. The sheet was kept in the fridge section and slowly defrosted overnight. There are alo other defrosting instructions provided on the box. 

Take out the defrosted puff pastry sheet and cover with a damp kitchen towel to prevent from drying. 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Mix the ricotta and Cheddar cheese together. The Cheddar blends I used were sharp Wisconsin, Sharp New York, sharp Vermont, and mild California. Chop the basil leaves for sprinkling over the tarts later on. Beat one egg as an easy egg wash. Slice the tomatoes.

Dust the working surface with some flour if planning to roll out the pastry sheet there. Otherwise it might be easier to just line the baking sheet with parchment paper and work on the sheet instead.

Open up the pastry sheet and press to seal any cracks. You can slightly wet the fingers with water before sealing the cracks if the pastry has dried up. Cut the pastry sheet in half to get two shorter but wider rectangles.

I also cut a short line on the corners so the sides can be folded in easier, but it's not necessary.  

Evenly spread the cheese mix onto the center of the pastry sheets and top with tomato slices. Sprinkle some salt and pepper. Fold in the sides, about half inch and press the edges with a fork. Brush the pastry surface with egg wash.

I was looking for beautifully baked edges with the patterns pressed with a fork. However, apparently I was too generous on the amount of cheese used so it overflowed and covered the marks. Well, if you asked me to do it all over again, my love for cheeses might still led me with oozing goodies everywhere, which I assume is not a bad thing.

Into the oven for 20 minutes. Once ready, transfer the tarts to the serving plate/s. Slightly torch the surface for a touch of smoky aroma. Sprinkle some chopped basil and serve with Tabasco sauce if desired. 

The week after, I baked the other pastry sheet with the same amount of cheese blend but without the tomatoes. The shape was different. The two rectangle sheets were folded together creating a pocket. I ran the knife on the top, making a few thin openings to let the air escape during the baking process. 

The tart, or the cheese pocket was finished off with a scoop of cookie crunch gelato and drizzled in dark chocolate sauce. One fine sweet and savory combo.