Afternoon Tea At Carcosa Seri Negara / カルコサ・セリ・ネガラのアフタヌーンティー

The Place Where We Were Most Excited To Visit, Carcosa Seri Negara Which Originally Was Governor's Residence

今回、一番期待していたカルコサ・セリ・ネガラでアフタヌーンティー

When we booked the trip to Malaysia, we started thinking what to do and we came up with an idea to try some afternoon teas and we saw a lot of reviews of Carcosa Seri Negara.

It's currently owned by the Malaysian Government and the hotel consists of two colonial mansions; one called Carcosa, and the other one Seri Negara.

Both Carcosa and Seri Negara, the later which means "beautiful country" in Malay, were originally governor's residence but a little bit different use.

Carcosa was built in 1896-1897 for Ang W.H the first British High Commissioners in Malaya of Resident-General of the Federated Malay at that time and opened as a hotel in 1989, when it was combined with Seri Negara.

On the other hand, Seri Negar was opened in 1913 as the official guest house of Governor of the Straits Settlement and later it's known as King's House.

In 1989, both mansions merged and renamed Seri Negara in 1989.

We didn't know much about the history but like I wrote first, it's supposed to be one of the best afternoon teas in Malay peninsula.

My husband called the hotel to book afternoon tea about a month ahead not to miss the chance to experience the high tea.

We took a cab from KL Bird Park and this hotel is located on a hill and in the suburbs.

*First we thought we could walk as the Google map showed it's really close each other but a staff at the taxi counter said no way.

To go into the hotel, you need to go through a big and strong gate where security guards sitting in a guard house.

This made me think it's somewhere special and not everyone can come in and go freely since at that time I didn't know it's owned by the government yet.

After the security gate, the taxi went up more hill and then, finally we're at the front.

It's a massive white colonial architecture.

This is the way we came in a cab.

You can see the little guard house on the right under the tree.

We booked at 3PM but we got there early, and they allowed us to see around at the first floor.

This is the lobby, I think, because most of the people came for afternoon tea first went through this space.

The photo below is the front door taken from the lobby above.

This is like a step after the front door.

The entrance, the lobby, and the little space were really elegant.

Stairs to go up, which we weren't able to go but looked really nice and classic.

I heard they have weddings at this hotel and I imagined this place could create a really great atmosphere for photos.

By the chairs, there's a plate "Trip Adviser 2013 Winner."

While we're taking this photos, we started wondering why they look so high-placed-looking persons in suites with medals and traditional hats, so it was the time my husband started searching what this hotel was meant for.

This is the hallway where the photos above are located on the left wall.

We still had time to wait, so we went back to the chairs and soon after, a waiter came and asked our reservation name.

My husband said his last name but it seemed there's no name under his name.

I started worrying about the afternoon tea, which we'd booked one month before.

And the waiter started naming to check if there's anything similar to his name.

First name the waiter mentioned was my husband's first name so all of us realized the reservation was under his first name and I was so relieved. Phew.

We're guided to the tea room.

The room has a lot of windows and it brightened up the room.

The curtains had red/pink rose patterns over white textile.

We sat one of the low tables with red cushion chairs.

And the table was already set.

I saw rose patterns on the tea up and saucer.

This is the tea menu.

This is the afternoon tea menu.
There're two types of afternoon tea, one was English afternoon tea and the other one was Malaysian.
However, the Malaysian afternoon tea set is only available on Saturdays and Sundays, besides we're not interested in so we chose English afternoon tea set.

Here come my tea.
I chose Jasmine Gold.

A curious thing I noticed here was that they don't change the tea strainer.
Yes, they use the same tea strainer to pour teas even though the tea leaves are different. 
So weird.... 
FYI, my husband chose strawberry fields, so I didn't think jasmine and strawberry would go well together and hoped the tea would taste fine.

High tea stand was brought to us but no explanation of the afternoon tea set/finger foods.
But when we ordered, the menu was taken away so we had to guess what these were.

Also a waiter told us that the scones would be served later.

Detailed photos from the top to the bottom.

Sandwiches

Pastries

When we started eating, another waiter came and poured hot water into tea pot so that the tea wouldn't get too strong.

Each finger food's photos.
Cucumber Cheese Sandwich with White Bread

Thought it used mayo, the cheese was making the mayo flavor less so I could even enjoy this thin sliced cucumber sandwich.


Croissant Salmon Sandwich

This mini croissant was so crispy.
Instead of mayo, cream cheese was used and it added saltiness to this sandwich.
A slice of salmon, lettuce, and tomato (the other side) were good together.
I think the freshness of the sliced tomato was helpful to make the rich salmon light.

Whole-meal Egg Sandwich

Egg sandwich always has strong mayo flavor so I had a bite but the rest, it's in my husband's stomach.


Fruit Cake

Fruits and nuts were used in the cake.


Praline

There's soft and sweet ganache inside.
Not to drop the crushed almonds were hard.


Macadamia Cream

Decorated with a piece of macadamia on the top and the cream in the glass was smooth, fine, and sweet.


Carrot Cake

Frosting on the top was really thick and hard to cut with fork, but it was also tasty.
And as you can see, there's an edible little carrot made from marzipan (mix of almond powder and sugar).

Cream Brulee

This is a mini cream brulee.
The surface was caramelized and crispy, but one big difference from other cream brulee I've had was that this cream brulee didn't contain vanilla beans so that I saw no black spots inside.
Yet it tasted just fine, but without vanilla flavor, it was like custard pudding without caramel at the bottom and with crispy sugar on the top.


Chocolate Fudge Cake

Sweet chocolate cake had "Carcosa Seri Negara Kuala Lumpur" plate on it.

It was a moist chocolate cake.

When we're all done with the foods, they brought a set of jam and clotted cream.

It was clotted cream and strawberry jam with flesh, yes, the ordinary combination.

One thing which was different was the clotted cream was soft and not thick like the ones we had in Tokyo and New York.

Then, a waiter with a big bowl of scones came to us.

I'm not sure if they checked us on or we're eating too fast though.

On the menu, it says "scones" so I thought both raisin and plain scones were served.

However, the waiter asked me which one I wanted so I asked him how many I could get.

Then he loudly said with a cranky voice, "Just one!" which was unexpected for both being yelled and also for getting just one.

Why did they write "scones" with plural form in the menu then?

So we decided to get one plain and one raisin so that we could share.

Raisin Scone

Plain Scone

When I first saw them, I was skeptical about them.

The scones we're used to seeing don't look like these.

The way it rose was similar to muffins.

Neither of them had butter flavor or was fragile like scones.

So I was guessing they mixed the dough too much so that it became like muffin or pancake dough.

To have the fragile and easy-to-crumble texture requires least mixed dough, not finely mixed together one.

So, to me, it was a muffin made with pancake dough baked in a oven having crispy crust.

With the loose clotted cream and jam, looked like a cup cake decorated with whipped cream.

My favorite one would be the chocolate cake or the carrot cake.

As the low tables with low sofa chairs would have been able to see well from the waiters, they frequently came to the table and poured hot water into the pot and also poured tea into cups.

Also there're a regular tables with chairs and one big group of female was having afternoon tea party or catch up like fiesta; talking and laughing, taking photos, going outside and coming back inside, etc.

I was maybe too excited before by reading good reviews to be honest.
The location was quiet and surrounded by trees, and a kind of isolated place, which made the hotel something special.
At least it was much cheaper than Japan, so it wasn't a big deal.

<Memo>

You can only get to choose 1 tea leaf.

You can get only one scone, unless the person who served was new.

Reservation recommended, but they seem to take reservations only via phone.

Carcosa Seri Negara / カルコサ・セリ・ネガラ

Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur 50480, Malaysia

Afternoon tea hour: 3PM -6PM.

75RM + 10% of Service Charge + 6% of Government Tax = 87RM

So it was about 2,610 JPY (= 1RM / 30JPY)