Revisiting Dempsey : A Vintage Tea Party

16th March 2012. Written by Xin Li.
I have read about Barracks long time ago…..it was a time when food blogging was relatively new and foodies like us drool on those tantalizing images by the pioneers. Our first visit to Dempsey was during Restaurant Week at Zento when Restaurant Week first began but the costly experience did little to bring us back until a few weeks ago.

It was House@Dempsey's Vintage Tea Party (22.00+ SGD) that finally convinced us for a revisit. Given the location and the desire to see this greenhouse-like café since 3-4 years ago, we finally went back to House@Dempsey to celebrate our birthdays (Yew Ann: 15th Feb, Vinleon: 14th Feb, Xin Li: 29th Feb)

The ambience was excellent (not to mention the weather was great too with plenty of sunlight). I could see a lot of effort has been put into the setting up the décor the high tea, from choice of plates, books to the flowers. It was simply Gorgeous.

And it is also one of the few places where the price match up with the service, the waiters were very helpful in trying to get us a table despite not making a reservation beforehand and plates were being changed and cleared without prompting.

The atmosphere was rather relaxed too with oldies being played in the background, it is the perfect garden afternoon tea venue.

Food wise, I wasn’t expecting much since it was a buffet. It was a pity that there were no real scones available except for these rock-hard biscuit ‘scones’.

There is a variety of bread to choose from and I enjoyed the dips and spread a lot, it is not your usual marmalade, butter and preserves but rather Thai Style Chicken, Tuna and Truffled Mushrooms. That more than compensated for the lack of scones.

The pizzas were probably the better tasting items on the buffet line. These are offerings from Skinny Pizza with crust as thin as crisps. I enjoyed the Squid Pizza the most.

The Caprese pizza was too soggy when it was left on the buffet line for some time.

There is a small selection of Cheese available such as Brie and Blue Cheese together with fruits and Carrs crackers.

The sweets were generally okay. I enjoyed the Salted Caramel Cupcakes, the Panna Cotta as well as the Opera Cake.

There only two kinds of tea being offered for the high tea buffet, one was the flavorful Homemade Ginger Tea while the other is the decaffeinated Loungelizard (peach, apricot, caramel-infused rooibos and cinnamon)

Overall, I am alright with the food since it’s a buffet and at $22.00+ per pax in Dempsey with that fantastic ambience, I thought it was worth it (especially with the company ;) ).

Yew Ann aka Muthu.

Dempsey House
8D Dempsey Road
Singapore 249672
6475 7787