I will probably not be back at Salamander DC for afternoon tea after the ridiculous experience I had, but I might still book the hotel for its excellent location. It happened like this:
I noticed that Salamander DC, my scheduled hotel in Washington, D. C., offers Afternoon Tea in their lounge. I would be in time for the very last day of Fall Afternoon Tea in 2024. The cost was US$95.00 per guest excluding tax and gratuity.
I immediately ran into a potential problem: I wanted to possibly apply $100 of hotel experience credit (which I received for booking through my Capital One portal and which my brother received for booking through his Amex portal) to the afternoon tea. The hotel’s website took me to the Resy site, which wanted me to input a credit card.
In such situations, it is best to call the hotel. I did not get through on Sunday at about 4:30 or Monday at 11 AM, but I managed to get a human on Tuesday at noon. She let me know that I could not make a reservation through the hotel and that I should use the Resy website. She told me that I would only be billed by Resy if I did not show up. If I did show up for the appointment, I would direct them to my room number when given the bill.
I already had a Resy account from some previous reservation— and they recorded my credit card, which I usually decline for sites to do. Anyway, I made my booking for 1 PM on a Sunday. On Friday, I got a text reminding me of my booking time but not the day, so Resy’s text system needs some refining. I could have thought they meant Friday since they did not specify!
At 12:57-ish, I walked up. The lounge receptionist was very friendly. She took me to a sunny table where there was a lot of sun on the couch side. I told her I would sit in the armchair. She was surprised but started rotating the setting. I explained that there was too much sun on the other side. She told me she could lower the shades, so I told her I would sit on the couch side.
Although Resy wanted me to enter information about dietary restrictions, the Lounge apparently received none of the information about no alcohol or the allergies. In the Salamander DC lounge, I declined the wine. I was offered and accepted sparkling apple cider as a substitute. I decided not to bother mentioning my allergy to raspberry, which the menu said would accompany the scones, and to just see what appeared.
The cage-shape curate was arranged as scone(s) on the bottom, savory in the middle, and sweet on top.
Tea
The server let me know that Earl Grey and Chamomile were the most popular teas. I would also be allowed to choose Lychee Noir, a sweet black tea that was not written on the menu. I decided on Lychee Noir.
The tea came in a glass tea pot, which means that one can look inside. I find glass does have a neat modern look, but the main benefit is when I want to stare at pretty blooming teas. This particular pot used holes of varying sizes in metal.
In terms of practicality, this sort of teapot contributes to a lot of dregs in the teacup. I had a bit of floating leaf in my teacup after the second pour. By my last cup of Lychee Noir, I had to refill my teacup whenever there was ~2 cm of tea left to avoid drinking the dregs.
I feel that they used too many tea leaves for the tea pot size. I needed a refill whenever the pot was down to 1/4 full to avoid drinking extremely dark tea.
Refill time is always important. I expect the server at a nice hotel like an Intercontinental— or this Salamander DC— to notice quickly, even if they do not return quickly. The first hot water refill took 9 minutes for a server to notice it was needed, but she came back out promptly with the refilled pot. The second refill request was noticed in 2 minutes and the third in 3 minutes, which I think is very quick. The fourth refill was a much longer story I will get into later.
In terms of tea quality, I would consider it average-fresh. Unexceptional, but not bad.
Bottom Plate: Scones
I was hesitant to cut the scones horizontally, because it looked like they might be something like marshmallow sandwiches. After cutting vertically a few times and hitting no marshmallows, I realized that was not an issue. There was a prominent marshmallow placed at the one point of each scone, and that was it.
Nibbling from the corner, the S’mores Scone initially tasted like a chocolate chip cookie. The flavor mixed better past the edge and was quite tolerable once lemon curd and cream were added. The cream was unexceptional. I tasted a small bit of the brown sugar raspberry jam out of curiosity and think that was actually very good in terms of consistency and flavour. Unfortunately, I am allergic to raspberries, so I did not use it on my scone. That may have impacted my overall perception of the scones as very average. I can see these scones as being very good with the jam.
Middle Plate: Savory Bites
The savory plate held four things with varying strength of flavour.
The Lychee Noir tea, having so many leaves steeping at once, was too strong for the bland cucumber sandwich. Getting bites with tangerine helped the flavour.
The salmon savory was nicely complex even without the fruit. The mandarin added a little extra, but I would have been okay without it.
The sandwich was a sandwich. It did not taste exceptionally good or bad. It just felt meaty.
The egg salad part of that savory bite tasted good, but the bread was very unexceptional. The bacon-meat helped it get more flavor. The design, a shallow cut in the bread for the egg salad, made this savory item annoying to eat. I had to bite sideways and the egg salad kept getting squeezed out.
Pause! What Happened at the 4th Teapot Refill?
Someone who looked like kitchen staff came out to take the curate at 2:17. (I think they were running out of curates. The lounge receptionist came by for the afternoon tea menu earlier and mentioned she had run out.) I was finishing up the middle plate at the time, and the cook(?) placed the yet untouched top plate on the table.
I signaled for a refill immediately after the cook(?) left. In the meantime, I finished the middle plate and what remained in my teacup. Then, after waiting a little, I left for restroom.
When I returned at 2:29, the teapot was gone. Wonderful! I would surely get tea soon and could start on the sweet plate.
Or so I thought.
At 2:34, the initial server came by and asked if I wanted the check. I, very surprised by this query and rather annoyed that I had signaled for a refill 17 minutes ago and lost my teapot only to get such a silly question, answered indignantly, “No, I want my teapot back!” My teapot left and never returned! I was not able to start on the sweet bites because they never gave me back my teapot! Were they trying to hurry me out by just not giving me tea?
The server unfortunately could not hear me well or did not understand. He said, “I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I want my teapot back,” I repeated slower, gesturing at where the teapot had been.
The exchange got the attention of two other staff in the area. The three of them then basically said that they would have a new tea out soon and offered me champagne in the meantime. I declined, and they instead gave me another glass of sparkling cider. They did kindly let me pick a new tea, and I went with chamomile. (If it was the same teapot shape with new leaves, I was not interested in a renewed dose of caffeine from new leaves and dealing with more black tea dregs. I would rather drink down flower bits. And that is what did end up happening.)
The tea came out, and I could finally continue my afternoon tea.
Top Plate: Sweet Bites
Since a chef or someone had taken away the curate, I just swapped my middle plate with this on the table. Losing the curate made it feel less like an afternoon tea and more like small plates. Oh, well. Sometimes, places plan poorly.
The puff was too big to be eaten in one bite and the cream squeezed out every time I took a small bite.
The almond cake was simple.
There as no spoon for the coffee mess in a glass, but the teacup stirring spoon fit inside. It was also rather melted, probably from the hot sun that had been shining down. Coffee is not my flavor, but I got through it by taking sips of my complimentary second glass of sparkling cider. I probably would have skipped eating more than a few bites of this had I not gotten the second glass of sparkling cider. This sweet bite might have been good at one point, but it was too melted to tell.
The Hazelnut Truffle Cookie was the best item on the plate. It was flavorful, pretty, and not melted. The caramel was very soft, though, and did drip.
The End of an Unfortunate Afternoon Tea
While I have always experienced slower hot water refills in North America vs Asia, I have never experienced a situation where they literally take the teapot away, don’t offer to return it, and jump straight to offering the check when they finally do come over. And all that while there are signs that I am not ready for the check.
And this happened at a supposed 5-star hotel.
Discovering the kicker of the rather melted sweet bite after they remedied the missing teapot situation made the overall experience still end on a bad note.
One gets the impression that Salamander DC does afternoon tea as a “Oh, we can make money this way!” instead of actually thinking through how afternoon tea should work. There were numerous little things in addition to the big problem of them taking away the teapot for so long:
- Why did they seat me in such an uncomfortable hot and sunny spot? And the lady at the front made it seem that most people sit on the sunnier side, so I thought it would not be an issue for…
- Why would they serve meltable food where the sun can shine down and melt them in that sunny spot? The traditional way to go through the curate is from the bottom to top, so Salamander DC has to expect some of their guests are definitely going to do that. The server did not warn me that one of the sweet bites would have to be eaten immediately given that very sunny spot and the meringue in the sweet bite.
- Why would they serve tea in that sort of teapot and force the guests to deal with the resulting dregs building up? A tea strainer, offered cup swaps, or another cup/bowl to dump the dregs into would have helped to solve this problem. Alternatively, filter the leaves more to avoid broken leaves if you must use that kind of teapot.
- Why did they choose a wide, flat-bottomed teacup given the issue with dregs? It means every time the cup is tipped to drink from, a lot of tea remains start moving around. Like how I needed refills at 1/4 full for the teapot, I had to refill my teacup whenever the water was slightly above the tea dregs.
- Why would they use that many tea leaves in such a small pot? While it means less time needed to steep for a stronger flavor, it forced me to have to pace the tea a certain way to avoid getting extremely heavy tea— especially given I had already chosen a black tea.
- How do they expect me to eat with no tea at an “afternoon tea”? It is advertized as an “Afternoon Tea”, so I expect to drink tea while eating the food on the curate.
- Why would they ask first I want the check when I have been waiting 17 minutes for a refill and they know I have needed 3 hot water refills already? And while they can see I am waiting with a full plate in front of me? It is reasonable to ask if I want the check, but it is unreasonable to not offer me the teapot back until after I complain that it never returned.
- Why did they not give an appropriately sized spoon for the Espresso Martini Eton Mess, which also happens to be the item that partially melted? They were unprepared to serve their chosen menu properly.
I can overlook them reclaiming the curate during my meal, though I do think the staff should have apologized for taking it early instead of just asking if I was done with it and then walking off with it. It does change the experience to not have the plates on the curate.
They tried to make up for the ridiculous teapot-running-away event by offering me a second glass of champagne and letting me choose a different tea— and I appreciate that— but the teapot disappearing followed by me being offered the check should not have happened. This was the last day of their month of “Fall Afternoon Tea”, so it seems silly that some of the issues I had came up at all, such as the melted dessert and that same dessert not being served with an appropriately sized spoon.
All of these things together, but mainly the teapot completely disappearing followed by me being offered the check when they finally came around, made for a decidedly annoying afternoon tea. Had somebody else warned me that Salamander DC has such an unusual afternoon tea, I could have saved 2 hours and US$120 on this frustrating afternoon tea experience.
For one other detail, I left the lounge at ~3 PM. They had not added my lounge afternoon tea bill (which I billed to the room) to the final check-out bill when we checked out at ~3:45 PM. That makes Salamander DC a bit slower than some other places I have been at.
