High tea at the Piccolo Mondo,Michelangelo Hotel. Sandton.

My wife decided to treat us to High Tea at the Piccolo Mondo,

in the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton Johannesburg.

The restaurant is bright and airy,

unfortunately it has a view out over Nelson Mandela Square,

which is currently undergoing a face-lift.

Not the greatest vista by any stretch of the imagination.

The wait staff were attentive…when we could attract their attention.

I have a feeling that we arrived just before or during a shift change,

as we were seated by a waitress whom we never saw again

With these “buffet-style” meals, you HAVE to pace yourself.

This is my wife’s idea of pacing…

The scones were delicious, if a little light on the jam

and heavy on the cream.

It seemed to us that when these ran out they were not replaced.

I also noticed this with some of the savoury snacks.

For the price that guests are paying,

I would expect these to be refilled constantly.

High Tea runs from 14h00-17h00,

surely eats could be replaced until 16h30?

I did not try these chicken a cheese mini quiches,

but I was reliably informed (by my wife)

that they were very tasty

I did not try any of these…

Nor these…

Or this…

But these were delicious

As were the mini bagels with smoked salmon.

Big Yum for me

I was also happy to see common-or-garden cheese and tomato sarmies

on the menu.

Also on the plate, chicken mayo and egg mayo.

More tasty wraps…

This time with a sweet chili sauce

I did try the cheese and biscuits.

Why?

Because they were there.

It would have been helpful if the cheese was labelled.

There were mini lemon meringue tartlets on offer.

By the time I wanted to try one, they were all gone.

And not replaced.

The table next to us was celebrating a birthday.

Well not the table actually,

but one of the women that was seated there.

They had gone to collect some food when I took this.

Not the best Creme Brulee by any standard.

The top did not “crack” when I tapped it with a spoon

And to make it “different” they had added jam as the base.

Most dissapointing

This statue, by Naomi Jacobson is called

“Contessa”.

Is it coincidental that surrounded by restaurants,

she has no stomach?

There was fresh fruit salad kebabs,

but everyone seemed intent on devouring the more decadent fare

This was as close as we got to fresh fruit.

My wife and her strawberry dipped in chocolate

More chocolate than you could shake a stick at.

Luckily(or unluckily) for me, I do not eat chocolate,

so these did not tempt me at all…

Was it worth the money, the jury is still out on that one.

It was a treat though and we did enjoy our time there.
We ended off the afternoon with a walk through the Cathedral of Shopping,
Sandton City…
Looking at how busy the stores were,
you would believe that South Africans(well some of them)
have no financial problems at all.
In our wanderings we found Sennheiser headphones at R500000.00,
A Hastens bed at R1m
and a curved Samsung TV for R160000.00