Food Review: Axis Bar and Lounge at Mandarin Oriental Singapore | One of the best Afternoon Tea experiences in Singapore

Posted on May 30, 2016 by theRantingPanda in Food

The Place Located in Mandarin Oriental Singapore, Axis Bar and Lounge is the kind of venue I see myself lazing at on a lazy weekend afternoon. The ambience is cosy with comfortable sofa seats, where you get to enjoy a good view of Singapore’s skyline. If Afternoon Tea or high tea sessions have always been your favourite pastime, you need to give it a try here at Axis Bar and Lounge.

*Axis Bar and Lounge has been renamed into MO Bar.

The Food Five-course Afternoon Tea set, you heard it right. The offerings on the course Afternoon Tea set menu is easily one of the most diverse I have tried in Singapore so far. Mandarin Oriental Singapore has a partnership with TWG tea, hence the Afternoon Tea set here includes a choice of a TWG tea flavour to complete our high tea experience. Before we got to that, we also had the chance to try the exclusive Mandarin Oriental, Singapore Tea blend, which is a unique green tea blend featuring strong Asian flavours, quite like a mix of citrus-infused fragrances and some spicy and minty notes.

We started with a palate cleansing chilled jelly starter, followed by some savoury bites. The Afternoon Tea theme for the month of June is berries, where you can find berries of various forms being infused into the pastries and desserts.

Can I say that Axis Bar and Lounge has some of the best savoury bites? Asparagus, lime and crab crème brulee, Grilled squash with strawberry ricotta and balsamic glaze and Poached lobster with cilantro aioli – this savoury trio of salads and canapés are all bite size, but these were all outstanding on its own.

Next up was some sandwiches and wraps, like the Duck rillettes and foie gras with raspberry jam, Prosciutto and melon with arugula and aged balsamic, Truffle scented egg and chives sandwich and Semi-dried tomato cream cheese with caper berries.

Another of my favourites are the homemade scones. We had the Caramel maple walnut scone and Mixed berries rosella scone. The scone here has the perfect crisp texture with a nice buttery flavour, best to have it with some of the accompaniments – clotted cream, fruit preserve and lemon curd.

Scones aside, we were also served some Cornish lamb puff and Farm butternut and cranberry pie.

If you were wondering where is the ubiquitous three-tier Afternoon tea set, it is served at the end of the course to showcase the desserts, mainly made up miniature tarts and cakes.

Kudos to the pastry team for presenting such a colourful presentation of all the items, especially the desserts. I was literally on sugar high even before I started on these sweet treats, so beautiful. On display are the Classic blueberry soufflé roulade, Blackberry yogurt mousse, Pistachio raspberry macaroon, Lychee strawberry lemon pound cake, Summer pudding yogurt Chantilly and Cherry confit mille-feuille.

Rants We thought quite hard about what to rant about this, and even thought of eliminating this column for this article. But decided to rant that, there’s really nothing much to rant about the afternoon tea at Mandarin Oriental’s Axis Bar. Really.

Will I Return Again? I don’t usually do Afternoon teas because I am less of a sweet tooth, where desserts usually take up half or more of the spread. The set here at Axis Bar and Lounge has the right mix of offerings, from savoury bites to desserts, with every item prepared delicately. This is now one of my favourite and I will daresay the top five Afternoon tea experience for me in Singapore.

The Afternoon Tea at Axis Bar and Lounge is priced at SGD 42 per person, SGD 80 per stand for two guests.