Alley on 25 High Tea

December is always a month of constant celebration and feasting as we celebrate the end of the year and for believers, the birth of Christ. Regardless, it is always a happy season and all hotels or restaurants will come out with their special seasonal menus to offer to the crowd

Located within Andaz Singapore near Bugis, the Christmas high tea was pretty affordable at less than SGD50 per pax. Hence, I made a booking since it was very hard to get available slots with the popular venues. ( Note, this review is based on my visit in 2021)

Alley on 25 is located on the same floor as the main hotel lobby so it can get quite confusing once you arrive on the 25th floor

Alley on 25 is a dining space consisting of 5 restaurants with different concepts. The one I was led to is the Icehaus which is a healthy concept dining establishment featuring do-it-yourself salads with various superfoods or seafood toppings depending on the lunch or dinner options. With a mix of high tables and low tables, the space is a modern contemporary concept with spacious spacing between tables

I liked the little effort put into decorating each table with a Christmas plant which is perfect with the bright yellow plates and cups. The table I had was facing the Swimming pool

I was first served a mushroom soup with truffle which has a very strong truffle smell but yet light on the truffle flavour. The mushroom soup consistency was quite thin and not creamy enough

For the savoury options, we had smoked salmon on a rice cracker biscuit, crab salad on mashed pea, foie gras on biscotti and mushroom ragout tart. In terms of taste, the bite-sized savoury snacks were ok but nothing too memorable. The foie gras was smooth and creamy but I would like it to be more pan-fried for a charred texture

For sweets, we were served a chocolate black forest cake, scones, light lemon chiffon cake, chocolates and a whipped creamed cheese dessert. The overall texture of the cakes and scones is too dry and crumbly and somewhat more on the sweet side

We also had vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and speculoos toppings which was quite nice as the ice cream consistency was smooth and milky and the speculoos gave it just the good amount of sweetness while the sprinkles added the Christmas colours

Overall, the experience was quite underwhelming for a Christmas high tea where it would be nice if the items were served in nice tiers instead of casually placed on plates like buffet-styled plating. The quality of the food is pretty general only although the price is not all that low. In terms of decorations, the restaurant was quite bare and there was hardly much of a Christmas feel to it. Do note that the offerings could have changed since I visited in 2021

Address: 5 Fraser St, Level 25, Singapore 189354

Opening hours: 7 am to 10 .30 pm