​Hopetoun Tea Rooms @Collins Street, Melbourne

So we past by The Block Arcade during our walking tour on our first day in Melbourne and the beautiful display of cakes and tarts, as well as the classic decor of an English tea room at Hopetoun Tea Rooms wowed us (not to mention the snaking queue outside the cafe)!

So we made a secret pact to come back here for it’s popular 3-tier High Tea (everyday from 10am-2:30pm). But when we found out that the High Tea was fully booked months ago (and also the prohibitive price of A$50 per person), we decided we would just come back for breakfast since we stayed very near.

And so here we are today, early in the morning at 9am, the 3rd customers of the day at the tea room! 🙂

The girls had Scones (A$7) and shared a Yuzu, Blood Orange, Lemongrass Tart (A$10.50), while hubby had a Hopetoun Tea Rooms Big Breakfast (A$20).

Teas, Scones and a Hopetoun Tea Rooms Big Breakfast

Yuzu, Blood Orange, Lemongrass Tart

Each scone set came with 2 freshly baked scones and Hank’s triple berry jam and double cream. The warmed scones were deliciously soft! The sausage and mushrooms of the Big Breakfast were delicious, but the scrambled eggs were disappointingly dry despite looking runny on surface.

Tea wise, we had Buddha’s Finger (Oolong) (A$6.80), Darjeeling (A$6), Snow White (White Tea) (A$6.80), and What A Pear (Green Tea) (A$6.50). They were all very weak in strength.

We had read somewhere that this place did not seem to welcome Asians. While some of the staff were certainly more friendly (i.e. smiling and patient) towards the Caucasians, we were not treated rudely either.

Note: If you only want to try the original scones and cakes or tarts on display, come for breakfast where there were absolutely no queue, while the queue in the afternoon was horrendously long. If you wish to try the afternoon tea set (A$50 per pax), you need to make reservations online weeks months in advance.