Located at: 168 Maya Avenue, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka

Visited on: 14th February, 2023

The Four Leafed Clover’s social media channels had, rather interestingly, recently posted about a high tea platter for two. Priced at LKR 4,900 and served daily from 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm, it looked well-presented and worth a try.

The platter comprised of eight items in total.

Savouries

. Tomato and lettuce sandwiches

. Chicken sliders

. Ham and apricot open-faced sandwiches

. Seafood mini-pizzas

. Fish patties

. Mutton rolls

Sweets

. Blueberry butter cake

. Chocolate brownie

(The image in their Instagram post shows three sweet items although the platter offered two.)

The platter comes with hot tea or coffee, although they were kind enough to serve me an iced coffee on request – as shown in their Instagram post.

My top pick of the savouries was the ham and apricot open sandwich. It tasted bright and fresh, with the meatiness of the ham, the sweetness of the apricot and the crunch of the lettuce on the toasted bread complementing one another well. The chicken sliders were good, too, with a chicken salad-style filling. The sandwiches were somewhat ordinary though – pretty much your everyday homemade sandwiches with tomato, lettuce and a cheesy dressing. They made the high tea platter feel bread-heavy. While there was no particular need for a dip for the items on this particular layer, the dip provided was great in terms of both taste and texture – not too sweet or spicy, and just the right viscosity. Definitely a hit.

The other savoury platter on the stand contained warm items. It was good to see that the seafood mini-pizza had a thin crust rather than a thick one. However, while there was a substantial amount of topping, it was short of seasoning and could perhaps have used a bit of a cheesy or tomato or pesto sauce. Consequently, this platter was where the aforementioned dip was handier – that is, if you prefer something different from the ketchup that they served. The fillings of both the mutton rolls and the fish patties tasted good, but the roll still had some oil from its time in the fryer, and the dough of the patties was too thick for my liking.

The sweet layer was lacklustre, with the chocolate brownie being particularly disappointing. Ironically, one could barely taste the chocolate in it, and parts of it had a bit of a savoury tinge. Texture-wise, too, it wasn’t great. The butter cake was quite ordinary in presentation, but at least made up for this in part with its soft texture. The jam-y blueberries in between were a good pop of tangy sweetness, but the blueberry sauce drizzled on top was a bit too much on some pieces, when compared to others. Overall, there was much room for improvement with the sweet layer – visually and as a culinary experience.

On a separate note – while TFLC is essentially a bistro-pub and is known for its mural-rich, dim-lit green interior, perhaps a brighter, better lit ambience would be a more apt backdrop when offering something like afternoon high tea to patrons. Just some food for thought.

Yummy Rating: 3.5 / 5.0