If the Palace of Versailles had a pastry chef with a cheese fetish and a sweet tooth, it might look something like high tea at The Charles. One of the CBD’s most extravagant high teas blends French flourish with unapologetic indulgence, all set inside one of the city’s most stunning dining rooms. Smoked salmon madeleines flirt with gougères, while a roving dessert trolley rolls by like a Parisian dream on wheels. Expect praline tarts, a rainbow of macarons and a Russian honey cake so delicately layered, we presume it took an architecture to construct it. It’s chic, it’s spectacular and it’s gloriously, deliciously unbothered by subtlety. 66 King St, Sydney | thecharles.sydney/

This is high tea in every sense: perched high on the 36th floor, the Shangri-La’s sky-high spread is a homage to both tradition and daring, where cucumber sandwiches and salmon blinis politely rub shoulders with roast pork bánh mì and wagyu mushroom pies. The view? All postcard. The sweets? A banoffee Paris-Brest that could double as a love letter to caramel. Bonus points for a vegan menu that’s not just lettuce in a tiara. Add a flute of bubbles and you’ve got yourself a tea party worthy of the gods. 176 Cumberland St, The Rocks | shangrilasydney.com.au/

Teaming up with dessert superhero Adriano Zumbo, the velvet-upholstered fever dream that is the QT hotel has spun high tea into a sugar-slicked art form. This is a world where a chicken katsu sando gets friendly with a punchy harissa-spiked prawn toast, leading the way into a parade of the mad patisserie scientist’s signature ‘Zumborons’. The chocolate cake has more layers than a Tolstoy novel, scones with jam and cream are reinvented into something entirely new, and the whole affair feels like falling down a very stylish, very delicious rabbit hole. 9 Market St, Sydney | qthotels.com/sydney-cbd/

The aptly-named Tea Room in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building serves the kind of teas that make you feel like a royal, offering Edwardian elegance with every sip of Earl Grey. Clink Royal Albert china in a dining room that feels like a costume drama set piece – all chandeliers, opulence and symmetry – while you indulge in scones that are as soft and warm as a grandmother’s hug, precisely sliced sandwiches and petit fours that practically hum ‘God Save the King. Then, once your teapot is empty and you’ve eaten like a duchess, you can step out of The Tea Room and shop like one. Queen Victoria Building, Level 3/455 George St, Sydney | thetearoom.com.au/

Burnt Orange is what happens when you combine high tea with spectacular views and a cottage-core fever dream. Set inside a 1920s mansion overlooking Middle Head, this tea service is all about thoughtful whimsy: think mango-flavoured macarons and choux buns stuffed with a yuzu cream that zings like a haiku. Sandwiches are elevated by superlative seasonal ingredients, like the autumnal potato and artichoke layered inside Japanese milk bread. Kids get their own menu, so you’ll fall victim to fewer scone thefts from small, jam-covered fingers while you sip your Champagne. 1108/1109 Middle Head Rd, Mosman | burntorange.com.au/

This high tea experience is all about generosity: of flavour, of portions and of spirit. Your tower arrives generously heaped with buttery croissants layered with smoked salmon, dainty finger sandwiches, warm scones with lashings of jam and cream and jewel-like petit fours that feel lifted from a pâtissier’s daydream. The tea selection is wide and thoughtfully curated, with everything from floral blends to bracing breakfast classics. But what sets it apart is the sense of ease: everything from parking to bottomless glasses of sparkling wine is included. No bill shock, no upgrades needed, just a complete, satisfying tea service in the heart of Sydney’s west. 30 Phillip St, Parramatta | panpacific.com/en/hotels-and-resorts/pr-parramatta.html

Like most of the details at this flashy hotel, high tea at the InterContinental is a lesson in precision. Every tart shell is crisp and impossibly thin, every sandwich symmetrical, every perfectly raised scone precisely the right shade of buttery beige. This is hospitality delivered with a magnifying glass. The CBD location leans business-class sleek, while Double Bay is where pearls and poodles gather for tea, treats and perhaps a cheeky glass of Dom. And if you’re the sort to prefer tea in your own botanical garden or penthouse suite, the hotel’s takeaway tower comes complete with all the classics. sydney.intercontinental.com


This fresh take on high tea offers a Malaysian-inspired experience that reimagines tradition through a Southeast Asian lens. Each tier on the heaving tower is an exploration of flavour and an exercise in creativity: delicately wrapped siu mai ingeniously stuffed with Hainanese chicken, crisp spring rolls filled with rich satay and chilli crab dumplings bursting with shellfish and spice. It’s a menu that feels both celebratory and comforting, accompanying beverages like matcha lattes, Chinese teas and signature cocktails. And yes, there are sweets, too: aromatic, textural desserts that bridge cultures and round out the meal with elegance. Chatswood Interchange, Level 3 K1 & K2, 436 Victoria Ave, Chatswood | hojiak.com.au/amah/

Tea tastes better with a view, and views don’t get more cinematic than those served up at Gunners Barracks. Perched on the edge of Mosman with a sweeping harbour panorama and flanked by native bushland, it feels more Jane Austen than army officer’s mess (which the sandstone building started life as). The terrace is the perfect setting for delicate cucumber sandwiches and scones that crumble like our diet willpower. Service is silky, the tea list encyclopaedic and the ambience timeless. Squint and you can almost imagine a colonial officer plotting an Instagram story featuring a perfect lemon tartlet. End of Suakin Dr, Mosman | gunnersbarracks.com.au/

Why settle for tea when you could pair your finger sandwich with a gin and tonic kissed by native botanicals? Hyatt Regency’s gin high tea is as cheeky as it is chic, serving up Australiana in the form of prawn tempura with rosella chutney, pork belly bao with wattleseed coleslaw and gin-cured scallops. Scones come laced with fig and eucalyptus jam, and tea remains available for the purists (or the designated drivers). It’s high tea with a native twist – bold, inventive and unmistakably Australian. 161 Sussex St, Sydney | hyatt.com/hyatt-regency/en-US/sydrs-hyatt-regency-sydney