Victoria Rossa at Irrawady, Penang

The moment we stepped into the floral wallpapered walls of Victoria Rossa, I whispered to Hubs "You sure you don't feel out of place here?" Jazzy music was wafting softly, attentive waiters at your beck and call, everything was in pastel hues, even the menu was decked out in a flowery fabric. It wasn't what you'd term as a masculine place ;)

Being the scone fiends we are, we were eager to test Victoria Rossa's claim to have the finest scones, cakes and teas. We were showed to a table promptly and a very nice waiter brought a fabric lined wicker basket for me to place my handbag in.

A variety of beautifully packaged tea with intriguing names such as Isabella's blend, Julia's blend, Eliza's blend, is displayed throughout the tea room available for sale.

We had the afternoon tea for two and since it came with 2 pots of tea, we picked white tea and hibiscus mint. I was ecstatic to find white tea on the menu as it is impossible to find it here and I've been resorting to imports in the form of Aussie Godma to bring in fresh supplies for me each time she's back. The little pots of tea came bundled up in frilly tea cosies and English style tea cups. The waiter was kind enough to bring Bubs a cup of water at no extra charge. The hibiscus mint was strong and fruity but the white tea wasn't as good as T2's loose leaf though.

The afternoon tea consists of sandwiches, butter cakes, scones (mmmm ...) orange cream tarts and biscotti. Scones are served with strawberry jam and butter and a serving of clotted cream costs RM1.50 so we added on two portions of cream. A single dish of cream is on the tiny side so I would have loved it if they gave a larger dollop.

The sandwiches had fillings of sliced, boiled egg, ham and cucumber. These were a little meh so I delegated Hubs to polish them off while I ate the good stuff ;) The butter cakes were nice and crusty on the outside and soft once you bit into them. The biscotti were good, crunchy with thin almond flakes and sweeter compared to others that we've tried (tried to ignore the probable amount of sugar that went into them). The orange cream tarts had a pleasant, floral-orangey taste and Bubs chomped on them like no tomorrow.

I saved the best for last: the scones were absolutely brilliant! I'd go as far as to say that these are undoubtedly the best I've ever had in Penang and come very close to the Carcosa scones (which are forever known as the best in our books). These are milky-buttery and goes sooooo well with with cream and strawberry jam. The strawberry jam gets a thumbs up, I was expecting some cheapo, artificial tasting paste but was wowed by the rich, strawberry flavour.

Scones, cakes and pots of jam are available for purchase too.

All nom-ed out on scones and happy smiles around. Someone was happy eating strawberry jam for the first time and would have eaten it neat with a spoon if we didn't stop him :)

Address：33,Jalan Irrawady,10350 penang. 

Tel：04 2269128
Opening hours:  11am - 10pm, closes every Tuesday