Oxi Tea Room — Restaurant in Melbourne

We were very lucky to secure a table with them for a slot yesterday. We were on waiting list the week before. I enjoyed every single moment in this place. They were very accommodative, we booked for two, however when we arrived, i requested to add one more seat because my partner decided to join us last minute, he didnt have the set menu but ordered alacarte. the friendly staff was willing to do some arrangement and organized a table for 3 instead of the original table for 2 for us. How kind!

Our set menu is $89/pp tea is included with one refill.

Tea experience: the tearista is very knowledgeable and friendly, we hopped over to the tea table to smell each tea leaves available, they offered many options varying from light to dark, even purple and herbal. Interesting. You get to pick the one you liked the most for your tea, I like that they allowed us to smell, ask "silly" questions, and pick our favorite, because im sure a lot of people like myself could not comprehend the description of the tea leaves available on the menu. So being able to smell, ask questions and pick are very thoughtful, and it gives us an opportunity to i teract and understand tea leaves better.

Here comes the dining experience: each cakes is curated with a story behind. It was well thought and planned.

Every piece is not too overly sweet, and filled with flavors of uniqueness paired with Van Gogh's life journey

I felt like I went on a tasteful journey of the life of Van Gogh~ The sweetness, sourness, and spiciness of every moment in his life and artwork are well presented on this plate

my favorite piece is the cake reflecting the artpiece "the self-portrait with bandaged ear"

As you take a mouthful of the candied fruit with popping sounds blended with the jiggly rooboi tea jelly, There are raindrops in your head, you can hear it so crispingly clear. Having the sweet sour taste of popping candy in yr mouth and hearing the raindrops in your head at the same time, it brought us to another level of senses

It is an amazing experience, the effort that the pastry chef has put in to this is extravagant.

I will definitely come back for the next theme. Looking forward to another wonderful tasting experience.

I rarely provide long reviews unless i really enjoy the experience, and i believe this tea room deserves...

I recently booked in for the "Palate Through Time" afternoon tea menu. Immediately upon entering Oxi, I was greeted by a very friendly staff member who talked me through the recommended fining process - trying the different scents and looking at the QR code to learn more about each time period reflected by the dishes.

What had been a great initial impression was then immediately soured when I noticed the extensive use of generative AI in the menu guide that the QR directed me to. For instance the "Modern Nordic" era cartoon graphic has a man who has 3 legs stepping on a dog. The video has a man garnishing plain bread and an unidentified slab of food. The "Contemporary" era has a man decorating a dish with flowers that seeming pop out of no-where.

I feel that all elements of the experience were generally well thought out - from the food, to the décor of the tea room, tea selection, format - with the only exception being this part. To me, the use of AI was lazy and also did not embody the spirit of the historical theme - I do not think AI images can accurately depict these time periods. The additional text attached to the images were also of little substance and I felt this did not enhance my experience.

In addition to this, the restaurant menu card had a line about creating a "culinary landscape shaped by sustainability", which I found quite contradictory given the use of generative AI, which has been known to be harmful to the environment due to its energy and water consumption.

I would strongly urge Oxi to abandon the use of generative AI as I felt it detracted from what otherwise would have been a delightful experience. I would recommend maybe trying to collaborate with local artists to work on graphics for future themes instead of throwing together AI images that were clearly not even checked for errors to use as graphics. I expected a greater degree of attention to detail for a $110 per person experience.

Overall I do have to say I did enjoy the food, the service and the food presentation but personally, the graphics used were a huge...

ORDERED: Nature - High Tea ($79.00pp) 🥓  Fresh: Cameroon pepper spice, mushroom floss 🥓  Smoke: Smoked wild salmon, cucumber, charred corn 🍰  Rose: Floral dong ding, lychee, raspberry crumb 🍰  Daisy: Choux, Vanilla whipped ganache, yuzu gel 🍰  Moss: Matcha tart & sable, alishan oolong jelly & gel 🍰  Mushroom: Raspberry meringue, jasmine green tea, apricot 🍰  Grass: Macaron, soybean genmaicha 🍫  Twig: Biscuit, 70% ghanian dark choc 🍫  Log: Chocolate chiffon, candied orange, 70% dark choc 🍫  Rock: 70% dark choc mousse, almond feuilletine, choc marble 🍵  Tea: Jade Melon: Jade Oolong, melon candy crystals

REVIEW: Unfortunately, the Nature set is no longer available at Oxi Tea Room. However, I'll review my experience all the same! Inspired by the pastry chef's time in COVID and walking around parks within 5km, each element in the High Tea in inspired by an element in nature.

Out of the 10 pieces, 2 are savoury. The two savoury were some of my favourites - I'm just not much of a sweet gal. I would love to see more savoury in their new menu, but I won't hold my breath. The desserts were decent, and from that the 'Grass' i.e. the soybean genmaicha macaron won my heart. It wasn't one of the best macarons I've ever had (it was missing a chewiness, and the snap of the macaron), but the flavour was delicious.

Chocolate was too decadent for my tastes. Heavy, its bitter taste left something more to be desired. I like how we ended with the nutty almond feuilletine, but the two chocolate before then was hard to consume. My friend tapped out.

Loved the selection of teas. We were given a brief overview of the teas, people's favourites, staff favourites, the most unpopular. I chose the Jade Melon. Although the first pour was a little weak, the second pour (made the traditional way) came through and was as sweet and wonderful as I imagined it to be. It's one of the popular tea scents too! Would definitely consider dropping by to buy takeaway tea if I'm...