Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere in the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Review – When we visited Dubai recently to review Rixos the Palm, we visited the tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa. Once I’d looked into it I realised there was more than one way this could be done.
It really depends on what you want to get out of your trip and what your budget is. You can buy tickets to go to the 124th floor which is the most popular and economical choice. You can buy those tickets here.
Alternatively, you can pay more to go to the 148th floor with Skip the Line Tickets. You can buy those tickets here.
I’d read about both options but then came across the idea of having afternoon tea in the At.mosphere lounge. As you probably know, I do love afternoon tea and have reviewed many MANY of these. Afternoon tea at At.mosphere wasn’t cheap, but the price was on a par with the afternoon tea we had at The Savoy in London, so considering its location, I felt that this was worth doing.
The first benefit you will find is that there are no queues. You enter the Burj Khalifa via the Armani Hotel. The lobby of which is very plush and almost has a feeling of entering a sacred space!
We were then shown through a door to the lift that will take you just a few floors up to the main reception. We were asked for our reservation and greeted courteously before being shown to the main Armani Hotel lift to At.mosphere. The lifts in the Burj Khalifa travel at something like 10 m per second which is phenomenally fast. You will find your ears popping on the way up!
Once in the restaurant you are respectfully shown to your seat. The price for a regular afternoon tea is currently around £75. You can pay more to guarantee a window seat. The prices in AED:
La Gourmandizes: AED 350 per person (applicable for non-window tables only)
La Gourmandizes inclusive of Sparkling Wine at AED 550 per person.
(window tables are subject to availability upon reservation).
Luxurious High Tea inclusive of Champagne at AED 800 per person.
Age policy: 5 years old and above.
Afternoon Tea Menu
We didn’t pay extra for a window table, and were originally seated in the second row from the windows which still had a very good view. Around 15 minutes after we arrived they told us there was a window table available and would we like to move (for no charge) we happily accepted. This was an incredible table!
For drinks you could choose from an extensive tea or coffee menu as well as numerous mocktails.
The afternoon tea itself was exquisite, each tiny sandwich or cake were crafted to be a work of art. Our server was lovely and completely put us at our ease. Nothing was too much trouble. She explained what each sandwich was and what order to best eat them.
We were recommended to start with the tuna tartare, on an edible parmesan leaf. It looked divine, though, if you have read any of my other afternoon tea reviews, you will know my feelings on seafood (I don’t like it!). My son, however, was very happy to take it off my hands!
How is this for a cucumber sandwich?
The cakes were delicious, this was my favourite – it had a dark chocolate cone and was filled with some sort of coconut cream with little mango popping bubbles on top. It might be sacrilege to say, but it sort of reminded me of a bounty bar!
(On a side note, I was a bit suspicious of it to begin with as many years ago I was staying in the Mandarin Oriental in Singapore that served hors d’oeuvres with tiny little golden balls just like these. On that occasion I discovered that they were caviar and not fruit as I had previously thought. Traumatised. See my earlier comment regarding seafood!!)
Would I recommend it? Yes I definitely would. It was a lovely relaxed experience with beautiful food and incredible views. No queueing and no pushing and shoving to get a selfie on the edge of the building! Worth the extra pennies I would say!
More Photos of the Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere in the Burj Khalifa
