Afternoon tea at The St. Regis Bangkok: not to my taste, and still worth it

To be straight about it: the food was not to my taste. The time spent there was still good.

The window is a field of grass

The first thing you see on walking into the lounge is what is outside it. Grass, edge to edge. What lies in front of the hotel is the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, a racecourse and golf course in one, and it opens a hole of green right through the middle of the city.

We sat and looked out for a while. There cannot be many hotels in Bangkok holding this particular view. The room is The Drawing Room, on the hotel’s 12th floor.

It arrives in blue and white

It came out in blue-and-white painted ware — a lidded container and matching small bowls. A Thai setting, and the vessels themselves are a pleasure to look at.

The contents are properly Thai as well. Bite-sized things fitted into the bowls, with a pink flower and leaves set beside them. In a photograph it is beautiful.

Eating it, though, it was not for me. The sweetness and the way the aromatics come up point in a different direction from the afternoon tea I am used to. The coffee I ordered afterwards did not land either. This is a matter of palate, so it will suit people whose palate it suits.

I would still go back

Was it a disappointment, then? Not really. Sitting by the window with a cold orange drink in front of me, looking at the green — that stretch of time was good on its own terms.

Whether the food suits your mouth and whether the place is good to spend time in are two separate questions. Here, the second one was clearly yes.

Notes from this visit

• The Drawing Room at The St. Regis Bangkok, 12th floor. The window looks onto the turf of the Royal Bangkok Sports Club
• The afternoon tea leans strongly Thai and is served in blue-and-white painted ware
• It did not suit my palate, and neither did the coffee. That is preference, not a defect
• The view is beyond argument. Worth getting a window table
• We went in a little after 2:30 in the afternoon
• Menu and service hours change. Confirm during your stay

Visited August 2025. Menu and opening details are as they were at the time of the visit.

More from this trip

• Four nights at The St. Regis Bangkok: the window was a field of green
• Bangkok: Wat Arun, Mango, and the Pool
• A sharing menu at IGNIV Bangkok, and a star I could not quite taste