Chapels on Whatley

Maylands - well to be precise a small strip that's on the corner of Eighth avenue and Whatley crescent is one of my favourite places for decent cake, pastry, coffee and teas. As well as for chance to wonder around the very few boutiques that's around there, OH and shop at its very cool butcher/specialised continental shop. After all it is home to my favourite bakery/patisserie - Sherbet.

Along that strip, there's a cafe that is decked out in a very Asian theme called Chapels on Whatley.

It's decor is something out of a Chinese movie and you be forgiven if you thought you were at some Zen or Yue garden when you step outside to their courtyard. After all there are replicas of life sized Terracotta warriors and a "lillypond" (I use that term very loosely...) with a floating Buddha head and goldfish (?replacement Koi) with lots of red Chinese umbrellas to shade you. It's a rather lovely, quaint and pleasant. Oh and how lovely that they had the water sprinklers on to cool us down from above! Just perfect on a hot day!

The ambience is chilled and relaxed although I wish they didn't use such high pitched Asian music in the background. Maybe I should introduce them to Jay Chou and the Asian pop scene (with more the love songs to play in the background - at least the love songs aren't so irritating on the ears).

Anyway, I wasn't there for very long... More an afternoon catchup with a gf I haven't seen in a couple of months due to our conflicting schedule of holiday making.

But I'll let you know that they have an extensive meal menu, catering towards breakfast/lunch/brunch (even at 3pm!). They also have a nice and sweet dessert menu and a lovely range of coffees, frappas, iced teas and of course hot teas. So really you can make it a day chilling out in their courtyard garden! or book out their private function area upstairs (I think it'd be perfect of Hen's parties/kitchen teas/baby showers/birthdays).

But for us - afternoon tea it is. Being hot (poor and I'm feeling a bit fat as I've had a bad week at the gym) we settled for one alligator strawberry frappe for MM and one Lychee iced tea for me. We also had a plate of cream, jam and scones to share - one plain and one fruit. But they do a proper two hours high tea! Just give them a call to book!

 

The frappe was beautiful with freshly blended strawberries topped with ice cream and cream (I had a sip). The lychee iced tea - was a little watered down and could've been more flavoursome, was nonetheless fruity (thanks to the additional two lychee (probably canned) fruit at the bottom and total refreshing on a hot sunny afternoon. 

The scones on the other hand were a bit of a let down. Skimping out on the cream and jam. Scones themselves were a little on the stale side (although was warm). We should've had the macaroons they looked great! Nevermind, next time.

I also recommend, if you are a tea lover just get your hot tea because at $5 it's a bottomless cup, meaning buy just one cup and you can sit there and get refills for the same tea or any of the other teas on their menu!

Overall, Chapels on Whatley is such a lovely place to catch up chill and have a nice long chat! And afterwards you can wander around the area and have a look at the boutiques and heh why not check out the things Chapels themselves sell at the back?