Fairmont Lake Louise - Afternoon Tea

Whats there to do at Lake Louise when the trails are too slushy, and icy for hiking?  Sit back and admire the beautiful view of the lake while sipping afternoon tea inside the Fairmont!  I guess I could have tried to hike the trails, but I'm not sure I want to sit in the car in wet socks and shoes for the drive back to the apartment.  Plus, since my hiking shoes quit on me in Banff, I was left to wearing my winter runners......so we decided to take the option of enjoying the view.

We arrived at the Fairmont about 15 minutes before afternoon tea service was to begin so we had to wait a bit before we could be seated.  Lucky for us, because we didn't have a reservation, they still had a table by the window available.  And because our table was the first window table people walk by, I'm pretty sure we were in a lot of people's pictures.  I guess that's what it feels like to be a celeb hahaha.

While the view was beautiful, I found the service to be not as great as other places I've had afternoon/high tea before.  It wasn't that the service was bad, but it wasn't what I was expecting.  Usually I get offered teas to choose from by both looking at the menu, and also by smell.  Here at the Fairmont Lake Louise, I had to ask to smell the teas.  They didn't have a small 'sample' box of teas for me to smell, they just brought the big jar of teas over.  The hubby chose a strawberry green tea, and I chose a maple syrup black tea.  Hubby's tea smelled and tasted quite fruity.  Very light.  My maple syrup black tea I found a bit weak.  I let it steep in there for quite a long time, and it was finally to  my liking, although by then it got a bit cold.

Food wise, we started off with berries and fresh cream, tasted exactly how it sounds.

Berries with Fresh Cream

Then our sweet and savoury tower appeared.  The hubby was impressed with how it looked, he's never been to tea before.

Afternoon Tea Tower

Our savouries included shrimp on croissant, cucumber sandwich, curried egg salad sandwich, and some smoked salmon.  I tried them all, and really they were nothing special.  They weren't horrible, and they weren't great either.

Finger Sandwiches

The next thing I tried was the scone.  By look already, they weren't the fluffy airy scones that I love to eat.  Also, they weren't warm.  So it felt like they have been sitting around.  The scones came with some Devonshire cream (aka clotted cream), berry preserve, and lemon curd. I love love love clotted cream.  I could eat that on everything.  But so glad that I don't have that often because it's super fattening!  If you don't know what clotted cream is, it's like butter, but way lighter, almost like the consistency of mascarpone I'd say.  The preserves I doubt were made in house, tasted like any jam out of a jar.  I liked the lemon curd, but that probably because I like lemon.

Scones

And finally, the sweets.  There were 2 macarons, one raspberry, and one pistachio (from what I could guess).  They're nothing like Laudree, no where even close.  I would eat them if I was craving a macaron really badly....  The cakes, and what I think was panna cotta (or something similar to that), and fruit tart was passable.  It was similar to desserts that you would find at a buffet.

Sweets

Overall, the afternoon tea at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was not as good as the other high teas/afternoon teas that I've had before.  But I have to say that it is one of the nicest views I've ever had while having tea.  So probably the first time ever, I'll say it's definitely worth it to come here despite the mediocre food.  Oh also, if you have afternoon tea here, your parking can get validated and you can park for free!

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise
111 Lake Louise Drive,
Lake Louise, AB
T0L 1E0

Phone:  (403) 522-3511

http://www.fairmont.com/lake-louise/

Wild Flour Bakery

Banff, there's so much talk about it.  I thought it would be some beautiful glamorous place.  But maybe because I didn't get a chance to hike that much, I didn't feel it. If anything the town of Banff actually felt more like a tourist trap than anything.  Yes, the scenery there was beautiful, because theres the mountains wherever you look, but I don't know if it's because I went to Iceland first, it can't compare to the beauty of Iceland.  It also didn't feel like any locals live there, I felt like I walked the streets with tourists surrounding me.  The people that work in the retail shops, most of them had Australian accents!  It just felt weird.

Embarrassing story time.  Because I knew we would be hiking on this trip, I wore my running shoes, and brought along my hiking boots.  Now I've had my hiking boots for many many years, probably since undergrad.  And i'll pull them out to wear to shovel the snow, or go snowboarding.  About 5 minutes of walking around Banff, I felt something funny, I thought I stepped on some gum.  I look down, and the right sole of my hiking boot has become loose!  It's flapping around like a flip flop.  I made the hubby chew on some gum to see if that will hold, and no it doesn't!  Bought some contact cement at the Home Hardware to see if it will stick.  That stuff apparently takes 24 hours to set.  Ughhhhh.  So we would have to drive back to the apt for me to change into my runners. But of course, before that, we needed to eat.

Food wise, there's a lot of chains, like Earls, the Keg, McDonalds, etc.  I avoid those like the plague.  For lunch we popped into a bakery named Wild Flour Bakery.  Even though we were there for a late lunch, it was busy.  All the tables were taken and there was a small line up.  The bakery sells bread of course, sandwiches, soup, croissants, cookies etc.  All made in house with local organic ingredients.  Even though we were there for lunch, I ordered a breakfast sandwich & latte, and the hubby ordered a combo with a veggie sandwich, soup, cookie & flat white.  My breakfast sandwich was just ok.  The bread was great (they make a great sourdough).  The 'breakfast' filling was a egg frittata and cheese.  I have a feeling they prep the sandwich ahead of time and just warm it on the panini press, because the insides was still a bit cold.  If something is supposed to be hot, I like it piping hot.

Breakfast Sandwich

The hubby's veggie sandwich, there was some miscommunication when he ordered thats why he got a veggie sandwich instead of a meat one, was actually pretty good.  There were roasted peppers, tomato, spinach, and some pesto type spread.  The soup was so good!  Curry lentil soup.  Cookie that he got was a spicy chocolate cookie.  Reminds me of Soma's mayan hot chocolate.  The cookie texture was a bit crumbly, didn't hold that well, but still good.

Veggie Sandwich, Curry Lentil Soup, Spicy Chocolate Cookie

Coffees were good, a little bit weaker than what I would like but still good.  If i wasn't so full I wanted to buy a croissant and focaccia to try because they looked so good, but we said we would come back the next morning for breakfast on route to Lake Louise.  That never happened.  So if you ever come to Banff, skip the chains and check out this bakery, while it's not necessarily cheap, it's most likely more affordable than the other places around.

Latte and Flat White

Wild Flour Bakery
101-211 Bear Street,
Banff, Alberta,
T1L 1B4

Phone:  (403) 760-5074

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 700a - 400p

http://www.wildflourbakery.ca

Le Fournil Bakery

Popped into this little bakery to grab some dessert.  By the time I got there, there was maybe an hour left to close, and selection was starting to run a bit thin.  Breads were practically non existent, there were a few croissants, and a few individual cake slices available.  I picked up a butter croissant, and a slice of carrot cake.  No picture of the croissant because I inhaled it in the car because I was hungry.  It was nice and flakey on the outside (I was covered in croissant crumbs), inside was a bit bready for my liking, and also it missing that rich buttery fatty taste.  I think missing the buttery taste is probably because the milk/butter in Alberta isn't the greatest from what I've discovered.

The carrot cake was done well, could have had more cinnamon in my opinion.  But that's probably because I love cinnamon.  But it was nice and moist, with lots of carrot shreds it in, and had a nice cream cheese frosting on top.

Carrot Cake

Pricing wise, I found to be higher than in Toronto.  But as I've mentioned before in another post, food in Alberta seems to be higher than in Toronto in general.

Le Fournil Bakery
1205 Bow Valley Trail,
Canmore, AB
T1W 1P5

Phone:  (403) 675-5005

Hours:  Monday CLOSED
             Tuesday - Sunday 800a - 600p

http://fournil.ca