Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa

Back in March, I wrote about how to book partner award flights on Etihad Airways.  We originally booked First Apartments both to Abu Dhabi from London and from Abu Dhabi back to London over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, the airplane for our flight from London was switched from an A380 (which has First Apartments) to an A340 (which has Etihad's standard First Class). The airplane switch was somewhat devastating, but at least we will still experience the Apartments on our way home. We planned a whirlwind luxury long weekend in Dubai around these flights and I'll be covering all the details in upcoming posts. 

Review: British Airways Club World SFO - LHR
Review: LHR Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge
Review: Etihad Airways First Class LHR - AUH
Review: Park Hyatt Dubai
Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa
​Review: Burj al Arab Part I: One Bedroom Suite
Review: Burj al Arab Part II: Grounds and Amenities
Review: AUH Etihad Airways Premium Lounge 
​Review: Etihad Airways First Apartments AUH - LHR 
​

When we decided to go to Dubai, one of the first things we booked was afternoon tea at At.mosphere, which is located on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa. If you want to see the views from the Burj Khalifa (currently the tallest building in the world), you can either pay AED 125 (~$34) per person to take an elevator to the observation deck on level 124 or you can pay AED 350 (~$95) per person to make it to level 148. We thought it was a better option to have afternoon tea at At.mosphere, which gets you essentially the same view as the lower observation deck, but there's no line and you can enjoy the view with wonderful food and drink.

Overlooking the Desert

Afternoon tea at At.mosphere has two price tiers: AED 580 (~$158) per person for a window table or AED 530 (~$144) per person for a non-window table. It's certainly incredibly pricy and more than I've ever paid in my life for a meal, but it was definitely an experience that I couldn't pass up. Since we were already spending an exorbitant amount of money, we went for broke and spend the extra $14 to get a window table. Why not? The price includes an unlimited selection of hot and refreshing beverages, so come thirsty.

Reservations for high tea are available between 12:00 and 4:30 PM daily and can only be made by emailing [email protected]. We decided to reserve the latest possible seating, which was at 2:30 PM since it was our last day in Dubai and we wanted to enjoy our morning at the Burj al Arab before check out and kill time before our red eye out of Abu Dhabi at around 1:00 AM.

We took an Uber from the Burj al Arab and were a bit late for our reservation because it took a bit longer to check out than we anticipated. The Uber dropped us off at the Armani Hotel, which is at the base of the Burj Khalifa. We walked inside and asked a staff member where we needed to go to get to the elevator for At.mosphere and she escorted us through the lobby to an elevator. We then arrived at the reception desk for At.mosphere where they checked our reservation and directed us to the elevator that would take us to floor 123. From floor 123, there is a set of stairs down to the 122nd floor where the lounge is located. 

Fancy Decor (As Expected)

Stairway from 123rd Floor Down to 122nd

Despite being slightly late, we were promptly seated and had some time to gape at the view. Honestly, the view was incredible and I was really glad we were seated next to the window so I didn't have to awkwardly walk to the window to take photos or take photos with people in them. The one thing I was a bit disappointed by was the glare from the windows. You'd think a place that fancy would figure out how to reduce the glare, but I guess that hasn't been perfected yet. It also got REALLY hot sitting next to the windows in the afternoon sun (and we were there in the winter) so that's something to keep in mind. 

The Famous Burj Khalifa Fountains

Dubai Views

Dubai Views

Hello

My Fancy Date

At.mosphere is a curved room with a circular bar in the center of the room and all of the tables lining the windows in a crescent shape, which really works to capture the extensive floor to ceiling views of the desert. I was surprised to see that the bathroom also took advantage of the floor to ceiling windows, which was pretty incredible. 

At.mosphere Bar

Other Tea Aficionados

Other Tea Aficionados

Great View While Washing Your Hands

The tea menu was present on the table when we arrived and it was extensive. There were four full pages of tea selections (I missed a photo of one) and two more pages offering fruit juice blends and espresso drinks. Our "tea" was the "Luxurious Menu", which offered four courses along with the unlimited beverages.

At.mosphere Menu

The tea started with an entire bottle of Pierlant Brut. Our server did a very fancy first pour and then continued refilling our glasses until the bottle was empty, which was honestly more than I would have liked because I wanted to sample some of the other drinks on the menu. Along with the Brut, the first course included berries and cream, which came garnished with gold leaf on top (of course). I didn't know what to make of the gold leaf, but I wanted my money's worth, so I ate it. It had a slight metallic taste (as expected), but didn't taste like much. The rest of the berries and cream however, were amazing. It was perfectly light and refreshing and a great way to start the afternoon.

Pouring the Champagne

Berries and Cream

After the berries came the "Declinations", which were a selection of three finger sandwiches and three small bites. That's six items each, so not only do you need to come thirsty, but you better come hungry as well. The offering included salmon, foie gras, and a lobster salad along the top of the plate, then a roast beef and rocket sandwich, a tuna sandwich, and a chicken caesar sandwich. As expected, I passed the salmon and foie gras on to Chris and avoided the tuna sandwich, but the rest was truly excellent. We continued drinking our Brut through this course as well because we had the whole dang bottle to finish. 

Declinations

Next, it was time for the main course. At.mosphere offers both a vegetarian selection and a non-vegetarian selection for the tea and both had two choices for the main dish. True to form, Chris and I both selected the roast of the day rather than the catch of the day. The roast was fairly small and was served with mashed potatoes and garnished with a carrot and asparagus. As expected, it was excellent. 

Main Course

At this point, we had finally finished our champagne and were ready to order some tea to have with the next course, which included pastries, scones and mini cakes. This is where service really went downhill. Our server just disappeared for a long stretch and by the time he surfaced again, he had completely forgotten that we ordered tea (we had been waiting for it for 40 minutes at this point). I was really disappointed because I really wanted to sample some of the fruit juices, but we ended up with no time to do so. Luckily, the final course included no less than nine delectable items each, which led to me taking a bite out of every single one (classy, I know) and then deciding which to finish (I couldn't possibly finish all nine!). 

A Tower of Desserts

After we did what we could to the tower of dessert, we were brought the check and a small bag of housemade chocolates to take with us. By the time we finished, it was around 5:30 PM, so plan to spend quite some time for this experience. We loved that it took several hours, because we got to watch the beginning of the sunset, which was, of course, amazing.

Chocolates for the Road

Nice Sunset

Overall, the tea was truly excellent. Everything we ate was so well-prepared and incredibly presented. Aside from the service blip, we both decided the experience was totally worth the cost. This isn't something we'd do regularly, but if you're doing a "once in a lifetime" sort of trip, this should definitely be on your list.