Last week I went for afternoon tea at the Ritz Carlton hotel with my lovely friend Anna. The Ritz Carlton in Hong Kong, situated on the 102nd - 118th floor of the International Commerce Centre, is the highest hotel in the world. Afternoon tea is served at Cafe 103, 425m above sea level... and if that isn't High Tea, Idk what is.
We'd booked two weeks in advance because we really wanted a window seat, and we're so glad we did. No matter how long you've lived in HK, that view just never gets old. I'm so glad the weather was decent that day, or else we would have missed that spectacular panoramic view of Hong Kong's harbour.
It was Thursday afternoon, so it was pretty quiet. Something you notice right away is that Cafe 103 is really short-staffed. We waited for almost 30 seconds before someone noticed us and took us to our table, and the waitstaff always happen to be inconveniently missing whenever you need to ask for something. Anyway, on to the food...
It was a chocolate themed afternoon tea set, so we were served chocolate scones with marmalade and chocolate mousse - I would have much preferred clotted cream instead as the chocolate on chocolate combo was too much. For drinks, Anna had a coffee and I ordered a "signature hot chocolate" which I found underwhelming, the hot chocolate I had at Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon was better.
We started on the bottom tier with the savories. There were three types of sandwiches but the flavours weren't very distinct. The salmon was good, but we didn't know what was in the middle between the bread. The one on the left tasted like some kind of dry cured ham with pate spread? It was really hard to figure what the flavours were because there was so little of the filling. though the bread was quite nice. The roll next to it filled with sundried-tomato cream cheese, and while it was quite tasty, the shocking red colour was off-putting.
The desserts shone so much brighter than the savoury items! They were all very good but also really rich. The lemon tart was my absolute favourite, the lemon curd was zesty and smooth, contrasting nicely with the crunchy tart base, it was so so yummy! The berry mousse in the glass was very well constructed, while the mousse itself was quite heavy, the layers of tangy berry compote and sauce really helped cut through the richness, there was a generous amount of it too, which I liked.
The choux puff was alright, with a generous amount of cream, but the pastry was a little dry. The rose macarons were huge, with a good shell to ganache ratio, but I really don't like rose flavoured things. The chocolate cake was super rich, I was very happy to taste passionfruit, but there was also hazelnut praline and that is definitely not a good combination. Lastly, the chocolate lollipops were a good blend of tangy berry and smooth rich chocolate.
At first it didn't seem like that much food but it was in fact so filling that I didn't have dinner that night. I really enjoyed my afternoon, there's nothing better than a stunning view accompanied with sweet treats. I had a relaxing and wonderful catch up session with my bff, and this is something that I would definitely recommend to everyone! The only downside is that it's eye watering-ly expensive at $608 for a tea set for two on weekdays, and $628 on weekends. But mind you, it did keep me full until the next morning, so really you're getting two meals for the price of one?
I can't believe it is March already, it's scary how fast time pass when you grow up. Until next time my beautiful strangers :)
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