Sunday Treat: "The Best of London" Afternoon Tea, Island Shangri-La

Like every other Hong Kong girl, I love going for afternoon tea - it's so quaint and posh. An afternoon at a five star hotel, trying to act classy, trying to use your "indoor voice" and not laugh too loud while catching up with your girlfriends. It's so good to take time out from our busy schedules and escape reality on a Sunday afternoon.

For the month of March the culinary team from the London Shangri-La are in Hong Kong serving up their best dishes, as well as their quintessential English afternoon tea. So, since I know must of you aren't even from Hong Kong and it's the end of March already, I'm gonna shut up and just fill this post with pictures (they're not very good though, we were too busy talking, but I hope you'll enjoy them anyway).

The tea selection at Island Shangri-La is quite limited, which I thought was kinda crap for a cafe at a 5 star hotel... I chose Chinese Tieguanyin tea, and it actually complimented the set really well.

Good scones are hard to come by in HK, but these were pretty decent. 2 plain ones and 2 Earl Grey poppy seed, though I didn't notice the flavour of Earl Grey at all, but maybe it's 'cause I put too much clotted cream, ha. The texture was good, not dense and doughy, perfectly cooked and the bottom was crunchy were complimented the soft cream.

pièce de résistance

Favourites: Smoked Salmon on wholemeal bread, Chicken Sandwich,
Rou Nen &Yuzu Cheesecake

I thought the sandwiches were a bit basic, but they were quite good. The Smoked Salmon one on the left was the yummiest, it has white caviar on top (wonder what kind of fish it came from)

The Hazelnut Dulce looks so melted 'cause we were talking too much to eat, it just tasted like a Ferrero Rocher, but sweeter. The Rou Nen was really good even though I don't like coconut, I liked the contrast of the sesame seed. I thought the floral plates were so cute.

The Yuzu Cheesecake was really refreshing, I didn't like the Pear Compote with cinnamon infused cream though, I thought it was seasonally inappropriate, but my friend loved it. The baby macaron was good.

A photo of us because we're beautiful, duhh ;) 

The waiter was so cute, he was like "smile!" and he smiled with us, haha C:

Afternoon tea is so overpriced, but really, I think you're paying for the service, the staff were super attentive and friendly, it really was 5 star service. We were so fussy and swapped table three times, haha, first they sat me in the middle of the room because that was the only table free at the time, and it was super awkward because the table seemed so in the way, so 'ah dang'. Then a bigger table was ready so they moved us there, and then the people at the corner table left, and we wanted that table 'cause the couch looked so comfy. Seriously, the staff are so lovely and friendly, and I think one of the waiters is rather good-looking, haha, always a bonus ;)

We had tea at the Island Gourmet cafe/patisserie and it was really comfortable. The ambience is better than the Lobby Lounge I reckon, 'cause it's so busy in the lobby with people going in and out. They also have a really wide selection of cakes which looked rather tempting. If you're ever visiting Hong Kong I'd definitely recommend going to Island Shangri-La for tea, the service and food were en point.

Sigh, it's Monday, back to the grid. Hope you beautiful people had a lovely weekend, I'd love to know what you got up to!

Linzi

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