We are stepping back in time here for this blog entry as we are at the Grand Dame of Hong Kong, the Peninsula Hotel, for afternoon tea, so more of a cake quest that occurred back in December. In fact, due to me going through my backlog I actually lunched at this place before one of my previous entries for the Kowloon Shangri-la visit.
It was my sister's birthday so we went to the hotel for her treat. As it was in the month of December, there were Christmas decorations decked out all over the lobby, preparing the hotel for the festive season. It is a grand place anyway, with large open space and very ornate finishing to the interior so the decorations make it more spectacular, as shown in the photograph below.
Whilst there were three of us we opted for an afternoon tea set for two. We ordered different teas each, with myself going for the Assam variety. Service was, as expected very friendly and attentive for this type of hotel. The teas were served first in the elegant silver pots and then along came the platter of afternoon tea items, shown in the photograph below.
The top plate shown below was the more sweet selection, which had macaron, cookies, butter cake, log cake, crunchy coffee truffle and caramel tart. All these were nice, if nothing spectacular, with the macarons the item I like the most. The caramel tart has a bit of an acquired taste, though. There was also a panna cotta with orange sauce and almond crumble, which was served separately and not pictured. This was creamy and tasty and the best out of the sweet items.
The second plate pictured below was more savoury, with sandwiches, quiche and puff pastry. Sandwiches were a smoked salmon on brioche, cucumber and turkey and rocket, which were all fine and filling. The quiche was my favourite here, with shrimp and pumpkin making the tasty filling. The presentation of these dainty items were all very nice to look at.
They also presented my sister with a little birthday cake, which was very kind of them but we did not try it as we had sufficient.
Needless to say The Peninsula is a great place to have afternoon tea. The food itself is good on the whole, with some items not too everyone's liking. Service is great and the setting is very grand, even the placemats (shown below) are lovely. Definitely a place to try or to return to.
It was my sister's birthday so we went to the hotel for her treat. As it was in the month of December, there were Christmas decorations decked out all over the lobby, preparing the hotel for the festive season. It is a grand place anyway, with large open space and very ornate finishing to the interior so the decorations make it more spectacular, as shown in the photograph below.
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| View of the Hotel Interior |
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| The tray |
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| Top plate of sweet items |
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| Middle plate of savoury items |
Now to the 'business end' of afternoon tea, the scones. They were placed on the bottom tray and numbered four in total, two plain and two with raisins and accompanied with Devonshire clotted cream and strawberry jam. The scones were very nice, soft and not dry; the clotted cream was thick and not too sweet. This was the loveliest part of our afternoon tea session.
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| Bottom plate of scones |
Needless to say The Peninsula is a great place to have afternoon tea. The food itself is good on the whole, with some items not too everyone's liking. Service is great and the setting is very grand, even the placemats (shown below) are lovely. Definitely a place to try or to return to.
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| Placemat |
Please note that the Peninsula does not have a reservation service for their Afternoon Tea so normally you will have to queue up.
Scores:
Scores:
Food: 4/5
Presentation: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Setting: 5/5
Total: 17/20
Total Bill: HK$730, about 20GBP a head.
I ate: Afternoon Tea Set for two, and we still could not finish it between the three of us.
I drank: Assam Tea
I wore: Smart casual shirt and pants.
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