Kowloon Shangri-la, Hong Kong

I am here at the Kowloon branch of the Shangri-la chain on an afternoon tea sitting (back in December), which starts at 1.30pm so is a late lunch. The tea is held at their lobby, which although is on the ground floor, still overlooks the harbour.

The chairs are lounge type making them comfortable, if a little awkward to eat the amount of food on offer sometimes. The food is laid out buffet style so I managed to eat a variety of things.

They have Chinese dishes so initially I took some Congee and Dim Sum. The congee was OK texture wise but was bland in flavour and I needed to take more condiments from the offerings to make it more flavoursome. Dim sum of Har Gow, Beef Ball and Siu Mai were all fine. The Spring Rolls had a potato type filling in them, which was different but pleasant.

Left: Dim Sum; Right: Congee

The hotel had Red bean pudding on offer, which is a traditional Chinese dessert. I ladled myself a bowlful, which was warm and sweet and not too lumpy from the beans.

Red bean pudding

Their Western dishes numbered many so I tried as much as I could. There was a small (in terms of amount and the physical size) sandwich selection, from which I took Turkey pickle mustard variety. I also picked a green salad on this plate and placed thousand island dressing on it as well. Both items were fine, with the salad ingredients fresh and crisp.

Turkey, Salad

I did take a selection of hot items, of which a plate is pictured below. Starting from the bottom left and working clockwise I selected Cherry Butternut Squash; Turkey Pastry; Beef Medallion; Honey chicken and Cheese Cannelloni. The butternut squash is something that I do not each much in Hong Kong, it was less dense than a potato with the cherry giving it a sweet edge. The turkey pastry was more pastry than turkey and a little disappointing. The beef was cooked well, with a slight rareness in the middle. It was tender and came with a nice gravy sauce. The chicken was cooked well too, being moist and flavoursome. The cannelloni was good also, which had a spinach filling. Actually the best hot dish I took that afternoon were the Chicken Wings that are not pictured, which were oven roasted with some really nice spices but were not too hot.

Cherry butternut squash; turkey pastry, beef medallion, honey chicken; cannelloni

They also had mini haute cuisine dishes, all delicately prepared in their own little bowl. The treats on offer are probably the more expensive dishes, hence the smaller quantity (that's my cynical view). I took a Parma ham with melon piece, roast duck and fig and avocado salad. All three were good and are starters that one could probably choose at a fine restaurant. I am  quite partial to duck and found that to be the nicest of the trio.

Parma Ham; Duck; Avocado Salad

Finally, I did move onto some sweet dishes. The photograph below shows from 12 o'clock working clockwise: Pana cotta; Orange Jelly; Strawberry Meringue and Mince Pie. The pana cotta was creamy and not too sweet with a nice raspberry topping. The jelly had real pieces of fruit so was citrusy and not too sour. The meringue was light with a creamy, foamy filling inside still. My mince pie was small but very Christmasy.

Pannacotta, Jelly, strawberry; Mince Pie

My second dish of sweet treats is shown the photograph below. I chose a bread and butter pudding, and some non-descript cake, both were sweet and fine. I also took the classic Scone to finish off which was a warm temperature and fresh as there was no dryness to it. It was also square in shape but the hotel only had whipped cream not clotted (which was more disappointing from my wife's part).

Scone, pudding, tiramasu

This buffet afternoon tea is really good value as one can sit here for 4 hours eating as much as they like as it has a very large selection and the staff replenish the food quite frequently too. I had more than sufficient by the time we got the bill. The furniture and tableware in the lobby is to Shangri-la standards and lounge setting makes it very relaxing place too.

One final note. This is self service buffet to the extent that you take your own tea from a selection that they have. One point to take in is to mix some water into tea otherwise it will taste too strong as some of the leaves have been steeping for some time. I found that out to my taste detriment on the first cup I drank!

Scores:

Food: 4/5
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Setting: 4/5

Overall: 14/20

Bill: HK$278 per person so GB£25.

I ate: all of the above

I drank: Varieties of tea, fresh apple juice and water.

I wore: Smart casual attire.