Tea at Lobby Lounge

Lobby Lounge @ Intercontinental Hong Kong 

 Not long after my visit at the Four Seasons' Lounge I came for afternoon tea at the Intercontinental. 

we went with the set for two, and had the iced coffee (fantastic - the ice cubes are frozen coffee) and a sencha (Japanese green tea).

Tea at Four Seasons Lounge

Four Seasons Hotel's Lobby Lounge is one of the more popular tea places on Hong Kong Island (Mandarin Oriental, Island Shangri-la being the others) where people from all sorts of backgrounds (youngsters, business partners and tai-tais) frequent. 

As my friends and I have an affinity for high tea, we decided to have our catch up over tea. We arrived to a small queue, but were seated quite quickly after about 10 minutes wait.

Set for 2 - comes with 2 tea/coffee drinks

Savories

 Very average with a few hits and misses. My favourites were egg salad truffle on toast and the smoked salmon finger sandwich. 

Sweets

This tier was largely a miss for me - room temperature, lacked freshness, macarons were wet/soggy and nothing was memorable... 

 

Scones - raisin in front; plain at the back.

Probably the only thing I would consider returning at tea time for, these scones were drier than other ones I've had in Hong Kong yes but warm and crumbly in the middle for you to take advantage of the devonshire cream and apricot and raspberry jams. Hmmm...

Food: ♥♥♥ 1/2 for the scones, ♥♥ for everything else.
Service: ♥♥♥
Price: $$$

The Lounge, 

Four Seasons Hotel, 8 Finance St., 

Central

Tel: +852 3196 8820

Portobello's

Date of visit: 18^th Oct 2010 

Portobello’s at Soho

So, after a month (or two) long of hell, I have finally returned and ready to write more reviews =)) I have missed this site! It’s a little sad to begin with a disappointing review, but since this has been on my list for a long time I must writeeee!

So one day for tea, a couple of friends and myself hit Portobello’s in Soho hoping to have some afternoon tea and coffee.

We settled for coffee-based drinks (cherry mocha + cappuccinos and coffee for $40+ each, but two came with the set we ordered) and an ‘English Afternoon Tea’ set that charged no less than $160, meant to feed two.

coffee with milk

cappuccino 

from top left: cream, jam, mocha cheesecake, scones, turkey wheat sandwiches

The set came with a cake of the day, which we hoped to pick our own from their cake display out front, but we were rejected from our choice, so we had to deal, which was fine…

But when the actual set came, the problems came. On the lowest rack was half a sandwich cut in four. Inside was some tomatoes lettuce and stale turkey. Next to this was 2 heavy stone-hard scones which reminded me of a tennis ball for some reason. It was lacking in the crumbly texture fine scones should have, it was rather cold, and it really hard! And needless to say, the blob of cream was hardly Devonshire cream that one would expect to have with scones. 

Top tier was two thin slices of their ‘Mocha Cheesecake’ which was no less than…..crappy. It was gummy in texture, and the base was… not good at all.  

The drinks weren’t any better either.

Food: ♥

Service: ♥ 1/2

Price: $$

Portobello's

G/F, 9 Staunton St, Central

Tel: +852 2523 8999

Tea at Noritake & Niji Bistro

Date of visit: 3rd July 2010

Noritake & Niji Bistro @ Harbour City

Several years ago I visited Noritake & Niji Bistro for a lunch with a friend. I still remember thinking the fusion pasta (Bolognese with miso spaghetti) was pretty good. Fast forward a few years, this item remains on their menu.... but we were here for tea so we didn't want to order something of the main menu. 

First to arrive was.... 

Tuna salad with wasabi mayo ($48)

This salad was from the new summer menu, and I decided to order this rather than something off the tea set menu as it sounded tasty enough, and would leave me with room for dinner later.

I pictured a substantially-sized salad as the bed with seared tuna on top... then this plate arrived, which was tiny. I guess for its price I didn't expect much, but I thought more salad leaves wouldn't hurt. The tuna was fine, but it wasn't freshly seared as it was cold on my plate. It wasn't stringy in texture at the least! I did however like the wasabi mayo - tasted like wasabi but in a creamier form with a slight tang - good, and a little went a long way! 

Blueberry Cheesecake ($68) 

Niji has a cake display outside, selling squares of sesame, sakura flower and blueberry flavoured cheesecakes, all of which are the creamy baked kind. However they were only available for takeaway, so we were happy to learn that they were available as cut cakes with the tea set (green tea marble also available), albeit a third or quarter of the cake. The plate was done very nicely - no wonder it took the longest to arrive. 

Back to the cheesecake, it was wonderfully creamy and smooth, with a hint of sourness from I think lemon? which went nicely with the blueberry topping. Would love to try the green tea or sakura flower cheesecake soon!

Also ordered was this hot dog set ($58) which I didn't get to try, but my friend finished it in no time so I assume it was good? =)

hot dog, salad, fried potatoes

The tea sets come with coffee or tea as well, so I think the prices were quite reasonable, save for a few items.

This place is a good option at Harbour City for having a meal with some friends, the restaurant interior is quite nice, like an English tea room, but with Japanese-themed western food.

Food: ♥♥♥

Service: ♥♥♥

Price: $$

Noritake & Niji Bistro

Shop 3208, 3/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City, 17 Canton Road, 

Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2175 0203