Le Gouter Bernardaud  

This place is simply terrible.
Aside from the fake grass wall, the food is simply poor. I ordered medium lamb, what came was half lightly fried, half raw shoulder of lamb. This is cut of lamb is normally roasted due to the stringy fat content (umm stringy raw lamb fat - my favourite, i mean come on these are basics!) and i am sure the lamb is not fresh enough in Hong Kong for serving raw lamb to be anything but a health hazard.

Somehow a dinner isn't complete until there are good desserts to round it off and that's how we ended up at LGB one evening. Between the 4 of us, we ordered cheese tart, lemon tart, macarons and Opera. The cheese tart was rich but not overly dense. I liked it that it was smooth and not too sweet. The lemon tart had the right balance of sweetness and tartness and the crust was nicely buttery. Some people thought that the cream was superfluous but I thought it was a foil for people who might find the tart a tad sour. In any case, it was good cream so why waste it! (Says the Glutton...) The Opera was very competent: crispy flaky layers between light sponge cake layers. I liked the rich chocolate top not only because it was glossy and pretty (my superficial side coming out now) but also because it gave the cake a grown-up and sophisticated flavour, more depth, I suppose.

The macarons were a disappointment, too sweet and didn't taste very fresh... didn't tally with the memory I had of the first ever LGB macarons I tasted.

Overall, it was a pleasant dessert session.

Without doing much planning in advanced, my friend and I wanted to meet up somewhere for afternoon tea on a Saturday. We originally planned to go to ICC's Chocolate Library. However, just like how it was being very dull, the fate was by the time my friend arrived, the booking of the day was all full (even she arrived half an hour before the buffet actually started). Bearing in mind that we MUST come back next time, we had no choice but to find somewhere in the Elements for afternoon tea.

LGB, a coffee shop that I've been always been walking pass by when I headed for movies in the Elements's cinema, but never had the chance to try it out. So here came the chance when we picked this for our afternoon's choice -Every afternoon tea set came with tea/coffee. I always thought that tea would be the best choice to go along cakes, tarts and scones. Great minds think alike, my friend and I both ordered tea without further thoughts - I ordered the Jasmine tea and she ordered an Earl Grey. To be honest, my Jasmine Tea was a so-so. Nothing too surprising as the tea was poured out from the tea pot - it wasn't particularly hot when served nor was it smelled of strong Jasmine. Quite disappointing, I must say...And the highlight of the set arrived! The whole design of the set was huge and grand - caught me into surprise!
Nice presentation, but how about the food?
We started from the bottom - the ham & cheese toasts were alright: crispy and warm - but nothing too surprising; the parma ham with toasted french bread - didn't go too well together...

The middle layer - the scones: served with butter, jam and cream (which was placed on the top layer, and we didn't know about it until we finished the middle and reached for the top...what a pity) - scones were already cool down and turned hard by the time we ate, which really did put me off; Chocolate tart: very hard as my friend had a hard time just to slice it into two, the taste of chocolate was not too rich and the base of the tart was again too hard to chew; Coffee brownie and the caramel-ish cake? : both were so-so, again they were cold and hard when we tried them out, after a few bites we had no intention to carry on

The top layer - the macaroons: likewise a few of the reviews that some other people have written for LGB, the macaroons that were served here were extremly sweet. Sweeter than a lot of sweet shops/coffee shops out there! You would need to constantly fill yourself with water! and as for the mini pear and apple, we didn't realise they were until we asked the manager, from the look of them, we had no intention to try them out...

To wrap up our afternoon high tea's experience at LGB, as a beginner in judging afternoon high tea, I dare to say the afternoon high tea set here did not meet my expectation. I won't compare the tea set at LGB with ones served at hotels, but at least the cakes, tarts and scones were worser than the ones I tried at cake shops or coffee shops with a smaller fame. With such a price (around HKD$328 + 10%), the food definitely did not served the price justice, nor did the service in particular (should be more caring and the English skill of a few waiter/manager definitely needed some improvements when we are talking about LGB being a high-ended coffee shop in Elements and IFC). My friend and I came to a realisation that the only thing we enjoyed at LGB that afternoon was being able to chat for 3 hours without any signs of asking us to leave, despite the queue out there. I guess we paid for somewhere to sit in a decent environment, rather than enjoying the food for sure.

- Y

a very nice cake.
very true to say.
it WAS a very good cake.
MUST TRY IT OUT YOURSELF.the top layer was sharp like gold,
and the earl grey mousse was too like jelly state,
not as good as le salon de joel r.,
but the caramel cream went VERY WELL with the cooked apple slices,
all sponge used was very moist and the middle layer was even soaked wine!!the best part was the base.
it was a biscuit coated with chocolate,
which was super crispy and right in sweetness,
so good~!XD

Ordered a high tea for one to share with mom.

2 Coffee- we had Latte n Cappuccino. I love the tangy aftertaste in the latte! Outstanding coffee.Toast- ham toast: it used to be the highlight of the tea set. Used to be hot, with crunchy crust and soft inside. But it was served cold today. Well, like chewing a towel but I eat it anyway:-) Scone with butter/cream and jam- lovely, but can be better if they serve with clotted cream. (maybe it's the french way to have whipped cream)

Almond cake(Little golden brick?)- chewy, unlike other cake!

Salmon/egg salad sandwich- like the thoughtfulness of putting the two fillings together. Tea elsewhere normally have them separate sandwiches. Oh, they skipped the cucumber filling, which is great!

Parma ham with tomato n herbs on toast- delightful n refreshing, so tasty:-) If this is to substitute the cucumber sandwich, I would say formidablé~

(almost full already)
Strawberry tart- pastry too hard n don't like the mousse filling. I eat finish anyway:-)

Macaroon- ultimate sweetness to conclude this meal. Your taste bud can feel the sweetness long after. (I am thankful that my taste buds are not killed) Too sweet, but I eat finish anyway:-D

Quite good value, good location, It's my second time having high tea here. Last time was... 2 years ago and I can foresee my next visit will be in 2 years time or so But I will come back.

Tried four macarons in a go....having one after the other really allows you to tell the difference between each!

Rose
The woman taking our order recommended this. I had high hopes for this...but there was no scent or taste of rose at all! It tasted of pure sugar, simply given a pink colouring.... The middle part wasn't identifiable at all! It was sickly sweet.

Caramel with Coffee center
This tasted like the Daim candies (available in Ikea), still very sweet but less so than the rose.

Earl grey tea with bitter choco ganache
The earl grey tea was nicely scented with earl grey but I think the macaron crust was way too sweet once again. Thank goodness the bitter chocolate center helped to mellow out the sweetness a little.

Bitter choco
This was my favourite of the lot. I liked the chocolate intensity plus its lack of sickly sweetness like the previous ones! I think the cocoa powder dusted on top helped alot.

In general LGB's macarons can only be called 'big'. At $15 a piece it is certainly cheaper than other brands such as JPH or Paul Lafayet, but i doubt its taste/texture is comparable..! I would only do a repeat of their bitter chocolate macaron if I had to.

I find that on the Lucky Day, you can get a really really good coffee @ Element's Le Gouter Bernardaud! Its something that I have never experienced at their 2 x IFC stores or in their Harbour City store before. However, choosing to drink-in incurs additional charges here, 2ndly there's 10% service charge. Expect to pay around $55 for Coffee & $70+ for Tea. The Harbour City store therefore becomes a bargain as its virtually half-price of here!

Like the IFC 2nd Floor shop, Element's LGB is a flagship store too with higher quality and more food varieties. Their sandwiches are made from imported French artisanal bread or ham & cheese, their Coffee blend is carefully roasted to a Famous American Chef's Specs, their Macarons and Cakes are though made locally are of a very high quality (Nowadays way better than before, when it was just sugary sweet!). Its their HIGH QUALITY TEAS however, which has me coming back and back!

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MACARONS - GRIOTTE + CARAMEL CAFE, ROSE :
I once wrote a bad review of these before months ago, as they were just sugar! Nowadays however, they are probably the best macarons available. The Cherry version was using fresh cherry jam, the Salted Caramel one had a beautifully smooth butter cream! The Rose version also had a rose petal butter cream which was fantastic. The only other shops which can compare are Island Gourmet & Paul Lafayet! SCORE: 4.5/5

GOURMET TEA - FLEUR :
I've tried the Earl Grey and Noel en Provence before at IFC, so this time, tried a tea made from mirabelle, orange blossom, jasmine flowers, rose petal, etc. This is a really lovely natural style tea - the finish has such a long lasting lingering feel! Wow! SCORE: 5/5

CAPPUCINO NO. 1 :
Made by a lady really well, it was surprisingly complex and full of chocolatey spiciness, though that came partly from the chocolate powder sprinkled on. Nevertheless, a very well made Coffee and I still remember it to this day - that's how impressive it was! SCORE: 4.8/5

CAFFE LATTE NO. 2 (TAKE AWAY) :
Ordered this take-away another day and it was made by another lady. This unfortunately wasn't good at all, lacking Coffee Taste and too hot too foamy. This tasted like Pacific Coffees on average. SCORE: 2/5
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A VERY HIGH QUALITY CAFE IN GENERAL, MUCH BETTER THAN NORITAKE & NIJI BISTRO.
COFFEES SEEM INCONSISTENT, BUT ON YOUR LUCKY DAY, AMAZING!
NOT THE SAME CAN BE SAID OF IFC OUTLETS, WHEN GOURMET TEA WOULD DO ME JUST FINE...

First time to Element.

Supposed to be going to Habitu, yet really attracted by the high tea set display with sweet macaron and cakes on the top, scones and chiffon cake on the middle and sandwiches on the bottom.

5 of us, just had a big lunch in Kenjo, shared a high tea set for 2, plus 4x tea and 2x coffee ...

I had my mocha ... what a super rich chocolate-filled coffee! The texture is extremely rich. Really doubted if I had a wrong order of chocolate instead, I could only sip a little coffee flavor only. It would be good choice for those who wanna try coffee.

I was too full that I had a sip of my dear's earl grey. It was great, completely dissolved my fullness, both the aroma and flavor of the tea was strong. I liked it much.

Back to the food. I had everything in half - sandwich, scone and rasberry macaron. The sandwich was a toasted bread topped with parma ham, chopped tomatoes and asparagus. It was a crunchy bite and the ingredients were fresh. And the mini scone, my favorite was well-matched with the grape jam. Even the scone was not that crunchy, yet it was still warm as it has out for a while. In the end was the macaron, it was still good with a strong rasberry taste and the bite was fine *yet I just had the Laduree macaron fr london* ... if 100 was the full score, LGB would have 75 to my opinion.

Concerning the environment and food, the quality was not bad. A good try. But I am thinking ... if there is any other better choices at such a price?

5 of us had tea in Elements and consider LGB as decent, mainly attracted by the high-tea set displayed, yet later find out if was a a little pricy, thus go for the single's tea set (which originally claimed only available on weekdays, so we got it as bonus)

the scone sets were hard, but on top of butter and jam, we asked for cream, expecting clotted cream, we were served with fresh cream. anyway. the cakes and tarts were tiny. the lemon sponge with chocolate filling were not surprising nor particularly delightful, but the cheese tart was indeed nice (beside its tiny size)

lemon tea, coffee, mint tea were all not surprising, but the mocha, which offers 2 kinds, were very nice (afterall a place that sells chocolate can't really have awful mocha). i had the lighter one, and it was indeed with melted chocolate.

this outlet is less posh compared to the IFC one, and we felt it was too open, the shoppers were starring at us most of the time, and the light kinda make me wana fall asleep, but i still think it worth going