PRO

* high tea time is 230-530pm, earlier than most hotels (except for peninsula which is 2pm)
* no need to queue in line (like peninsula)
* free valet parking for your spending
* lovely live band
* unsurpass view of harbour and HK island
* savoury food is awesome. the scones while not as good as mandarinoriental for example, but still well made.
* attentative service

CON

* very expensive at $488 + service charge per tea set for two. that is nearly double some hotels like excelsior and substantially more expensive than peninsula (the std of comparison for TST hotel high tea).
* limited choice. you can only choose either western or chinese high tea. there is no a-la-carte. it would be nice to be able to just order a coffee and scones
* sweets/pastries/desserts weren't that special. the lemon cheescake was bad.

Have planned for trying high tea here more than half yr since new chef came with new menu.
Select sunshine wkend to drop by. The afternoon tea is 3-6pm on wkday and 2-6pm on wkend but no reservation is allowed. We arrived hotel 145pm while there had been ~15guests ahead of us. Seating started from 150pm and it took 15min till we're arranged for seating at seaview sofa table.
Envrionment is excellent, very spacious area with fabulous seaview oversight the whole Victoria Harbour, HK Exhibition hall, IFC. The ceiling is semi glass-made with sunllight shed through. And table lay-out was friendly to allow privacy, won't be too crowded (as Penisula). Service was extraordinory, from seating arrangement, order taking, serving table, refill water, etc. Smile and patience filled with every waiter/waitress.

Back to food itself. The restaurant offered 3 tea sets:
Inter-Continental Tea Set -$488 for two
Champagne Tea Set- $828 for two (all same as inter-con just with additional two glasses of champagne)
The Red Box Chinese tea set -$488 for two.

We selected the traditional Inter-Con Tea Set with Marco Polo and Eros tea and both were great. Tea Set was presented in 3-layer tray but in arch shape (more traditional style) with warm scones in seperate elegent silver basket.
top layer: clotted cream, strawberry jam and raspberry jam. But i still liked clotted cream served best with warm scone. Scone (4 piece) is the highlight of the whole tea set. Full of cream flavor, texture wise well condensed but not stick, fresh and warm. perfect English-style scone. mid-layer: desserts selection: Lemon cheesecake (best
Coffee Almond Chocolate Cake strong coffee flavor filled with lots of chocolate crunches inside. special chocolate cake. Texture is very tender.
Lemon Cheese Cake ~ strong cheese flavor but well balanced with refreshing lemon outer layer.
Toffee Vanilla Cream Puff ~Puff was fresh stuffed with vanilla cream.
Raspberry Ispahan ~ it tastes more as sponge cake, not creamy or strong in raspberry flavor.
Yuza Chocolate Tart ~ too sweet low-layer: pastries:
Iberian Ham & Mozzarella Bun ~ Just ordinary bun but served with ham (ham itself was good).
Caviar Egg Salad Buttered Brioche ~ Caviar portion was generous but not strong flavor, egg salad was light。
Roasted Chicken Waldorf Bread ~ minced chicken is a bit tough in flavor and again bread is not fresh enough。
Dungeness Crabmeat Mini Bagel: i like the crabmea but again not the bagel itsef.

In terms of envrionment and service, worth visiting definitely. However, in terms of quality of high tea itself, maybe not worth visiting 2nd time.

I’ve realised that it’s also a High Tea marathon hehe because its one of the easiest ways to try lots of desserts at once and I’m also able to keep my friends happy who can’t just eat sweet food lol Intercontinental Hotel has one of the best views of the Victoria Harbour however, because of air pollution and constant fog… it’s hard to get a good clear view >_< but still it was really nice to be able to chat with a girlfriend and have some tea and cake ~
I was actually supposed to have high tea here the weekend before, but when we got here at 2pm, they said the afternoon tea set didn’t start until 3:30pm…but I was sure I checked online that it said they open at 2pm, so instead of waiting we went to Coco Patisserie ~ So this time…I made sure I double checked online and also called that on weekdays the high tea starts at 2:30pm. They suggested that we get there at around 2pm because it was always ‘full’. So we got there at 2pm and even though the Lobby Lounge was empty and we were asked to wait outside and come back at 2:3opm. That kind of bothers me… because I think they should have allowed us to sit down and not make us wait for no apparent reason.They have 3 types of afternoon tea sets – Champagne, Intercontinental and The Red Box. Kaylee and I both agreed that the Chinese infused Red Box high tea was too weird for our liking and neither of us wanted to drink so we settled for the Intercontinental Tea Set.We also ordered English breakfast tea I know there’s other types of teas that’s wonderful but I still think the plain old English breakfast is the best for high tea!

As per usual, we were both ravenous and started with the savouries first There was two of each hehe starting from the left there’s a mini bun with eggs and herbs, then a extremely miniature bagel so damn cute! Little pastrami bun and last but not least a ham and cheese pastry ~ we enjoyed the savouries, however, I didn’t like the first mini bun with eggs and herbs, I’m not sure what cream they used…but it had a really strange after taste I think another reason why I like high tea is because of the scones I totally heart scones ~ particularly liked how they were served it in a little basket and wrapped in a towel to keep them nice and warm ~ they weren’t just plain and raisons scones. The one with the little one dots on the right is a lemon one.The strawberry jam and clotted cream weren’t spectacular, but I really liked the Earl Grey Jelly I never thought I would because I’m not really an Earl Grey kind of girl lol but I really liked this jelly and thought it matched the scones ~

Oops think I forgot to take a close up of the desserts Sorry I don’t like how they only have one piece of every cake LOL I think it would have been more generous if they gave us two pieces of each ~ starting from the left it’s a vanilla and lemon eclair with a little piece of pineapple, I didn’t mind it and thought the choux pastry was made very well. Then we’ve got an apple and coconut tart, quite nice and really liked the stewed apple on top. Then its the chocolate layer cake with raspberry/strawberry mousse, it was slightly bitter I think because of the dark chocolate ~ my favourite would have to be the lemon cheesecake It wasn’t that rich or dense but really light. The last one on the right is a raspberry sponge cake with a raspberry compote in between ~ It reminded me of a lamington heheIt was a lovely surprise when a waiter came over and popped down two chocolate panna cotta and said that it was complimentary with the afternoon tea set ~ I don’t usually like panna cotta but this was so smooth and creamy!

I’ve heard that you’re can order a la carte desserts ~ so I couldn’t help but order the lemon tart Overall, I enjoyed the afternoon tea set at Intercontinental and would recommend you coming for the amazing harbour view However, service wasn’t great for a five-star hotel and unless you like the lolly flavour maybe stay away from the lemon tart

Knowing the InterCon is promoting the chinese style afternoon tea – the Red Box ($488+10% for two), which is the greatest production of Michelin one starred restaurant –Yan Toh Heen. It interested me to give a try! You know, it’s common to have western style afternoon tea everywhere, but Chinese style afternoon tea ? I’d never tried before.

Before the Red Box arriving, I had ordered the Calendula tea for tasting. The Calendula beauty was wrapped within the jasmine tea leaves. It’s burst with the pleasing fragrance and flavour of light jasmine tea. I simply like the way it was supposed to be. Similar to western style afternoon tea, the Red Box contains 3 layers (boxes). It serves the savoury chinese pastries from salty taste to sweet taste.
Lets check out the first layer, it contains three kinds of hot salty Chinese pastries. I particularly like the freshness of golden Scallops with minced Shrimp and fresh Pear. The mini tartlette of sliced Abalone with mushroom tasted fabulous as well. It looks sophisticated with the eaten gold on top. The golden Crab claw with minced Shrimp is deep fried in a right temperature yet not too oily, nice! The second & third layers are all about the hot & cold sweet Chinese pastries. From the hot pastries, I especially like the Citrus cake the most. It tastes spectacular, sweet & sour at the same time. The crispy Sesame dumplings with custard cream tastes superb. It looks very delicate. From the cold pastries, The Coconut Almond custard with imperial bird’s nest and eaten gold taste awesome! Simply like the taste of bird’s nest matched excellent with the taste of Coconut Almond custard! I like the glutinous rose rice dumpling which stuffed with diced mango and mashed sweetened green beans inside. It’s decorated with a small piece of rose, very gorgeous and lovely.
I like the Chinese tea set here; the pastries are not extremely sweet nor oily, very suitable for elderly. Also, I adore how delicate the chef made the pastries to be, very creative Chinese set!
Having afternoon tea here is very relaxing. InterCon provides live band performance, which mostly plays the folk music. One of the songs they played was « Love Story», it is my favourite song of Taylor Swift ! I didn’t expect they would have such up-to-date song, thumb up !

Just found out today that for afternoon tea, the hotel has 15% discount with HSBC Premier card but for Harbourside cafe only and not lobby lounge. They told me HSBC Premier card do not have discount but why didn't they tell me in the 1st place I could enjoy the discount at Harbourside cafe ????

My father is a member of Intercontinental group and gave me the afternoon tea coupon offered by renewing membership each year. Had not visited since Nov 2009.
We sat down and shown a waitress our coupon. She told us the coupon is only good for Mon - Fri. Coupons used to be good for every day except a few festival day before. Since we have sit down, so we decided to order and pay by cash.
Prices went up from HKD 399 + 10% to HKD 488 + 10%. (HKD 428+10% for weekday)
If I remember correctly, they used to have chocolate on the tea set tray before. Not anymore.
Since the waiter kept asking what coffee my husband wanted, my husband told him latte and found out later no refill for latte. The waiter should have told us before. We know there was refill for original coffee.
Tea came first, have to wait another 15-20 min before set were served. (I was very hungry.) There were a lot more people than before.
The scone were served in a silver basket. The scone at the top were cool, the ones at the bottom are warm. The scones used to be hot during my Nov 2009 visit. Guess the hotel do not have enough waiters/waitresses to serve so many tables left it at the kitchen for a while. This is not what I expected from a 5 star hotel.
The sandiches were average. The cakes were prettier and better than before. But we could tell less good ingredient were used for the tea set overall than before.
We take our time to enjoy our tea set and see if they got newspaper or magazine. Perhaps too many people were having teaset or hotel did not offer enough newspaper, only a japanese newspaper and a section of SCMP left on the table.
In Nov 2009, some biscuit and macaroon were served after we had our bill. Not anymore.
With this price, service and quality, I prefer Peninsular or have lunch buffet instead.

Date dined: Thursday 2nd june 3.15pmOrdered: InterContinental Tea set for 2 ($428)Taste: ham sandwich- All the savory sandwiches looked so small and cute. They were all round unlike others i have tasted. The ham sanwichw as good. I can't say they are the best sandwiches I have tasted but they weren't bad. The bread was soft and spongey. With fair emount of ham

Smoked salmon sandwich - i really liked this, not only the appearance was it was good, but the whole design. it is one layer of wheat bread then one layer of smoked salmon then one layer of the bread then the salmon again. which is more thoughtful that just two piece of bread and salmon in the middle. The sandwich si cut into round shape and just bite size.

Egg mayo sandwich- This was also liek the smoked salmon sandwich, it was one layer of bread, then one layer of the mayo, only difference is they used white bread in this rather than wheat bread. It is also cut into round shape. It tasted like all the egg mayo I usually i have, nothing particularly special about this. Bread with an unknown filling- This tasted really nice, but we couldn't guess what fillings it was. itw as creamy white, but definately not egg mayo. The bread was poppy seed bread, which brings out another taste to it. i loved this bread

Overall I liked the savorys andwiches served here, they gave alot more thought into the look, shape, taste, texture of teh sandwiches more than any other hotels I have been. Where they would just put fillings into two piece of bread. Herre they have tried using other shapes, other bread, other texture etc to make them all different

Sweet cakesStrawberry cheesecake- The strawberry cheesecake was good. With soft cheese inside and strawberry coating on outside, with real strawberries on top. Was delicioud. i liked how they included white chocolate on the outside, which gave more texture to the cake. I liked it alot.Custurd tart - This looked like a large marshmellow. We couldn't work out what it was, but we split it in half and it was custurd inside but withcream on outside, shaped into a dome. The bottom was cookie tart. Nice and crispy on the bottom, smooth and creamy on the top.

Orange eclair with caramel inside- I am not too fond of orange cakes or food, so i might be abit bias on this review. The eclair did not taste as sweet as i expected it to be. The caramel inside was not sweet at all, but quite enjoyable. The orange topping was really sweet. Too sweet, felt like I was eating heaps of sugar. Not good.Chocolate orange cake- This tasted too sweet. maybe because the chocolate and chocolate mousse have started to melt. It has lost its original texture and as itw as warm, it tasted too sweet. Not good at all.Scones- The scones came in two different types- plain and raisins. I personally liked the raisins, as it gave more texture and taste. The scones were nice and warm, and came seperately in a box. I liked them with the clotted cream. Was very filling.

Overall the sweet cakes were REALLY sweet and they have lost the texture and started melting very soon. i would have hoped they would improve on that.Atmosphere- The lounge is situated on the ground floor, right at teh back from the front door. Nothings pecial about the interior. the hotel looks bit old, nothing trendy or stylish about it. teh lounge was quite big with many seatings and sofa. Was not even half full when we got there. It was nice and bright. Conclusion- I wouldn't ahve personally picked to go TST to high tea but did not have much choice but to come here. for 428 hk dollars, i thought this was over priced for the food nad atmosphere. The service was okay, could have been better. I heard anotherw aiter telling the other waiter off, which isn't too professional. One of the waiter tried to tell us the clotted cream, jam and marmalade but I couldnt hear a word he was saying. He should have spoke louder and clearer. The cakes were all below average, teh savory snacks were better. for that price and for a setting that has no effort and old, i think teh food should be better. There wasn't even refills on the tea which is really cheap and inconsiderate for the price you are paying

Cherry cheesecake tea set ($130) - not bad. But not enough taste of cheese

Festive Afternoon Tea set ($398 for 2) - palmiers and egg salad sandwiches are good. Reddish pyramid is a green tea mousse cake - not too sweet and the green tea taste is very rich. Rest is just average quality

This is the only place i love to go, but this is not the best yet..... exec. service couple of wine about 1200$hk...depends how u feel, i had a really good one before in New York city. or the Napa winey in Califr. which i would like to order the wine from France in stead of USA. Go after 10pm....the best time to enjoy the view with wine. also the dessert.....

i just have the dinner buffet on tuesday. this is the best buffet i ever have in hk. previously, i think Grand Hyatt Grand Cafe is the best.

the view here is very very nice, very beatiful night harbour view. even though the decoration is average and quite noisy, the environment is still very good & relax for having dinner.

the main theme, of course - the food, is very tasty. the cold seafood, lobster, crab leg, oyster, ....... very fresh and 'sweet', especailly the lobster. there are 2 kinds of lobster, the one with smooth and redder surface tastes better. sushi & sashimi is average but it is already quite good for buffet.
hot dishes are very very average. nothing special but taste is okay. high quality & fresh ingredients are used. the soup, mushroom cream soup & shark fin soup are also good.
for the dessert table, many many many thing to choose. chocolate cake - very rich in chocolate and not very sweet. chocolate ice cream is also very good. cheese cake - very cheesy but still light. i only try 1/2 number of dessert as i eat am too full after eating the seafood and hot dishes.

for the service, this is unexpected excellent, the waiter, waitress & also chef here are very polite and provide very good service. one more thing that i find here but not for other hotel is 'smile'. people working here smiles that make customer feel very warm.

price is quite expensive, but worth! my best friend paid the bill with 15% discount still cost $440 per head. if u cannot eat too much, here - not recommended. as $500 can pay for a very fine dinner 5-course dinner. if u like seafood, especially lobster like me, here - highly recommended. very bargain. i eat 3 lobster!! (6 half) a live lobster already cost u over $150 in supermarket. for oyster, here - 3-4 kinds, chef open in front of you (of course not u choose and he often), very fresh, not frozen one and then defrost to serive. if like oyster, also very bargain.

conclusion, highly highly recommended!!