Lobby Lounge     香港洲際酒店大堂酒廊  

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.

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

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!

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.