High Tea at Island Shangri-La

High Tea is one of the many wonderful British legacies left in Hong Kong - one that I have recently been wanting to explore further. Usually served between 2PM and 6PM, tea set meals can be found all over (in cafés, sandwich shops, etc), but they are most famously associated with high-end hotels and resorts. Last year, I tried my first High Tea with Carson at the Mandarin Oriental hotel and loved it. This summer, Katherine and I had three more High Tea experiences...

• A return to the Mandarin Oriental (where the homemade rose petal jam still leaves you gobsmacked)
• At a café in the IFC mall (I was without my camera, so it wasn't blogged, but it was tasty)
  
• Yesterday's trip to Island Shangri-La (the focus of this post)

I have a list of other High Teas that I'd like to experience, so you can bet that there will be more blogs about it, but today is all about our time in Island Shangri-La.

They serve High Tea in two places: the 6th floor lobby lounge and in Island Gourmet, a small cake shop on the 5th floor. The lobby had live music, but was much more crowded and noisy, so we chose the privacy of Island Gourmet...

About an hour later, just before we finished, this place would be absolutely packed

Unlike the other places I've tried High Tea, Island Shangri-La actually has three different tea sets you can choose from (in my experience, there's usually only one). They all looked delicious, but we went with the "traditional" set...

Rather a lot of goodies!

Elegant presentation

Clotted cream
(after someone tasted a fingerful)

Beerenberg strawberry jam and orange marmalade

(very good, but not in the same league as Mandarin Oriental's rose petal jam)

Sweets: apple milirtons, praline chocolate bars, raspberry tarts

Savories: roast beef finger sandwiches, smoked salmon squares, and chicken curry puff pastries

Scones!

Cakes: pistachio madeleine, English fruit cake, chocolate financier

With peppermint tea and hot chocolate to wash it all down, it was delicious (though decidedly carb-heavy) and I look forward to returning to try their other sets.