Restaurant: The Lobby Lounge @ The Regent Hotel
Meal: Afternoon Tea
📍: Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui
Executive Chef: Rajiv Chowdhoory
Pastry Chef: Andy Yeung
In lieu of the re-grand opening of the Regent Hotel, I will highlight the afternoon tea I had there a few months ago during their soft opening. It wasn’t an occasion for me to critique the food so I didn’t take specific notes on my leisure meal, but this was my takeaway.
My Impressions:
By far my favourite place to have afternoon tea in ways of ambiance and lighting. The Lobby Lounge is light, airy and the tables are far enough apart where you feel like you can relax and breathe unlike most places in Hong Kong.
It’s got contemporary colonial feels with tall white pillars, floor to ceiling windows looking out at Victoria Harbour. Big planters of green offsets the white and earth tones of the seats. The small shelves with books gives off Pinterest, small cafe feel in a lavish, luxurious ways set against the blue skies and the famous skyline of Victoria Harbour. Whereas the Peninsula is very traditional Colonia British, big band included style, the Regent has a contemporary feel to it’s adjacent counterpart for a quieter afternoon spent.
The Regent, unlike the Penninsula across the street which is more traditional British afternoon tea, the Regent does a fun contemporary twist to it’s afternoon tea with hints of local Hong Kong flavours and flavours from the harbour.
Price:
Priced at $888HKD for 2 or $488HKD for 1 for a afternoon tea set, this is a high-end of the luxury tier in Hong Kong.
Now don’t get me wrong, this was a birthday celebration, so of course we need to splurge a little! I don’t want to scare most of you who don’t live in Hong Kong, this is considered a high-end experience, here let me help you.
I can break this down into 4 tiers in Hong Kong, you have your:
- Ultra-Luxury Tier (HK$900 – HK$1,100+ for two): This is where Regent Hong Kong sits. It shares this space with iconic venues like The Lobby at The Peninsula and The Lounge at The Four Seasons. You are paying for top-tier pastry chefs, premium ingredients, and world-class views.
- Premium Five-Star Tier (HK$700 – HK$850 for two): Excellent luxury experiences but slightly more accessible. This includes spots like The Lounge at JW Marriott or The Clipper Lounge at Mandarin Oriental.
- Mid-Range / Boutique Tier (HK$400 – HK$600 for two): High-quality sets found in trendy cafes, standalone restaurants, or modern 4-star hotels.
- Casual / Local Tier (Under HK$100 per person): The traditional local cafe (Cha Chaan Teng) afternoon tea tea set, which consists of a Hong Kong-style milk tea paired with a pineapple bun or French toast.
So you bet your bottom dollar I am going in with high expectations.
The things that stuck out to me during the meal:
The Classics:
The Tea
I ordered the English Breakfast. Fragrant, light, great for a late afternoon tea and you don’t want to be up in the middle of the night from the caffeine. Nothing too special to note. Next time will be the Lavender Earl Grey for a classic but fun twist.
Passionfruit and Fig Jam
The Regent offers local jams. As a person who is a die-hard classic strawberry jam with her scones, I try really hard not to be biased. The pairing of passionfruit jam with clotted cream is such a great idea though, surprised it wasn’t too sour. But what it lacked was flavour, both the fig and passionfruit didn’t have enough flavour to accompany the scone. I also feel it needed a bit more sugar, which is saying a lot for a Chinese person!
Classic Scone and Madeleine:
When a place known for their afternoon tea and calls these items their signature items for the menu, a certain expectation will come with it. So I went in my Simon Cowell suit and expected to be wow’ed.
…and I wasn’t.
The scones: Lovely glaze on top, looked absolutely beautiful, some of the best IG worthy scones I’ve seen at afternoon tea.
But that’s where it ends.
It wasn’t that busy when I went, but the scones arrived cold, not just slightly, but like it’s been sitting there for a day and the top became waxy.
Upon the first bite, I can tell the dough was overworked (like most HK employees) so it was more on the drier and dense side. The flavour of the scone fell flat and in dire need of a bit more salt to bring out the other flavours in the dough. The jams didn’t do enough to bring out the flavours of the scone either. For anyone that’s never tasted a scone, let me give you a scone 101.
Scones are suppose to be buttery and rich with a slight sweetness. The first bite should be a nice crispy on the outside like it’s toasted and carmelized before you get into the crumbly yet not-dry mouthfeel. It should never stick to the top of your oral palette. The buttery sweetness should balance perfectly with a sip of tea.
But my scones were cold, dense, and flat like my heart after my ex broke up with me. No amount of warm tea is going to fix this.
Madeleines: Again, the madeleines were beautiful with it’s golden brown scalloped shape, truly an IG post for the ages. But they came cold, so naturally, it was dry. It wasn’t the delicate, airy texture I expected. The flavour and texture fell flat for something sold as their signature item at a 5-star hotel. Please tell me the pastry chef took a sick day because these items made me want to cry. The flavour was also flat, I only tasted the sugar. I tried hard looking for the buttery flavour of the classic recipe or the hint of vanilla or lemon zest, but like the expats here in HK post-Covid, they were nowhere to be found.
The Sweets:
The Rhubarb Tartlet
This little tartlet was the highlight of the pastry section. Perfectly tarte without it being too overpowering, the tart crust was done perfectly, light but dense and able to balance out the tartness. Even the big chunk of rhubarb on the tiny tartlet didn’t hinder the experience.
The Savouries:
Steamed Egg Sandwich
It’s essentially classic Cantonese steamed eggs between 2 slices of bread with 3 small dollops of sauce, and made bougie with some gold leaf.
Wow! What a twist on the classic egg sandwich.
The texture between the bread and the silky texture of the eggs with the burst of freshness from the sauce was what did it for me. I need to give it to chef for bringing the ultimate cantonese home-cooked dish, the humble steamed egg into an afternoon tea setting at a fine dining establishment. It truly is food re-imagined.
The sandwich is also quite fitting for The Lobby Lounge as it features some classic Hong Kong items on the menu.
Ginger Steamed Milk (Egg) Pudding
This dish was made on the spot, a spectacle of sorts! The shrimp ceviche came to our table, and they told us to lift the plate as they added something into the mysterious cup underneath and told us to close it and told us to wait 1 minute.
Again, never thought I would have a classic steamed egg for afternoon tea. I was excited! 2 Cantonese steamed egg dishes, one sweet, one savoury, what a great concept.
They used the juice of ginger to create a chemical reaction with the milk! Ooh a science experiement and a meal! I love it! They even had a timer and everything!
But i came out a bit too overpowering to a point where it was bitter and pungent. They either used a bit too much ginger juice or the ginger they used were too young. The milk egg which is made by combining milk and egg whites with sugar then then steamed to create a melt-in-your-mouth custard. The pudding was indeed silky smooth but the flavour of the ginger felt like an MMA punch in the face. Couldn’t finish it at all. The let down of the entire meal. Too bad.
Final Words:
I have to say unlike the Penninsula, the savouries of Regent’s afternoon tea was the highlight. It has been months and it was the savoury sandwiches that I remember. Special event celebrations were low-key with a candle and an an engraved edible sign that came with the afternoon tea.
Will do a full review the next time, but this is what I remember from my leisure visit there a few months ago.
Absolutely LOVED seeing some classic reimagined cantonese dishes fused into the afternoon tea menu. It felt like an ode to Hong Kong as I sat in front of Victoria Harbour which is very fitting for Regent Hotel and it’s history. Would love to see the executive chef play around with some British Indian and Chinese flavours, would be a lovely contemporary take on the classic afternoon tea and a celebration of the Indian heritage that created the Fragrant Harbour and very fitting for Regent.
My Uncertfied Rating:
Out of 10:
Ambiance: 10
Food: 6
Service: 7