MoMo & Coco

HK’s Best High Tea Series: Conrad Dubai Chocolate Pistachio + Hyatt Centric Pandan High Teas

Ending the summer with two viral green dessert flavours – Dubai Chocolate pistachio and pandan.

 

Our experience

Whereas high tea is not a strong point in NYC, it most certainly is in many parts of Asia.  As part of our “Best High Tea in Hong Kong” series, we checked out two high tea spots that featured two persistently on-trend dessert flavours: Dubai Chocolate pistachio and pandan. Both continue to cement for us why Asia — not NYC — is the epicentre of dessert creativity and artisanship.

 

Dubai Chocolate Pistachio High Tea

  • ☑ Dessert destination:  Conrad Hotel, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island.
  • ☑ Budget: $$$ (HKD $688 for 2 persons + service tax; approx USD $40 pp – not available as solo set).
  • ☑ Local flavours featured: No.
  • ☑ Best for:  Meticulously-themed pistachio high tea. 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  2024 was the year that “Dubai Chocolate” became viral on the likes of TikTok and Instagram, especially in Europe and parts of the US. By contrast, in Australia, we only heard down-the-grapevine whispers of it. In Hong Kong, pistachio — rather than Dubai Chocolate itself — is more on-trend, mostly because the local palate does not err towards saccharine desserts. Over this summer at the Conrad Hotel, we spent a leisurely afternoon nibbling our way through a pistachio-themed afternoon tea. It started with savouries, such as a white chocolate and pistachio foie gras praline, and a pistachio mortadella mille-feuille. They were presented simultaneously on a large crystal platter as the desserts. The sweet offerings included pistachio mousse-cakes, sponge cakes, panna cotta and mini ice cream cones, all offset with fruity tones of apricot, cherry and strawberry. Of course, afternoon tea is not afternoon tea withut some proper scones, and on our visit, the Conrad even scooped out generous dollops of pistachio-infused clotted cream, alongside the usual strawberry jam and ordinary clotted cream. As an epilogue, the hotel gifted high tea participants with a large block of Dubai Chocolate. We are still not quite sure what we think about this diabetic-inducing, sticky concoction of chocolate, pistachio cream and crunchy knafeh filo pastry. Be forewarned that eating it does certainly require a thorough teeth-brushing session afterwards.
 

Pandan Summer High Tea

  • ☑ Dessert destination:  Hyatt Centric, 1 North Point Estate Lane, North Point, Hong Kong Island.
  • ☑ Budget: $$$ (HKD $688 for 2 persons + service tax; approx USD $40 pp – not available as solo set).
  • ☑ Local flavours featured: No.
  • ☑ Best for: Regional flavours (prior to this, Hyatt Centric had a Korean-accented offering). 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Long-time readers of this dessert blog know that we love pandan desserts — our guide to the best pandan desserts in NYC remains one of our most-read dessert reviews. So you can of course imagine that the moment we heard of a pandan-themed afternoon tea in Hong Kong, we immediately reserved a table. The hotel where this themed afternoon tea was held was the Hyatt Centric, over in the far eastern side of Hong Kong Island. Offering a bright north-western view of the harbour,  the hotel buzzed with a predominantly expatriate lunch crowd. As for the high tea itself, soporific ribbon sandwiches were thoughtfully replaced with a quartet of savouries inspired by South-East Asian flavours other than pandan. For example, there was a tartlet of beetroot and thail basil mousse; a lettuce-wrapped crispy prawn;  a spoonful of crab salad spread on tapioca crackers; and triangles of pandan kaya toast to be dipped in a slightly sweet/slightly salty concoction of egg and soy sauce. The dessert offerings that afternoon leaned sweeter than the average local HK palate would likely prefer — we however loved all of the pandan components, which included an ondeh ondeh sponge cake bisected with dessicated caramelized coconut; another pandan cake decorated with shards of mango and pomelo sitting on mango sticky rice-scented cream; and a chewy mochi ondeh ball of pandan and coconut. Other dessert items that did not follow the pandan theme included a kaffir lime pavlova, and an exuberantly rich, chocolate-filled dessert taco creation. To top it all off, there was also an “all you can eat” ice cream and shaved ice station. From here, we could only fit in a bowl of cendol, and two scoops of pandan and coconut ice cream. 
 

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