HK’s Best Chinese New Year High Tea Series: Salisterra and Conrad Hotel

Galloping into the Year of the Horse with special new year-themed modern Chinese desserts.

Our experience

Whereas high tea is not a strong point in NYC, it most certainly is in many parts of Asia. By contrast to Christmas desserts, we haven’t featured all that many Chinese/Lunar New Year desserts on this dessert blog over the years. Allow us to remedy that asap! To celebrate our first CNY in Hong Kong, and as part of our continuing “Best High Tea in Hong Kong” series, we recently spent consecutive weekends nibbling our way through two very special themed high teas. Short story, both are most worthy of your time and stomach space. Happy CNY all!

Modern Chinese High Tea at Upper House Salisterra x Mi Xun Teahouse

Dessert destination: Salisterra, Level 49, Upper House Hong Kong Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island.
Budget: $$$ (HKD $718 + tax/service for 2 persons; also available as a solo set).
Local flavours featured: Yes.
Short and sweet story: You may recall when we posted our first Hong Kong dessert adventure shortly after relocating over to the city, we noted that not much had changed in the city in the last decade since we had last visited. Salisterra is one of those unchanging places — we remember it all those years ago as a luxe airy space offering expansive views of the city’s Victoria Harbour. Fast forward ten years later, it still exists, exuding the same somewhat rarefied ambience. When we caught wind that a famed Michelin-starred teahouse from Chengdu was in town to collaborate with Salisterra for a pop-up dessert high tea event, we quickly made a reservation. Short story, no regrets. Completely doing away with any English slant, afternoon tea at Salisterra with MiXun was an entirely Chinese affair. With no boring limp ribbon tea sandwiches in sight, savouries instead comprised a bowl of green-tinted spinach noodles mixed with dan dan sauce, a puff heartily stuffed with duck, a tight ball of sweet and sour prawn sitting on a prawn cracker, and curious morels marinated with a spicy kick. The afternoon tea sweets were appropriately “not too sweet.” Barely a hint of sugar could be detected from the neon-orange rice cake with hints of osmanthus and yam tones, nor from the prettily-embossed red date and ginger cookie. Just slightly more sweet were the panda black sesame macaron and the mini swiss roll enveloped with soft jasmine tea tones.
Pro dessert adventure tip: ask for a window seat when making your reservation. 🙂

Blossoms of Luck Lunar New Year High Tea at the Conrad Hotel

Dessert destination: Conrad Hotel, 88 Queensway, Admiralty, Hong Kong Island.
Budget: $$$ (HKD $698 + tax/service for 2 persons, also available as a solo set).
Local flavours featured: Yes.
Short and sweet story: A few months ago, we visited the Conrad for its Dubai Chocolate pistachio high tea. See previous review here. Although Dubai Chocolate in all its cavity-inducing sticky glory is not quite our cup of tea, we can definitively say that any creative iteration of high tea is, so without further ado, it did not require much ruminating to book the Conrad again when we heard that it was offering a specially-themed Chinese New Year high tea. Similar to Salisterra, we were delighted to not see a single boring ribbon tea sandwich. Savouries were a little more refined than that at Salisterra’s high tea, encompassing the likes of abalone tart, tiny bits of lobster and chicken, and a very curious-tasting cauliflower jelly embroidered with jasmine tea and raspberry infused gel droplets. Although the scones – a striking red velvet and more subtle mandarin one – erred on the slightly dry and crumbly texture, the Conrad’s desserts were — similar to the previous Dubai Chocolate Pistachio high tea set — the undeniable highlight. Showcased on a traditional Chinese teak decor stand, we nibbled our way through three mousse cakes shaped as a brightly-hued mandarin fruit, a vibrant red money bag overflowing with tiny gold yuanbao 元寶 ingots, and a creamy sesame ball. By contrast, a small glass layered with mango, sago and pomelo leaned more towards classic Hong Kong dessert. The afternoon tea session ended with a simultaneously soothing and revitalizing bowl of black sesame mochi dumplings floating in fragrant ginger syrup.