Sunday 19 October 2014

The Travel Diaries: Afternoon at Harvey Nicks, The Butchers Club and The Golden Leaf at Conrad Hong Kong

Our return from Beijing to Hong Kong marked the nearing of the end of my trip around South East Asia. Therefore, we decided to celebrate in style!

First up, afternoon tea at Harvey Nichols.




I have to say after our slightly disappointing experience with the Chloé afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental, I was slightly resigned to the idea that nowhere does afternoon tea as well as well as the English. After all, it is a traditionally English concept.

However, I was more than pleasantly surprised! We sat down in the colourful restaurant and not long later, our cakes, scones and savouries descended. The food was all beautifully presented, each little morsel a work of art.





I also loved the variety in the savouries and the range of cakes offered, especially the stilton and mushroom filo tart and the lobster flavoured creme brûlée.





We very happily munched our way through while chatting and gossiping away. Harvey Nicks was a hit!



One evening, Jossi took me to a fab little burger bar. This brave little restaurant only served one type of burger (unless you ordered from their 'secret' menu, accessed by QR codes dotted around the establishment) and one type of side, duck fat fries. And they were finger lickingly delicious. As in, good enough that we were shamelessly picking up every last crumb. Yum. Apparently this tastiness stems from the fact that each burger is hand made on site, freshly ground from Australian angus beef, making them super juicy and super fresh, but really who cares. What mattered was just how good they tasted! Paired with a coke float, I was in heaven!




I also loved how the most was made of such a small space. We perched on an open bar overlooking the street and before long got chatting to the people opposite us. The friendly and relaxed atmosphere, enhanced by the chatty staff, made for a great, quick watering hole which Joss and I felt rather enamoured by. We were so glad we visited!




On my last night in Hong Kong, Jossi's family generously took us out to dinner at The Golden Leaf restaurant in the Conrad Hotel. I was incredibly excited as The Golden Leaf has a very good reputation and a Michelin Star to boot.




We tucked in to a variety of Cantonese dishes (I have to admit I didn't know what a lot of them were since Jossi's dad did the ordering, but they were all delicious!).  The presentation was beautiful with each dish having an accompanying mini flower arrangement on the side. I especially liked how instead of the usual sharing plates I'd become accustomed to in Hong Kong, the food was individually plated.







The dinner was lovely and just a little sad as it dawned on me that I'd be leaving Joss and her wonderful family just the next day. It had been such an incredible trip and we'd seen so many beautiful and amazing things. Walking back home through the centre on the city gave me a last chance to soak up the of the city before packing the last of my things and getting ready for my departure. Leaving was definitely traumatic, but don't worry Jossi, I'll be back soon!




3 comments:

  1. Sounds (and looks) like a wonderful way to celebrate being home!


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  2. Wow, these pictures look great. I would love to make it to China one day...there is so much world to see, it's hard to know where to go next. I love reading people's travel blogs to get inspiration. I blog about my travels too, check out www.thegreeneyedgirl.co.uk if you'd like to see. Look forward to reading more of your blog, Claire

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  3. Looks like you had a wonderful trip, you're lucky to have such a wonderful friend! xx

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