Tea is a meal that really doesn't get enough attention. By and large, if you meet a friend for a cup of tea you go to a coffee shop, snuggle up on a sofa and perhaps indulge in a slightly dry muffin (well, at least in Hong Kong - what is it about over-dry pastries in this place?). In my book, that's not tea. What I'm talking about is the full meal that is afternoon tea - and after sampling Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula, I can tell you it is not overstating it to call it 'a meal'. The Peninsula's indulgent afternoon tea gives you the opportunity to have a sophisticated, relaxed and, well, civilised afternoon, drinking gallons of tea and righting the world.
We were warned that the queues on a Sunday can get quite lengthy so we skipped lunch and headed over at about 2.30. This was definitely the right decision because the queue was very short and we got a table relatively quickly. Having said that, it is actually quite nice spending a bit of time in the queue because it gives you a good opportunity to indiscreetly gawp at the hotel's opulent lobby - and, of course, at the other patrons sipping their darjeeling. Despite being huge, the lobby has a great atmosphere, enhanced by the string quartet that played throughout the afternoon. There is enough hustle and bustle to take away any uncomfortable formality but you are still left with a nice level of pomp and circumstance.
The food arrives on a three tiered platter and involves everything you could wish for from absolutely brilliant scones with clotted cream and jam, to dainty smoked salmon or cucumber sandwiches, to mini-quiches to cakes and truffles. Despite our best efforts - and we did try pretty hard - we didn't make that big a dent on the collection. Everything, as you'd expect from The Peninsula, was of a very high standard although C. and D. were particularly enthusiastic about the 
mushroom 'sausage rolls' (which naturally I couldn't verify because I think all mushrooms are intrinsically wrong!). In case we felt hard done by, the waiters also bought a 'pudding' of tiramisu. The tiramisu was not really tiramisu, it was a pistachio cream pudding. Sorry to jump back on my mini-bandwagon here but seriously, does nowhere do good tiramisu in Hong Kong - one with plenty of coffee and booze? I'm searching high and low to no avail.
I know that Afternoon Tea at The Peninsula tends to be something that you do when you have guests in town but I'm now a convert to a bit of indulgence just because. It was such a lovely, relaxing experience (they didn't rush us one bit, regularly refilling our silver tea-pots). Wonderful.
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