Elegant afternoon tea @ LE SALON DE THÉ de Joël Robuchon (Elements), Hong Kong

Our fave French chef Robuchon has opened his third LE SALON DE THÉ in Hong Kong in the mall downstairs. I had afternoon tea with a friend at the tea salon in The Landmark about a year ago, and wanted to share the experience with hubby, however the opportunity never came up. Last weekend was the Lunar New Year 4-day long weekend, and for the first time in 3.5 years, hubby took leave from work on a HK public holiday so that he could give me a hand with the kids. We had such a grand fun family time! On one of the days, time slipped by us, and we still hadn't had lunch by 2:30pm. The 5-year-old had his snacks so he was okay for late lunch, the 2-month-old had already drank her lunch, and I wasn't that hungry, but hubby was starving! Since afternoon tea would be served soon at 3pm, we decided to head back towards home and go to the new Salon de The for a small late lunch to tide us over until dinnertime.

The long queue for afternoon tea:

There was already a long queue waiting to enter the tea salon at 2:45pm, and we weren't seated until an hour later. We don't usually have the patience to wait that long to eat, but we spent a long time debating whether to stay or leave that we were at the front before we knew it. This would be a lovely place to enjoy afternoon tea at a leisurely pace, but we were in and out as soon as we were finished (thus the way it has to be when dining out with young children), that the next group in line behind us were still waiting for a table. The service at this tea salon was better than the one at The Landmark, and the food was of course nothing short of excellent.

The boulangerie for take-away or eat-in purchases:

The sleek black-and-red interior is signature of Robuchon, and this salon is more spacious than the one at The Landmark:

One of my favourite Robuchon restaurant design concept is the 'open' kitchen, and though this is not an open kitchen per se, there's a window where we could watch chefs work on the crepe hot plate. The chef on the left was incredibly shy considering his work in front of the window:

The teapots were heavy! These were round compared to the angular ones used at The Landmark:

Lemon ginger tea for me and passion mango tea for hubby, pictured with Devonshire clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam (with a lovely hint of rose flavour) for the scones:

Afternoon tea set for two:

Homemade daily scones - plain scones and chocolate cherry scones. Scones are my favourite item of any afternoon tea:

Sandwiches tier - buttery mini croissant, smoked salmon and salmon egg sandwich, Maine lobster and mango sandwich, vegetarian eggplant sandwich and French-style black truffle sandwich. All very dainty, and gone within seconds:

Pastries - raspberry eclair, lemon tart, a mille-feuille like piece, a macaron ganache (I believe it was lemon-flavoured), chocolate almond cake, homemade chocolate (with candied orange), and an Earl Grey cake. All delicious (and unfortunately most are not safe for nut allergy sufferers like our son):

Everything was impeccable, as to be expected. We would love to come back and try the lunch menu. I'm pretty happy that we now have a French restaurant so close by!

LE SALON DE THÉ de Joël Robuchon
Shop 1020B,
1st Floor Elements
1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2351 6678