I accrued a lot of cheap Shangri-La points when The Economist had a great deal, but sadly didn’t have much chance to burn them. I spent some of them on a buffet in Beijing a few years back, but am still left with a stash of 2,500 points. Before the devaluation kicked in, I converted all into vouchers for Shangri-La the Shard, London.
A friend is visiting, which reminds me of redeeming those vouchers. Being in the Shard, the Shangri-La possesses an advantage that no other five-star hotels in London can ever compete.
It has four restaurants: Bar 31 and Sky Lounge are more like bars, whereas Ting and Gong are proper restaurants. I’ve got a few friends who’ve had an afternoon tea at the Ting, and I will follow them for the experience although I don’t like afternoon teas that much.
Coming out of the London Bridge station you can’t possibly miss the Shard.
The building has three entrances and the middle one is for the hotel.
The receptionist checks our reservation and then show us the lift, which leads straight to the 35th floor.
The hotel reception.
Our reservation is checked again when entering the Ting restaurant.
The restaurant is not as busy as I thought on a Sunday, as there are still a few window seats available.
There’s a theme for the Queen’s Jubilee.
Live music from a band:
Pick your tea from an iPad, otherwise the set is the same for everyone.
Savouries are served first. I don’t quite remember what they are except for the duck cake, but they are all pretty good.
Followed by the scones and cakes. I don’t have sweet teeth so won’t comment 😛
This Shard-like chocolate dessert is obviously their signature dish, and was created for the sake of Instagram. The chocolate exterior is fine, but the raspberry filling is way too sour for my taste. It’s probably more an art work than food.
Great view from the table.
And from the bathroom too.
The afternoon tea is priced at £65 pp, or £75 with a glass of Prosecco, and service charge is 12.5% on top. The Shangri-La voucher is in USD and they converted it at the rate of 0.8, which isn’t terrible.
Remember to book your table with OpenTable or SquareMeal to earn some IHG / Virgin points or cashback. I got 100 Virgin points from the reservation.
My friends had a very bad experience when they visited before in terms of service, but it’s quite a positive one for us. It’s a very expensive afternoon tea, but spending your Shangri-La points here isn’t a bad idea considering how limited their footprint is outside Asia.
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