Saturday, April 11, 2020

Artisan Lounge (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

K11 Musea is doing a fabulous promotion for some of their selected restaurants. For every $400 (or above) you spend, they will take $200 off the bill. Sounds like a great deal so we decided to hang around the shopping mall a little longer after our lunch at Chatterbox Cafe.


We were trying to figure out where we could utilize that special deal. There was just one place I wanted to check out at K11 Musea and that would be Artisan Lounge at the grand atrium on the ground level.


Artisan Lounge offers an all-day high-tea service, a full bar experience and a small bespoke retail area where guests can purchase cakes, high-quality tea and souvenirs. I have long wanted to try their famous high tea but the fact that the lounge was situated in a rather peculiar location (underneath an escalator and in an open area) had me thinking twice especially during this Covid-19 pandemic. But my stance has softened after seeing the huge discount.


My little nugget was obviously the beneficiary of the move. He's been sitting at home most of the time during the pandemic so he was pumped to be out again. 


Yes pumped!


I had a change of mind and decided to get a few cakes to share rather than doing the high tea. 



First up was Artisan Lounge's own artisan hot chocolate. My server came over to explain that their hot chocolate is really thick and gluey (like an Angelina hot chocolate?) so if I wasn't really into rich and decadent hot chocolate, she offered to give me some milk to hopefully make it easier on my palate.

Ever since the abrupt closure of Angelina at IFC Hong Kong, I've been looking all over Hong Kong for a rich and decadent hot chocolate. I forgot how many times I strike out already but I was more than happy to be given another chance here. So needless to say, no milk please!

This was really rich and flavorful. I can't recall a place in Hong Kong that offers the same caliber of hot chocolate since Angelina left the market. It's definitely not cheap (I vaguely remembered it was $75 but I didn't pay the bill so...) but I would certainly come back only for this.



Mango Ring ($58) - But after the hot chocolate, the wheels fell off completely. The Mango Ring was really bland. The fruit jelly in particular had absolutely no flavor to it and there was no contrasting texture what-so-ever to back things up.



Pure Cheese Cake ($58) - Probably the only cake out of the three that warrants a borderline pass. Other than cream cheese, there wasn't much to report on but at least the flavor is considered "normal".



Cute Bunny ($58) - I ordered this for my little one and the first words that came out of his mouth when he first saw it, "It doesn't look like a bunny at all!'. Well, except those long ears I am afraid. There's a bit of chocolate in the middle and some pistachio crumbs so at least some contrast in flavor and texture but nothing major that would lure me back.



The food rating below was straightly based on the three pastries we tried today, which weren't very good at all. But I'm not going to write them off totally because service has been excellent from start to finish (coming from different staff) and maybe, just maybe I will come back for that rich and decadent hot chocolate next time.




Food Rating: 4/10
Price: $$$
Address: Shop 008A, G/F K11 Musea, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: East Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2601-3428
Website: www.artisanlounge.com.hk
Opening Hours: 10:00am - 10:00pm daily



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