{Afternoon Tea: Shangri-La Toronto}

The Shangri-La hotel is a very fancy place so of course they would have afternoon tea. Tea is served in their Lobby Lounge so you're kind of sitting out in the open for all passerbys to see. Maybe that's why there were so many hipsters, business people and Asian foodies hanging out there on a Saturday afternoon.

The tea service itself is pretty good. The sandwiches were nothing special (egg salad, chicken, etc.) but they were really tasty. The desserts were visually fun with lots of different shapes, sizes and textures. My favourite was the panna cotta served in mini glass cups. The menu had a short list of recommended teas but if you're in the know you can ask for their tea bible which boasts a list of 68 teas (I don't know if it's actually called a bible but I call it that). The teas in the book range from $15 to the ridiculous. I ordered Kenyan Purple tea which was $15 a pot and I didn't get any extra charges for straying away from the suggested menu.

Highlights

• spotting hockey legend Bobby Orr a few tables away from us
• chatting with Valerie Pringle (Canadian journalist and former host of Canada AM) while we waited for our car at the valet (BTW, valet is $10 on the weekend)
• awesome atmosphere: tea is served on a coffee table surrounded by comfy couches and chairs...in the winter make sure you request a table by the fireplace to up the cozy factor
• live piano music 

Lowlights

• the tea wasn't steeped very well and cooled off very quickly, so I'm guessing the water wasn't hot enough to begin with
• we couldn't finish all our dessert so we doggie bagged it...at home we noticed we were short one or two treats