It has been a while, cake-fans, but today’s venue for afternoon tea was the Shangri-La Hotel in Ulaanbaatar.

The hotel is stunning. Marble floors, crystal chandeliers – it’s beautiful… but what we’re here for is the afternoon tea.

Having arrived at 2pm and had the teapot refilled, it was almost 3pm when the food actually appeared.

I had wondered if there had been a communication glitch as the waitress initially asked me if I wanted it to take away.

I clarified that I was hoping for afternoon tea as a meal rather than only a cup of tea.

After 40 minutes a senior member of staff arrived at my table to explain that the chefs were very busy.

I could understand that, maybe, if I had just walked in to ask for afternoon tea there and then, but I reserved this in August… and the hotel advertises its afternoon tea as being served between 2pm and 5pm.

The food arrived and it looked beautiful.

Without a menu, it was guesswork on what I was eating so some of these descriptions may miss some of the detail.

To be honest, I was not overly impressed with the cakes. They all tasted the same.

The savoury platter was very good but my favourite was the scones replacement – the tea bread.

So much for the cardinal rule of “don’t mess with the scones”… although actually, replacing the scones isn’t actually breaking the cardinal rule, is it?

Of course, I should have known I was tempting fate by wearing a pale blue dress. I took a bite of the bread and dropped berries over myself.

I’m worse than a toddler.

Despite the delay in service, the first two ‘courses’ of the afternoon tea were lovely and at the princely sum of £15, it was a bargain.

*Featured Photo: Afternoon Tea