Mandarin Oriental Jumeira, Dubai

Mandarin Oriental Jumeira brought the group’s cake-shop tradition from Hong Kong to the Dubai coast: an afternoon tea in the lobby lounge and a counter where the hotel’s cakes are sold by the piece.

The beach hotel on the Jumeira coast opened in 2019 with a lobby lounge that looks through palms to the sea and a pastry kitchen that follows the Mandarin Oriental model: afternoon tea in the lounge, cakes in a counter by the entrance, seasonal collections and mooncakes in the autumn. The pastry is lighter and more fruit-led than the Burj Al Arab tea and the counter makes the hotel the easiest palace kitchen to take home in Dubai.

The Cake Shop sells the tea pastries, whole cakes to order and the group’s signature chocolates; the lounge tea can be booked for the same day on weekdays.