Initial impressions aren't great – the 15-minute wait to check in doesn't help, and the loud reggae music clashes with the old English decor.
Josh Tse of food blog chaxiubao.typepad.com My all-time fave is Lin Heung Tea House in Central, a boisterous stalwart over 80 years old with decor that hasn't changed in decades.
But the old European decor, with its high ceilings, gold-leaf lettering along the counter's edges and antique maps on the walls, is impressive enough for a birthday celebration or a date.
(The old-style decor remains in a chain of stores now called The Lite Choice, former Tasti D-Lite locations bought out by their new owner).
She hoarded things and never changed the house's original old-fashioned decor.
The Alamo Guest House (doubles from £52) is a more characterful 12-room bolthole, combining old-world decor with mod cons.
So, with its old-Europe decor from a homier era of wooden pews and pressed-tin ceilings oddly coexisting with 1970's fake-wood paneling, the synagogue that time forgot draws Mr. Freud again and again.
Over the last five years I've visited more than 50 of the UK's more affordable wellbeing retreats, enduring more than my fair share of uninspiring veggie meals, old-fashioned decor, tiny beds and dusty crystals – even in places where I've encountered expert therapists and teachers with integrity.
The 80 rooms and 120 suites have sumptuous old-world decor, along with state- of-the-art telecommunications.
