Serious Eats: New York - Afternoon Tea

The 8 Best Places for Afternoon Tea in New York City

2012-04-13T17:15:00Z

VIEW SLIDESHOW: The 8 Best Places for Afternoon Tea in New York City

[Photographs: Kathy YL Chan]

For the food alone, afternoon tea isn't a steal. With prices starting in the 20s and running up to the 50s, taking tea is more of a special treat where you pay for the atmosphere as much as the food. And, of course, the luxury to lounge around for hours with no bother—an experience that is well worth it. The standard afternoon tea consists of four elements:

Savory: Tea sandwiches and savory tarts
Scones: Most often served with devonshire cream, lemon curd, and fruit jams
Sweet: Cakes, petit fours, fruits tarts, eclairs
Tea: a few places have an in-house tea line, but most outsource their tea. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing, but it's very important that the teas are brewed to order using real loose leaves, not tea bags. If you're going to pay this much, nothing is worse than seeing a limp tea bag or two hanging out of the teapot.

For the most part, the three food elements are served all at once on a three tiered tray, but many places also split up the three components and serve each as an individual course. You might lose out on the fun of three tiers, but this guarantees warm scones. It's a win-win either way.

Today we give you our eight favorite places for afternoon tea in New York, from luxurious hotels to casual tea shops.

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan blogs at Kathy YL Chan, where she chronicles her eats and travel adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

Afternoon Tea: Bosie Tea Parlor

2011-04-14T17:45:00Z

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Could it be possible that the city's best afternoon tea is also the city's most well-priced afternoon tea? Welcome to Bosie Tea Parlor in the West Village. I've waited a year and a half for this place to open, and it was worth the wait.

Designed after classic French tearooms, everything from furnishings to teapots and tea tiers is clearly thought through, and the food certainly delivers. Afternoon Tea for one is $20 and includes tea sandwiches, scones, tea cakes, macarons, and of course, your own pot of tea. Bigger appetites (though the standard set is plenty of food) may opt for the Deluxe Afternoon Tea route ($28), which adds a salad and replaces tea cakes with your pick of pastry from the dessert case. Bosie offers over 80 different types of teas by l'Âge de Thé, their in-house tea line. Take advantage of the knowledgeable staff and break away from your usual tea to try something new. Each pot is brewed to order, the tea leaves removed before it's delivered to your table. A perfectly brewed pot, every time.

Tea sandwiches at Bosie are classics—the bread thin-cut, a different type for each sandwich, the filling evenly spread and nicely secured so that even the clumsiest eater won't make a mess. Whereas most tearooms have sandwiches pre-made, these are made to order, guaranteeing there will never be a dry crumb. Four types, and you can pick three (they come with two triangles of each) to go with your afternoon tea. Egg salad paired with thyme blossoms, thinly sliced cucumbers with dill and cream cheese. Cream cheese meets scallions when matched with Scottish smoked salmon, and there's the much loved, but not often spotted curried chicken with golden raisins. Too hard to decide? I don't blame you. (Have all four types for just another $3.50.)

A common problem with afternoon tea sets is that sweets always outweigh the savory. I often find myself itching to trade a cookie or cake for a few extra sandwiches. The split at Bosie is an ideal 50:50 between savory and sweet, another first in the city. All pastries are made in-house, including the excellent macarons in options ranging from passionfruit-chocolate to peanut butter and jelly. There's a whole collection of tea-flavored macarons in addition to classics. Choose two macaron flavors, and then chose two teacakes from a selection of five. They're thin rectangular cakes, slightly mounded and plenty moist, in flavors like matcha, lemon, vanilla, candied fruit, and chocolate. But don't forget the scones! Petite triangles with a top of crunchy pearl sugar. They use softened butter instead of clotted cream, and the raspberry jam with seeds is one that you'll remember fondly. The pastry chef also bakes larger versions of these scones which you can purchase to go—along with croissants and all the other pastries sold at Bosie.

Bosie Tea Parlor

10 Morton Street, New York NY 10014 (map)
212-352-9900
bosienyc.com

About the author: Originally from Honolulu, Kathy YL Chan writes A Passion For Food, where she chronicles her eats and travels adventures between Hawai'i, New York and beyond. She firmly believes that there is always room for dessert.

Afternoon Tea: Lady Mendl's

2011-03-31T18:30:00Z

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

The waiters are all male. And nearly all of the diners are females—how great is that? Welcome to tea at Lady Mendl's, a Victorian tearoom tucked inside the Inn at Irving Place, just steps away from Casa Mono. Tea is offered twice a day on weekdays, and three times on weekends. Whereas reservations are recommended for most other places, reservations are required at Lady Mendl's.

Afternoon tea is served as five separate courses by the white-gloved waiters. At $35, the sheer amount of food makes for a true bargain. Start with an amuse bouche—here, a warm sweet potato quiche and dollop of sour cream—while selecting your tea. Loose leaf tea is brewed to order, and never once will you receive an over-brewed cup. House-blended black teas are fruity and sweet, but I prefer the classics; give me Earl Grey any day! Four types of sandwiches offered, classics like smoked salmon, cucumber and butter, turkey, and egg salad. The waiter comes by with a silver platter piled high with all four varieties. The mountain of sandwiches give a sloppy appearance, but they are delicious; most are cozy and comforting, rather than sophisticated like The Mark. The best part? You can pick which sandwiches you want (this is never allowed at any other afternoon tea place!) Four of the smoked salmon? Sure! Only cucumber and butter? As you wish. They come around for sandwich refills too, and you're allowed up to eight sandwiches a person.

Sweets begin with a pair of warm, sugar-topped scones in plain and cranberry. Break off a buttery edge and make good used of clotted cream and raspberry jam, served in deep white bowls. Scones are followed by a wedge of Lady M's famous Mille Crepe Cake, twenty layers of paper thin crepes, each separated with a brush of sillky vanilla custard. The cake alone is $8 in the Upper East Side shop, making this tea an even better deal. As soon as that last bite of crepe cake reaches your mouth, a petite dish graces the table—chocolate-covered strawberries, Russian tea cookies, and tiny financiers in chocolate, apricot, and almond. Is it too much? Perhaps! They'll wrap it to go if you wish (which seems to be a popular request).

The sole complaint is that tea here is rushed, timed to the clock for one and half hour seatings. There is precisely enough time to enjoy, but none to linger at Lady Mendl's. If you're seated at 12:00, they'll make sure you're out by 1:30pm. And if you eat slowly, they'll set down the tableware of the next course on your table as you finish the current course. The practice is a little rude and brash, but done with a smile. It's one complaint, the only fault I find with an otherwise wonderful afternoon tea service.

Lady Mendl's

56 Irving Place, New York NY 10003 (map)
212-533-4466
finnatirving.com

Afternoon Tea: The Mark

2011-03-17T18:15:00Z

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Afternoon Tea at The Mark, a Jean-Georges restaurant, is a quiet and precious affair. It's $40 per person for the full tea service, though you may opt for only savory or sweets, at $22 each. Tea is served daily from 3:00-5:00pm and reservations are recommended, to seats on the plush hotel couches. Whether you're alone or with friends, each person is presented with individual three-tier trays.

The first thing you notice is that things are tiny here. Compared to the overflowing tea trays of Crosby Street or The Tea Set, trays at The Mark are positively sparse. Still, it's hard to appraise value at an afternoon tea; it's about the experience as much as it is about the food alone.

On the savory side, there are long elegant bites of classic finger sandwiches, including smoked salmon and dill on pumpernickel, a sharp and fresh English cucumber and cress, and Flying Pigs Farm ham and butter—the latter two paired with white bread. Alternate the sandwiches with sweets in the middle tier—a trio of housemade eclairs, each piped with a matching glaze and filling. That's vanilla tucked in the center, flanked by a potent coffee, and a lush and creamy chocolate pudding.

A Pear William cake is tucked into the middle tier, but much better is the Matcha Opera, with a superb matcha-almond cake and alternating layers of matcha and bittersweet chocolate ganache. There's only a single scone per diner, with a smooth and even appearance that recalls a bread roll. But break in and sure enough, appearances are deceiving: a sugar-dusted surface gives crunch, and the inside is all buttery and warm, begging for liberal application of clotted cream and a killer raspberry jam that tastes of summer berries pureed and intensified.

With such a fancy affair, you'd expect loose leaf tea, at the very least. But they use tea bags by T, a respectable Vancouver-based company. Nothing to write home about with the flavor selections—just six afternoon staples including Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and Peppermint. Individual teapots are presented with the tea bag, and refreshed with a new bag when the pot is refilled. The Mark is by far the most refined and, well, precious spot we've visited thus far in our afternoon tea journeys, but that's the beauty of afternoon tea in New York—something to suit every price and every style.

The Mark Restaurant by Jean Georges

25 East 77th Street, New York, NY 10075 (map)
212-744-4300
themarkhotel.com/restaurant-bar/the-mark-restaurant

Afternoon Tea: Cha-An

2011-03-03T19:30:00Z

[Photos: Kathy YL Chan]

We've mentioned Cha-An frequently in the past, most often for the lunch deal and sweet takes on classic Japanese desserts. A little-known offering at Cha-An is the Afternoon Tea, perhaps the cheapest in the city at $18 per person.

The tea begins with a pick of any tea from the menu, including tea latte drinks. Nontraditional, yes, but they serve what may be my favorite tea lattes in the city. In the summer they do the Matcha Latte iced with a spoonful of azuki bean paste, and in the winters it's served warm, with boiled, slightly sweetened azuki beans swirled into the hot drink.

Next come two warm sandwiches on bagel-like bread, but softer, with a rounded sweetness; they're delivered in a lidded basket that's opened at the table. Like most Japanese breads, both the surface and interior are plush and tender, no crackly crusts here. One is sweet, and filled with a mix of whipped cream and strawberry preserves. The other pairs peppery mayo with thin-sliced smoked salmon, onion slivers, and watercress. My only complaint was that the tea set's balance of sweet versus savory was completely off—the smoked salmon sandwich was the single savory element of the meal.

Scones are a highlight at Cha-An, served with little dishes of soft, barely whipped cream and housemade blueberry preserves. There is always one "classic American" flavored scone (most often chocolate chip) and another tea-flavored scone. They're large, so if you only finish one, go with the tea scone. It was Earl Grey on my visit, the dough mixed with finely ground earl grey tea leaves. Each batch is baked to order, and the scones are presented still steaming, with golden, sugar-topped crunchy crusts. Break it open and the bold scent of earl grey literally wafts over the entire table. Whereas most of the flavors at Cha-An are refined and delicate, this is aggressive in the best way possible.

The sweets are finished with matcha shortbread—the crumbly nature perfect for a tea pairing; an passable, though dry vanilla macaron; and a unexpectedly excellent wedge of fruitcake, the fragrant and buttery pound cake base spotted in chunks of sweet fruit.

Cha-An

230 East 9th Street, New York NY 10003 (map)
212-228-8030
chaanteahouse.com

Afternoon Tea: The Tea Set

2011-02-17T20:00:00Z

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

The Tea Set opened in the West Village late last year, earning a short article in the New York Times and not much press after. And it's for that reason this place remains a quiet gem. A sliver of a spot right off Greenwich Avenue, the entrance is blocked by construction right outside and health nuts at Equinox across the street. But make your way to this colorful restaurant/tea shop and you'll be glad you did.

The owner is Jacques, a chatty and knowledgeable Frenchman clearly passionate about tea. The Tea Set serve its own brand of teas (loose leaf is available for purchase), and the Afternoon Tea meal runs $29.90 a person. Instead of pots and tea cups, the tea is presented in a single tall mug with its own infuser. Not classic, but gets the job done stylishly. The two-tiered tea begins with a trio of sandwiches. Jacques noted that he decided to replace traditional soft white bread tea sandwiches with his idea of traditional: baguettes.

And what's not to love—they're served warm, the baguettes toasty, with white cheddar and béchamel melted over tomato slices; and on another, avocado with sliced chicken (dark meat only!) and mayo. My favorite was a simple ham and cheddar where the ham was not sliced but cut in thin ribbons and tangled around the cheese, that glorious béchamel smothered on the bottom half.

Those will fill you up plenty. But have another sip of that earl grey tea, and dive into slices of a lemony pound cake. Slightly crunchy at the surface and buttery all the way down, it's a whole cake cut into four slices. There are no scones with this tea set, so this is what you will pair with chunky strawberry preserves and little bowls of whipped cream (in place of clotted or Devonshire cream). One chubby streusel-topped blueberry muffin finishes the bottom tier, and above, a fresh berry tart, its nutty almond shell brushed with chocolate and filled with an custardy pastry cream.

If it tastes familiar, Soho's Ceci-Cela is responsible for pastries at The Tea Set. Very appropriate. Finish on a quartet of petite macarons, two each of chocolate and vanilla, and then lean back and relax. This is a place where you can linger all day with a constantly refilled tea mug and not a worry on your mind.

The Tea Set

235 West 12th Street, New York NY 10014 (map)
646-894-0511
the-tea-set.com

Afternoon Tea: Crosby Street Hotel

2011-02-03T20:00:00Z

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Afternoon tea is served daily from 2pm at the Crosby Street Hotel. Hotel guests may opt to take tea in the private drawing room, and others simply dropping by will find a cozy spot inside the hotel's Bar and Terrace. The price of $34 per person is about what you can expect at most Manhattan hotels' teas—where you pay just as much for the Soho setting as you do the food.

Here, the tea is by Harney and Sons, a varied selection grouped by classic loose leaf, infusions, and specialty teas. The tea is steeped to order, but leaves remain in the jar, making for one perfectly brewed cup and many other over-steeped affairs.

The entire tea set is delivered upon three tiers, with gigantic warm scones at the base—one plain cream, and the other bright with lemon zest and cranberries. Plush and almost muffin-like, they're tasty but far from traditional. Reach up to the top and spoon on the clotted cream, orange marmalade, and chunky strawberry preserves, all house-made. The crustless finger sandwiches are just what you'd expect, though none stand out; slivers of a classic butter and cucumber are set alongside egg salad, dill and smoked salmon, and roast beef with horseradish.

Sweets are the strongest suit here—the middle tier dominated by a plump, fine-crumbed red velvet cupcake with a silky crown of cream cheese frosting. (Fork and knife required.) A buttery cocoa tart shell serves as the base for passionfruit curd and a handful of fresh berries, and a smoky caramel ices the peanut butter mousse and chocolate brownie combination. The sweets are playful, comically large. Come not for a fine white-gloved afternoon tea service, but rather a relaxed, low-key tea where you are welcome to linger for hours or break out a book if dining alone. A gentleman with a laptop and martini to my left, ladies gossiping over salads on my right; not a tea room, but a beautiful room in which to take tea.

Crosby Street Hotel

79 Crosby Street, New York NY 10012 (map)
212-226-6400
firmdale.com

Afternoon Tea: Podunk

2011-01-19T19:00:00Z

Editor's note: You know Kathy YL Chan from Sugar Rush and Lunch for One' with "Afternoon Tea," she'll be bringing us a look at tea services around the city.

[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]

Podunk is tucked on the north side of 5th Street, and though it's in the middle of Manhattan, the interior is not unlike the living room of a cozy country home—down to the shelves of children's books, mismatched furniture and tableware, and dollhouses in pastel. Elspeth is the charming proprietor, donning tiny round black glasses, straight out of a fairytale. Order from her at the counter and seat yourself inside the long and narrow tea room. I'm partial to a two-top on the middle right, with large wooden chairs that lean back, and gigantic armrests for extra comfort. The menu boasts over a dozen tea sets, all with quirky names such as This and That Tea, Tea a La Bonne Femme, and Little-Lattle Tea.

Our Old Friends Tea ($29) is my go-to tea set at Podunk. Six petite sandwiches, both sides of white and wheat heavily buttered, layered with paper thin cucumber slices, shakes of salt and pepper. There's a cheddar biscuit, the other savory component of the tea; it's intensely cheesy and buttery at once. It easily crumbles after you break though the crisp surface and is perhaps my single favorite part of the tea set.

Vanilla scones are moist, darling vehicles for that deep pot of thick, freshly whipped cream, sweetened just a bit. The jams rarely change, and I'm comforted by the sight of a sweet orange marmalade and basil-flecked strawberry jam. Look closely and you'll spot a cookie trio amid the blueberries and strawberries. That's a gorgeous, classic butter cookie on top, with chocolate chip hiding underneath and a snickerdoodle at the very bottom. All bear soft, chewy centers and crackly edges. (I have a friend who enjoys these cookies so much that she comes just to get the cookies as a to-go snack.)

The cupcake, with a vanilla butter base, is the single unnecessary part of the set. If anything, the bulky, frosting heavy creation distracts from the daintiness of tea at Podunk. It is best replaced with extra cheddar biscuits—you can never have too many of those, especially when they are still warm. All pastries are baked in-house, including a pound cake-like golden cinnamon cake wedge, like the snickerdoodle cookie recreated in cake form.

A pot of Earl Grey accompanies the Old Friends Tea, but let Elspeth know your preferences and she'll gladly set you up with a different, perhaps more ideal pairing—mine was a fragrant apricot black tea on this visit. The tea set is delivered to your table, but come back to the counter when you are done and ready to pay. It's an informal set up, one that couldn't be less like the white-tablecloth afternoon teas that dominate Manhattan, and it's a place that I return to time after time.

Podunk

231 East 5th Street, New York NY 10003 (map)
212-677-7722