My fun research for afternoon Tea in NYC continues… I found this lovely spot who focuses on the art of dessert making, which is a song to my ears. Afternoon tea at a serious dessert spot? Count me in! The only thing is that they do not take reservation, so we decided to go there right when they start the afternoon tea.
The inside was like a boutique more than any kind of cafe or dessert shop that I have been to. Yes, they to take the dessert business super seriously! The decor was modern and simple with clean lines. They were busy with dessert lovers, taking time to get some afternoon sweets and relaxation.
On the right side, they had widow display of all the offering, both sweet and savory. The staffs behind the counter are willing to assist with your questions and orders. One gentleman with a bow-tie was particularly friendly and gave me a nice smile for my photo!
Towards the front entrance, they have baked goods and some savory offerings like croissants and sandwiches, so you can have a nice little lunch or brunch here as well. It is nice to have more option than just the sweets. The breads and sandwiches looked really good too.
Behind the baked goods are the sweets! They had all sorts of sweets displayed as if they were precious gems and treasures… They sure looked like sparkling treasures! They didn’t have too many items in the display case, but since they are made on-site, as people order more items, they can make more in the kitchen.
And if you are wondering “what about drinks?” not to worry, they have that covered too. They serve Stumptown brand, and offer all sorts of coffee. They also have tea, hot cocoa, and chai also. If you want to fancy-up your dessert experience, they have wines and cocktails too! Awesome!
Behind the beautiful display of sweet gems, they have a small seating space. Again, they do not take reservation, so depends on what time you go, there might be some wait time. We were lucky enough to get a table right away. There is no “host/hostess” there, so just ask one of the staffs behind the counter.
All the way in the back behind the seating area is their kitchen. You can look right into the kitchen and see how the beautiful tasty delights are created, which is pretty cool.
We actually arrived about 10 minutes before the afternoon tea starts, but the server had no issue with us for as long as we were willing to wait the extra 10 minutes. We got some water and looked over their menu to see all of their offerings while we waited. The server told us that they are just starting to prepare the items that are served for afternoon tea. Meaning, we were not able to get them early, but that also means that we are going to get everything super fresh!
While we waited, I noticed that the table we were sitting was one of the smallest size that they had, and thinking we won’t be able to fit everything on this table… So, I asked the server if we can move over to the next table, which had two of the small tables put together. They said “sure” with a smile, so we moved over, which gave us more rooms. Thanks! At this point, we also put in the order for our tea that comes with afternoon tea. I went with Orchid Vanilla, which is a black tea, and blended with Madagascar vanilla and delicate shavings of tropical coconut. It had great aroma of floral bouquet and was really tasty! The combination of vanilla and coconut was like a tropical island vacation in my mouth.
My husband chose Bombay Chai, a blend of black tea and spices found in a traditional Indian Masala chai, The spices were really nice, without being overpowering. The aroma and flavor of cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon was especially nice. Very nice tea indeed.
And then our tray filled with goodies arrived!!! They have two kinds of afternoon tea offerings. “Tea with the Queen” which is the standard, and then “Afternoon in Paris” which comes with champagne. We went with Tea with the Queen ($28/person). The amount we received was kind of small, compared to other afternoon tea places I’ve been to, but then again, it is much more affordable than the other places too.
Tea with the Queens comes with sandwiches, warm raisin scones, petit gateaux, confections, and choice of tea. If you notice that we don’t have any scones here, you are have an amazing detective skills! They were still working on the scones, so we got everything else but the scones. Which was good for us to start working on other items first.
On the top tier, they had some macarons, chocolate, petit four, and caramel-looking thing.
The second tier had three desserts that were larger than the ones on the top. Only at a dessert boutique, you get two tiers of sweets with afternoon tea… Yum!
The bottom tier had sandwiches. They were more of an open-faced sandwich, or rather bruchetta. I was a bit sad to see that we only received one of each, which makes it difficult to share… Maybe they could either give us two of each, or serve them pre-cut in half so that it would be easier for the customers. Yes, I do prefer if they gave us two of each so that we can both enjoy the whole thing…
Since we were hungry, we decided to start with the “sandwiches” first. The server who brought the food tray actually referred to them as “sliders” which actually fits better than sandwiches. The one with prosciutto was pretty good, it had fresh prosciutto of a good quality. It was sitting atop creamy cheese spread, and the bread was really nice too. I liked how the bread was not too thick. Then the ham with aged cheddar (?). It had nice salty flavor from the cheese, just enough to give it a pop of seasoning.
Smoked salmon with watercress was refreshing. It also had slices of cucumbers which went great with the salmon. It was not fishy at all, but nice and fresh. I enjoyed the mixture of textures. The last but not least, Avocado Toast. It was creamy and velvety, fresh and tasty. The bread that was used had hard crust with sesame and grains, and fluffy, soft center. All in all, they were all pretty nice.
When we were about to get into the middle tray, they brought us scones, hot out of the oven!!! From the photos that I have seen, I thought we only get two scones total, but we got four!!! Yes!!! I don’t know if they serve four scones now, or maybe because our server was simply awesome…
They serve the scones with house made jam, which was fig jam, and clotted cream. They were beautifully golden, really light, moist and tasty! Very soft like clouds, yet totally satisfying…we LOVED them!
And now, into the middle tray. They had Cacao Prieto Chocolate Éclair with a classic flavor made locally made chocolate from brooklyn. The puff pastry was light and airy, and filled with loads of very creamy and velvety chocolate cream. Loved how much filling it had in there, and the flavor of the chocolate was pretty darn good too.
Then the Earl Grey & Blood Orange Mousse. It is a light chocolate mousse infused with earl grey tea and blood orange juice and zest. Base is hazelnut danquoise (flourless sponge). It had great earl grey flavor and aroma! Mouse is almost fluffy, really nice and light. We didn’t get much of blood orange flavor from the mousse, but we certainly got it from the blood orange macaron. The macaron had two shades, light orange and bright red, pretty cool. It had strong, real fruit flavor. The crust was awesome, it had bubbly popping ingredient incorporated in the crust! A fun and elegant dessert!
The yellow one was Lemon Yuzu Tart. I love the Japanese influence on this dessert. It is a lemon tart with yuzu baked in a sweet crust with a mathca marshmallow. Yes please! A bite into matcha marshmallow gave me “it’s soooooooo fluffy!!!!!” moment. It also had nice matcha flavor too. The tart had strong yuzu flavor which I loved, with the tartness from lemon. It was refreshing, kind of nice pallet cleanser between the rich sweets.
Then finally to the top tier. We tried the little cake first. We were told it is an Orange Cake. This little baby was awesome, the bite just melt in your mouth… It was sweet and delicious, with strong orange flavor. The icing on the top was quite nice too.
They had two macarons, both in very pretty pastel colors. The purple one PB & J. It had nice peanut butter flavor, with a hint of citrus flavor. Even though PB & J is a comfort food, this macaron elevated it to an elegant little sweet.
The green one was Cherry Pistachio. I was surprised after I took a bite, it had a cherry jam in the middle! Wow! It had nice pistachio center, and the cherry jam went really great with it. A fun macaron for sure!
We got one of their Chocolate Bonons. I believe it was 3 Citrus Bonbon, but I didn’t get much of any kind of citrus flavor at all. It had caramel center, a bit liquid-y, difficult to bite off without destroying it. Again, hard to share between two people…it would be easier if we were given two bonbons. The last thing we had was a caramel candy. It was not chewy as I imagined it would be, but rather velvety and almost creamy, melt in your mouth. No need to chew! Vanilla-y and quite tasty. A boring-looking sweet that was actually surprisingly good.
They have one uni-sex bathroom, and it is roomy and bright with interesting artwork on the wall. Since they have just one bathroom, there can be a wait during peak hours.
The staffs were mostly very nice and friendly. We were taken care of by three staffs, maybe they don’t have a particular server section method, as most other restaurants do? But our main server, Hector was awesome! He took a really good care of us, gave us good information, including Patiserrie Chanson’s another face. They have a “day” face and “night” face, and as it can be said about female, the night face is more sexy. They open up their downstairs space under the name Dessert Bar, which offers two-hour dessert tasting menu. Say what???!!! Oh yes, that is my kind of tasting… My hubby and I will be there soon!
Patisserie Chanson – 20 W 23rd St, New York, NY 10010