Anyone who is a fan of Audrey Hepburn, or Tiffany accessories, then you know about The Blue Box Cafe. And if you didn’t know, yes, you can have “Breakfast at Tiffany” well, that is only if you can get a reservation. Getting a reservation here is so difficult, it took me a while to actually get one. The reservation opens up 30 days in advance, and it takes seconds for the spots to all disappear… Since everyone makes hasty decision while making their reservation, there are quite good amount of cancellations, so it might be better to get the notification set up for the dates and times you want to (or can) go, and you will get an email notification if that date and time becomes available. This is how I finally got my reservation.

It is located inside Tiffany store, and the store itself is pretty grand. They had this huge glass house in the center of the main floor, with bird nest and Tiffany-colored eggs. I knew this design was going to be included in the Afternoon Tea, so it was extra special for me to see it before going to their cafe.

We got into the elevator, and the elevator staff (they have a Tiffany staff in the elevator to operate the elevator) asked which floor we were going. The cafe is located on the fourth floor, which also has some cute home decor and other accessories.

On the left side, they had this super cute baby section. I wish if I could be a baby of some fancy family who will get me those Tiffany baby stuffs…

Towards the back, by their cute place settings, they had a host/hostess section for the cafe. We were told that there will be 10-15 minutes, even though we had reservations. So, we walked around the small floor and waited…

When our table was finally ready, the hostess with beautiful eyes came to get us. We walked in to the cafe, very excited! The cafe was busy but not packed, we got one of the large round table which was nice.

Inside the cafe was all Tiffany blue, from the walls, ceiling, furniture, plates and cups. The cafe itself is small, as the floor space is small, and sharing the space with Tiffany store. On their website, it is stated that they serve “American classics made with the highest quality, regionally sourced ingredients” and they reinvented signature New York dishes to be “uniquely Tiffany.” Sounds good, right?

Their menu is rather simple, they have “Breakfast at Tiffany” “Lunch” and “Tiffany Tea” all served all day. They also have some dessert items as well as some wines. We decided to get Breakfast at Tiffany ($29) and Tiffany Tea ($49). The price seems to be going up though… The Breakfast at Tiffany comes with coffee or tea, so I went with coffee. When they poured the coffee in my cup, I noticed I didn’t see any steam coming up… It was lukewarm coffee, actually, calling it “lukewarm” is being too positive. It was more cool than lukewarm. Seriously???? Not a good beginning…

The Tiffany Tea comes with a choice of Bellocq tea, and we chose No. 727 The Tiffany Blend. It was stated “celebrating the enduring legacy of Tiffany & Co., a blend to embrace life, love and dreams.” Wow. It is a Chinese and Ceylon black teas with lychee, rose buds, lavender and vanilla.  The tea was actually good, very tasty and came with a nice big pot. But then, the pot was maybe half way filled, so after pouring one cup, it was almost empty…hmmm.

The tea was not loose tea but tea bag, and just one tea bag in the big pot. Maybe this is the reason why they only had small amount of hot water in the pot? Kind of stingy, right?

For the Breakfast at Tiffany, it comes with croissant, fruit and a choice of main dish. The croissant came with Nutella, honey butter and fruit preserves. The croissant was cold, and I mean really cold… I was somehow expecting a nice warm croissant, so it was disappointing. I am assuming they buy the croissant from elsewhere, and keep it in a refrigerator or something? It was nothing special, and since it was quite cold, it took away from nice “breakfast” feel.

Seasonal Fruit & Berries looked really pretty, but very small portion. Some cantaloupe and melon balls with strawberries and blackberries. Flower petals added vibrant color to the plate but it really was nothing special here either. Refreshing but that is about it.

For main dish, I didn’t really see anything in particular that caught my eye off the choices. They had smoked salmon with bagle, coddled egg, avocado toast or waffle. I decided to go with Buttermilk Waffle, the safest choice out of the four. It comes with poached fruit of the season, and Catskills maples syrup. And guess what? This waffle was cold too… The waffle was moist but that was about it, not very fluffy, airy or tasty. It certainly did NOT bring Sunshine after a bite. My hubby can make waffle at home so much better and tastier…

Now, the Tiffany Tea. It comes with finger sandwiches, scones and sweets. it is quite pretty and many people have come to get this one for photo. It does look like on Instagram and whatever else people put their food photos.

The top tier was pretty, with that Tiffany Bird’s Nest with blue eggs that I was excited about! It also had Blue Box Petit Four, Coconut Brownie, Key Lime Tart, Chocolate Ingot, and  Lemon Jelly Square. It sounds like a lot, but most of them were tiny. Other than the Bird’s Nest, they were about 1 inch or smaller.

Blue Box Petit Four was sitting on a graham cracker. It was described as almond cake petit four. It had kind of sticky, melty coating. I believe it was some sort of fondant, but I don’t think I ever had such sticky kind… Felt like having a cake that was sitting out in a warm temperature for too long. The coating was so sweet and sticky that the tiny little cake in the inside didn’t get to shine. The coating was a bit too overwhelming.

The edible Tiffany Bird’s Nest was certainly photo-worthy. It had Tiffany Blue Marshmallow Eggs in the next, and underneath was golden chocolate flakes. Really pretty and shimmery… Texture of the eggs were similar to jelly beans, but more chocolate-y.

Now, the nest is technically “edible” since the base is made of chocolate. But, in order to actually eat that, you need a hammer and chisel, or shark teeth… It was not possible to bite into the solid block of chocolate. Maybe they could come up with a different way to make this so that it is indeed edible with ease? Other sweets were all just a-ok. Again, they are super small so you only get a small amount of joy from the small amount of flavor. And none of them stood out.

The middle tray had Finger Sandwiches, which contained Herbed Chicken Salad, Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese, Cucumber Goat Cheese, and Asparagus Romesco.

I have been to plenty of afternoon tea places, and these were the worst… The chicken salad didn’t have that much of flavor, smoked salmon didn’t feel super fresh, and asparagus one was interesting concept, but that was that. The cucumber one was the worst of all. It was dry with no flavor whatsoever. How can someone make super juicy cucumber into some dry sandwich is beyond me. I guess they have been sitting out for a long time since it was made? All the other sandwiches had the same issue when it came to dryness of the bread…

The bottom tier had two scones. Sweet and savory scones with fruit preserves, clotted cream and honey. I think the fruit preserves was fig?

The scones were dry too, not moist at all… Having cream and preserves helps a bit, but not greatly. For the price tag of $49, this afternoon tea was completely overpriced in my opinion.

At the end, we got a small amount of fruits, cold baked goods, with colder than lukewarm coffee for $29, and small, dried up afternoon tea for $49. The quality, portion and flavor did not match the price tag. But, that was not the worst part (if you can believe it)! The worst part of our experience was the service, or non-existence of service. No one came to check on us, not even once the entire time we there. We had to grab whoever we could to get a refill of coffee and hot water for the tea. The only time they came around was when they were giving us a check. After going though such effort to get a reservation here, it was not worth it at all. Yes, I can say that “I had breakfast at Tiffany” but if anyone asks me how it was, I must say “terrible!” So don’t waste your time or money… Unless you are dying to get the photo, don’t go there!

 

The Blue Box Cafe – 727 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022