Alice's Tea Cup, Chapter I Edit

Love this place! A few times a year, my partner and I make an afternoon of it and go to Alice’s for their Jabberwocky tea service. Unlimited tea, scones, and sandwiches, plus a plate of cookies and cake. Everything is delicious and the service is always excellent. The price is a bit steep at $80 for two people, which is why trips to Alice’s are so rare, but we tend to come hungry and stay for a while.

Alice’s has a certain magic. The scones, the extensive tea list, the decor. 1 part glitter, 1 part thriftstore decor, and 1 part comfort. There are manlier places to drink tea, but I didn’t feel out of place.

It’s been quite a few years since I’ve had tea at Alice’s Tea Cup, so when we went to New York a few days ago, I made plans for my boyfriend and I to have breakfast there. It’s a short distance from Mandarin Oriental Hotel, so that made it very convenient for us. I warned my boyfriend beforehand to stock up on his estrogen before entering the premises as, this place is really girlie. I am serious. You may find yourself peeing glitter, and you know the only other place where that may occur is at Disney World. End public service announcement.

This is a charming tea room that is perfect for tea lovers, best friends looking to catch up, and for mothers and daughters. The theme, of course, is Alice in Wonderland. This location is the first Alice’s Tea Cup; they have since opened two other locations on the Upper East Side. The furniture is shabby chic, the tea cups are all mismatched and most likely acquired from a day of thrifting, the drinking glasses are preserve jars. Ambiance is cute and homey.

When you enter Alice’s, the main storefront is a little area that sells tea ware, loose leaf tea by the 2 ounces, fairy wings, glitter, and to-go food items such as cupcakes and scones. If you’ve come for table service, a hostess will seat you in the dining area. There aren’t many tables—I’m estimating it may seat 25-30 people. As this venue is very popular, I would recommend making reservations. Wait times on the weekend can be an hour or more. However, earlier meal times are not as popular and when we visited at nearly noon on a Wednesday, we were seated immediately. As mentioned earlier, this is a popular place for children, so keep that in mind if you are looking for a place to converse—you may have to speak with a raised voice.

Alice’s Tea Cup is famous for their scones. The flavors change daily. When we came here, the offerings included pumpkin, strawberry, lemon, cranberry cornmeal, peanut butter and chocolate, and one other flavor that I can’t recall. They are fairly generous in size. Two scones are $6, but if you order a pot of tea, then it’s $10. They offer soups, salads, and sandwiches, as well as a prix fixe tea menu. It’s very tempting to order the prix fixe but I am telling you, it is entirely too much food.

Here’s what I recommend: a pot of tea, which the server said is about 3 cups, can easily serve two people. Their tea list is fairly extensive, but you can’t go wrong with Alice’s Tea. If you are a chai person, you will be disappointed. It’s made with milk and honey but the spices are fairly weak.

If you are a party of two, order a pot of tea to share, 2 scones, and then a sandwich. This should be enough food, but if not, you can always order more. They also have the “light fare”, which is soup and half sandwich or salad for $13. This is more than enough food for one person without going overboard. When we dined here, we each ordered a pot of tea, a sandwich each, and an order of scones. There was enough tea left over for me to fill my aluminum water bottle and a scone for me to take home. The sandwiches were tasty. I recommend the curry chicken and the lapsang souchong smoked chicken.

For the two of us, the amount came to be under $45 before gratuity. Service was polite and prompt. There was a billing snafu where they overcharged us for our meal to the amount of $450 but after pointing it out to them, the charges were reversed and they apologized for the error. Other than that, I really enjoyed my lunch here and recommend that you stop on by if you’re ever in the city.

I did a full blog post on this magical place, if you’re near here you must go: http://blog.meowzas.com/?p=2041

Ended up at this location out of the three available in NYC. Plan to go to the other two at some point.

First off, I love Alice in Wonderland. It’s one of my favorite stories. And the theme in this location clearly screams Alice in Wonderland. And I love that!

Your table when you arrive has a teacup & saucer for you. We had three people today for brunch. We all had a different set. And it was perfect! I didn’t even complain about the chipped cup that I had. It just made me think of the Mad Hatter’s tea party.

So we went for brunch. I had an amazing order of crepes stuffed with fresh fruit. My friends had the french toast which was heavenly! They cube the french toast & pile it up in a bowl with fresh fruit. Under it all is this devine maple syrup that melts in your mouth.

We shared a pot of a flavored black tea. We went with the vanilla. It smelled wonderful. It tasted okay. I’ve had better. But I still enjoyed my cups….all four of them!

After chatting for a little while & digesting our food, we all decided we wanted to try a scone. I had the mxed berry one & it was yummy! Fresh fruit in a wonderfully fresh scone with clotted cream & raspberry jam for dipping made it a great end to the meal. My friend had their chocolate chip cookie which was good.

The place itself is small, but cute. Alice herself would love it!

So why only four stars?
Well, I didn’t appreciate that they don’t take reservations, but when you show up & want a table, they will take your name & phone number & call when a table is available. ? Seriously And to boot, when they called me I was told rather rudely that we had exactly 10 minutes to get back otherwise our table would be given to the next person on the list! I thought that was a little rude….even for NYC standards. But luckily I got over it. But it’s still costing them a star.

I’m planning to check out the other two locations. I really enjoyed the food.

I’ve been here several times with my sister, and it is a very cute and pleasant place to go! They have a wide selection of teas and herbals! They also have a variety of foods – from breakfast to lunch. I don’t remember the specific teas I’ve tried since I’ve had so many. I really recommend this place!

One of the most divine cafe’s I have ever had the pleasure of being in, it doesn’t just rate against tea places but cafe’s in general!! I remember having a beautiful white tea on one of my visits. Unfortunately, living in Northern Ireland limits my visits somewhat!!!