(Full disclosure: I am an employee of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, and visited Las Vegas for leisure. Our employee discount is not applicable towards Afternoon Tea. I paid full price for Afternoon Tea for two guests.)
Afternoon Tea at Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas is offered daily from 1-5pm in their Mandarin Lobby Lounge, which overlooks the Strip. A Classic Afternoon Tea starts at $38 per person, exclusive of tax and gratuity. An 18% gratuity is automatically added to your final invoice for convenience, with an option to add additional gratuity at your discretion. If you are staying at a MGM property (to include Aria and Vdara), you are able to post charges to your room. A Gluten Free option is offered, which I’ll highlight in my review. Another interesting thing to note is for an additional $15 per person (3 person minimum) a gong-fu style tea is offered using their signature Dragonwell tea. Reservations are highly recommended.
There are only a handful of places on The Strip to enjoy a leisurely Afternoon Tea. The places I also considered were Veranda at the Four Seasons and Petrossian Bar at the Bellagio. The Four Seasons offers Afternoon Tea Monday through Friday from 3-4pm, while the Bellagio offers daily tea from 1-4pm. All require reservations. While the Four Seasons did not list the price on their website, Afternoon Tea at the Bellagio starts at $35 per person. I have had lunch at Veranda on a past visit and enjoyed the view and quiet surroundings. If the weather was warmer, I would definitely consider having tea there on my next visit to Vegas.
I was able to make my reservations via email through the food and beverage coordinator, who was very friendly and helpful. I decided on a 2pm reservation on Friday, and we were able to check in early to our room and settle in for a bit before heading up to the Sky Lounge level for tea. There are only a few tables in the lounge, and window views are highly coveted. The seats in the lounge were on the low side. We were seated at a two-top in the middle of the lounge. The tables themselves were ornate glass side tables, which are small, but the sweets and savories are served on a floor-level tiered stand right beside you, so the table was cozy but never overcrowded.
Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas uses Tealeaves as their purveyor of tea and offers a variety of teas. I decided on a Green Lychee and my boyfriend selected their signature blend, which Tealeaves blended especially for this location. While we consider ourselves well-versed in tea, I overheard the lounge staff explaining different teas and their benefits to other guests.
The savory selections for my tea included smoke salmon and cucumber sandwich with watercress spread, a mini sesame cone filled with curry chicken and topped with a mound of Asian pear (to resemble an ice cream cone!), goat cheese tartlet, Black Forest ham sandwich. There were two scones served with Devonshire cream and a duo of marmalade and jam.
For sweets there was a pistachio and passion fruit cake, a mini tart filled with jam and lemon curd, topped with a toasted marshmallow that looked like a Hershey’s kiss, a salted caramel creme puff, and house made truffle.
For my boyfriend, he had a gluten free version of the tea, which included the salmon and cucumber sandwich and Black Forest ham sandwiches on gluten free bread. He received 2 of each. There were no gluten free scones so a fruit platter was substituted. For sweets, it included a strawberry macaron, a chocolate covered strawberry, and the aforementioned the pistachio and passionfruit cake and the truffle. The gluten free bread used in the sandwich was of high quality and was quite fluffy. Store bought gluten free bread tends to be dry and dense. This was a white bread, while mine was a wheat or rye bread.
The savories and sweets were more imaginative than what’s featured on the Afternoon Tea menu at the property where I work back home. Everything was delectable, save for the fruit platter, which are never really good because the fruit is almost always under ripe—this has been my experience regardless of the caliber of the hotel. The service was impeccable and unobtrusive. We really enjoyed ourselves and it was a lovely respite from the hustle and bustle of the Strip. I would highly recommend this experience to my fellow Steepster-ites if they are planning a visit to Sin City!
Additional Note: The signature Mandarin Oriental Orange blend is available for purchase for $25 for a 100g tin (similar pricing to Mariage Freres) or $100 for 400g. Unfortunately, they are out of stock of 100g until the summer. This blend is not available through Tealeaves’ website, but you are able to purchase other teas featured on the menu.
I’ve enjoyed quite a few pots of tea in their lobby lounge when I’m flush with cash, but I haven’t had the opportunity to experience their Afternoon Tea.
When you’re at the Park Hyatt, you want to dress up a little bit. They won’t turn you away if you’re in street clothes, but you’ll feel a bit self-conscious as you’re sipping your tea in this swank environment. You won’t feel out of place if you’re dressed elegant casual or smart casual. You’re really paying for the ambiance. A pot of tea ranges in price from $8 and up, with the blooming teas (“performance tea” on the menu) is priced at $12-18. Your tea expert is really a lounge server, so their tea knowledge varies.
I would recommend splitting a pot of tea with a friend and stick with teas in the $8-18 range. They do refill your pot upon request, so that kind of offsets the costs. In my experience, the water temperature ranged from being just right to near boiling, so I wouldn’t risk ordering a delicate white tea. However, they seem to get a lot of requests for blooming tea, and those are prepared correctly. As for food, you are limited to the lounge menu, which is also expensive. If you want to really treat yourself, the Blue Duck Tavern is one of the best restaurants in the city.
After consuming all that tea, be sure to utilize their lobby restroom, with your own private sink in each stall.
As an aside, The Park Hyatt’s former Assistant F&B Manager was a former colleague of mine, and he was a certified Tea Sommelier. He is definitely passionate and knowledgeable about tea (especially Chinese teas), but the Tea Cellar was already established before he joined the team. I hope he had the opportunity to add his touch to the menu or impart some of his tea knowledge to the staff before he left.
This Ten Ren’s is completely different from the one in New York’s Chinatown. First of all, since it’s by UMD, parking is incredibly scarce, and you need to monitor your meter to the second. We were at Ten Ren’s and our meter ran out by about 3 minutes, and we received a parking citation for $25!
Here, it’s best to order what a Taiwanese snack joint does best, which is bubble tea. They offer boba, jelly, and pudding add-ons. For food, I would recommend the chicken nuggets. This is the ubiquitous Taiwanese “popcorn chicken” snack that is lightly battered and fried, with a dusting of cayenne pepper and basil. When prepared correctly, it’s incredibly delicious and addicting. It doesn’t taste greasy and there’s a bit of heat. This dish, as well as toast with condensed milk (which is no longer offered on their menu), and black milk tea are the litmus test of any Taiwainese snack joint that I frequent. That being said, I have been here several times and while the bubble tea is decent, the service and food are mediocre. It tastes forever to settle the bill—and that’s how we received our parking ticket. (However, they make it easy to pay the ticket online.) I would recommend Jumbo Jumbo Cafe in Rockville if you’re in the mood for bubble tea.
This is a 3.5 star review. While I’m not fanatic about Harney and Sons’ teas, I do believe they are doing a “tea-rific” job of demystifying tea to the masses. I enjoyed reading Michael Harney’s “Guide to Tea” book and my work actually sells H&S teas. That being said, I do hope to find a tea that will really “wow” me enough to warrant a repeat purchase. This review is based solely on the Tea Lounge.
The Tea Lounge is located in the back of the SoHo shop and seats about 25 guests. The seating arrangements are more suited to parties of 2-4 guests, and solo sippers are encouraged to sit at the counter. This is a high volume area due to a variety of reasons:
1. The restroom is located in the back of the Tea Lounge, so guests of the Tea Lounge as well as paying and non-paying customers make their way back their to use the facilities. It’s a single toilet for both sexes. It was fairly clean when I used it myself, but I also lower my standards when it comes to restrooms in NYC restaurants. This is a clean, serviceable restroom, by NYC standards.
2. A sign instructs guests to wait to be seated, but half of the time, people view this sign as “TL;DR” and barge in to claim an empty table, only to be told by an employee that it’s not first-come, first-serve, and makes them vacate the table.
3. For guests who are waiting for a table, their name is written on a list. While they are waiting for their name to be called, they mill near the entrance of the Tea Lounge, creating bottleneck traffic. Rinse, rather, and repeat 1-3.
On top of this, they only have two employees running the lounge…for 25 guests. Now it could be that they normally schedule four employees, because we were seated there for nearly an hour and when we were ready to leave, two other employees came out to help bus tables and take orders. So it could be entirely possible that they were either on break or they were coming in for their shift.
When we arrived, there were three tables or 9 seats available, not including a couple of counter seats. I gave my name to one of the tea lounge employees and we waited about 10-15 minutes before he found us and we got seated. The tea menu, of course, took up multiple pages, while the food offerings was limited to a single page. For food offerings, it was divided into savory items, nuts, and sweet items. As tea is the main draw, the food accompanies the tea. Don’t expect to get a full meal at the Tea Lounge. But if you want a cup of tea and a snack, then this would be a good option.
Tea is offered in two sizes: small ($6) or large ($8) teapot, with a $1 surcharge for premium tea. If you want the staff to reserve your tea leaves for a second steeping, that will be an additional $3. (I think this price gouging is to discourage people from lingering longer than necessary.) The small teapot is supposed to serve one, but I was able to enjoy 4 large mugfuls of my tea, so I think a small pot is enough for two people, but most people tend to order a single teapot for themselves.
We ordered the vanilla scones, ham and guyere scones, and two small pots of tea. I wanted the Nahorhabi Full Leaf but it was unavailable, so I ordered “Hao Ya ‘B’”, which is a China black tea with some honey/molasses notes that I thought would pair well with our sweet and savory scones. My friend selected a Wenshan Baozhong oolong. The scones were small but not supersized, like the ones at Alice’s Tea Cup. They were flaky and buttery. The ham and guyere was a surprise standout. It had small cubes of ham that balanced well with the Guyere. If you enjoy cheddar biscuits, you’ll like this. You didn’t even need the mustard. The vanilla scones come with proper clotted cream and strawberry jam. Pro-tip: always spread the clotted cream first, as it allows its rich deliciousness to enter the nooks and crannies of the scone, plus it serves as a base for the jam.
While I thought my tea tasted a wee bit over steeped, I don’t have much to complain about the product. But as mentioned earlier, with two employees for 25 guests on a busy Sunday afternoon, service was slooow. A party of four was seated next to us and got up and left because no one came to take their order. As we it was our last day in NY before heading back to DC, I decided to take initiative and go up to the counter myself to close our bill, otherwise we would have been there for longer than an hour. Overall, I was glad we tried out the Tea Lounge, but I’m not anxious to experience it again the next time I visit NY.
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.
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It was a little bit weird stepping in here because I remembered this place used to sell yarn, and now it’s full of spices! Well, I definitely am a better cook than knitter, so I can’t say I miss Stitch DC. When I came in, the lone sales associate was filling bags at a counter, so I was left to my own devices. There are many large jars filled with spices and blends that you are more than welcome to open and smell. The price for the spices varied. For about $22, I purchased the Garam Masala, Popcorn Blend, Black Salt, and the Black Truffle Salt. I forgot to ask about the rewards card, so didn’t receive one at checkout.
Don’t bother getting tea here. I stood there reading all the descriptions, and nearly every tea invoked a sense of deja vu. It was then I realized that I had several exact variations at home! It’s fair knowledge to most tea aficionados that a lot of tea companies buy from the same wholesaler. If you are looking for “unique” tea, then this isn’t the place.
Case in point:
S&TE’s Bombay Chai: Black tea leaves blended w/cinnamon, cardamom, orange, pepper, and cloves. Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai: Black tea leaves with subtle hints of pepper, orange, cinnamon, cardamon, and clove complete this signature black chai tea. S&TE’s Orange Dulce: Ceylon and China Black teas are blended with orange slices, jasmine blossoms, and other fruits to make this rich and refreshing tea. Mighty Leaf’s Orange Dulce: Black tea with hints of orange, vanilla and jasmine blossoms S&TE’s Pear Caramel: Washington state pears blended with Ceylon and China black tea are accented further with sweet caramel bits. Mighty Leaf’s Pear Caramel Truffle: black tea is made from Ceylon and Chinese black teas blended with sweet pears, bits of caramel and chocolate cacao nibs for a decadent dessert tea.Price Comparison
S&TE 1 oz Bombay Chai: $4.89
S&TE 4 oz Bombay Chai: $19.17
Mighty Leaf 4 oz Bombay Chai: $9.95
Mighty Leaf 100 foil pack: $49.50*
I will definitely return for the variety of salts that they offer, just not for the tea.
UPDATE: THIS SHOP IS NOW CLOSED :(
I’ve been meaning to stop by this little gem of a tea shop for a while now but didn’t find the time until today. They boast an impressive array of loose leaf teas (over 100 different kinds!), bubble tea, smoothies, as well as desserts, sandwiches, and sushi. For coffee addicts, they offer locally roasted Mayorga coffee. And since Honest Tea headquarters is located a few blocks away, they carry their products, too. This shop seats about maybe 25 people. The space is bright, open, with wooden furniture and stools. There is also a small room down the hall for tea tastings.
Free wi-fi is available (I’m using it right now). They don’t have a policy of how long you can use it, other than not to be an asshole and park yourself at a table when it’s busy.
Asides from loose leaf teas, they also sell tea pots and accessories. I see a lot of “ForLife” products, but also other brands that I haven’t encountered in Teaism or Teavana. I found the staff to be warm, friendly, and enthusiastic about tea. If you are a novice or need recommendations, don’t hesitate to ask! I’m looking forward to coming back in the near future1
Radiance Tea House is my favorite tea house, bar none. When I go to New York, I absolutely, positively must make a stop—even if I just stuffed my face and you have to roll me here. Luckily, they are open late! The staff here are passionate about tea and are just phenomenal. The food, while pricey, is delicious. This is truly a gem in Midtown.
I visited this place for brunch. It was a bit out of the way for us (we were staying in Midtown) but we were meeting some friends of mine. As it was, we were the first there at the appointed time of 10am on a Sunday. An hour later, my friends arrived. I do give props to the staff for letting me squat a table for nearly half an hour. Anyway, the tea. They have an extensive tea menu, with over 75 varieties of tea. If I lived in the neighborhood, it would be a good place to go in the mornings just to chill out with a big mug. I had the Black Velvet tea (ginseng, peppermint, licorice, and China black tea), which was a great morning blend. I believe they get their teas from serendipiTea.
Roebling seems to be ideal for breakfast and brunch, and fairly popular at that. I had the steel cut oats with fruit, expensive at $6.75. Back home in DC, Teaism serves steel cut oats with some fruit for $5 (for that price at Roebling, you get plain). I also ordered a side of bacon, cooked to perfection. The service was good and not too imposing. Would I return? Probably not… like I said, while easily accessible by subway, it is a bit out of the way if you are staying in Midtown. The feeling I get from this place is that it happens to be a restaurant with a large tea menu as an afterthought. Come here for brunch. Don’t come here if you are intent on having tea.
