High Tea at Palm Court, The Plaza, New York

Hello lovelies! High tea is an experience that I believe everyone should try to have at least once, unless you’re me, in which case once is never enough! While I was in New York, I attended not one, but two high teas! I would like share the first one with you, which was at Palm Court, located in the Plaza on Fifth Avenue.

The Plaza is a gorgeous hotel that opened back in 1890, and you can feel the grandeur of the place just by walking through the doors. The high ceilings and tinkling of the piano added to the overall ambience, and you just knew that the food was going to be good, and it certainly didn’t disappoint!

The initial impression wasn't great, because it took a while for the girl at the desk to locate my sister's name, but things improved once we were shown to our table.

  

 

Here's the layout of the table - clean, simple lines and a good setup. The only thing missing, however, was a larger plate. We had to use the teeny plates on the side (on the left) for our food. Not a big thing, but a little annoying.

 

The usual clotted cream, jam and lemon butter were found on the table, placed there before we sat down. I have mixed feelings about having cream set on the table prior to our arrival. On the one hand, at least they are prepared, but on the other - how long was it sitting there before we arrived?

 

 

We had to pick the type of high tea we wanted, of which there were four, as you can see above. At my insistence, my sister and I went for the Fitzgerald Tea for the Ages. As I reasoned it, if you're going to a different country and having high tea there, you should just go all out and do it.

 

Look at that spread! The savouries ribbon sandwiches at the bottom were lovely, and I'm a little sad I didn't get a good shot of the cucumber sandwiches, because they were done in a way that the cucumber slices were placed on the outside of the sandwich, rather than between the bread. I did think that the sweets were a little too focused on chocolate, however, but it was all very tasty.

 

I had my usual chamomile with a side of honey, which was brought to us in two tiny jars (always super cute!), but here's where it fell apart a little. Firstly, it took about 15 minutes and me asking the waiter for the honey after the tea had already arrived, at which point he looked surprised by this, even though he had initially repeated after me when I ordered the chamomile and honey.

 

The tea, while pleasant on the palate, was actually in the form of a tea bag, rather than loose leaf and placed in a strainer. My sister's tea got a little too strong for her taste after a while. Additionally, we were never asked if everything was to our liking during the course of the meal, and we also had to ask for more hot water for the tea once we ran out.

 

Overall, the food and ambience were excellent, but the service could certainly use a bit of work.

 

I would rate this:

 

7.5/10