At the top of my New York City bucket list is Afternoon Tea at the Plaza Hotel, featuring delicious food and premium tea in a luxurious setting.
I recently spent a long weekend in New York City to celebrate my best friend from college finishing her PhD at NYU. Even though she’s been in New York for six years, she’s never had the famous Afternoon Tea at the Plaza Hotel. I thought this would be the perfect excuse to check this fabulous experience off both of our bucket lists!
As soon as you walk up to the hostess stand at The Palm Court, you know you’re in for a truly exceptional experience.
Read on for my review of High Tea at the Plaza Hotel…
Review of High Tea at the Plaza Hotel
Thanks to its appearance in movies like Eloise and Home Alone 2, I knew of The Plaza Hotel even as a little girl in the Midwest.
Located across the street from Central Park in the heart of the city, its location can’t be beat. While the outside is imposingly majestic, the interior is impossibly glamorous. It’s gone through a series of extensive renovations that have given it the perfect balance of old school glamour and modern luxury. The hotel has transcended the test of time.
What Afternoon Tea Service is Like
Afternoon tea service is daily from 12 p.m. to 4:45 p.m., with the last seating at 4:30 p.m. Reservations are essential, especially on weekends!
The tea service is set up in the traditional style – you order from two menu options and the three courses of food come all at once displayed on a three-tiered tray. Each person gets to choose a pot of tea with champagne an optional add-on. On the advice of our server, we tried the toffee black tea which was absolutely wonderful. Perfectly sweet and so satisfying. The selection of tea is quite extensive so you’ll find something for every taste.
Not only are the treats innovative and beautiful, but they are also delicious! You may think this is a given, but after having at least a dozen high teas, I can tell you this is the exception, not the rule. Often too much focus is put on appearance, and not enough on taste. The beautiful bites often have bland flavors, soggy sandwiches, scones so hard you might crack a tooth, and overpowering flavor combinations.
The Palm Court also has an Eloise option for Afternoon Tea. A little girl at a table near ours had it and it looked lovely. It came with a puffy cloud of pink cotton candy – so jealous!
The servers were perfectly attentive without being pushy. It felt like our every need was being anticipated and seamlessly met. They felt genuinely friendly and interested in making our experience memorable.
As I mentioned, there are two options to choose from – Champagne Tea and The New Yorker Tea. The food is completely different, so we opted to get one of each.
Plaza Hotel Afternoon Tea Sample Menu
Here’s a sample menu from our afternoon tea:
Champagne Tea at the Plaza Hotel
herb-roasted prime rib with horseradish cream, watercress, and brioche slider
foie gras mousse, black cherry jam on a brioche crostini
peekytoe crab with celery, avocado, lemon, sour cream in a squid ink cornet
porcini mushroom quichette with porcini oil and whipped cream cheese
lobster roll with daikon sprouts and buttered potato roll
caviar blini with daurenki caviar
freshly baked seasonal scones
golden plaza egg with citrus victoria sponge cake, lemon verbena custard and peach jelly
red velvet chouquette, mascarpone and white chocolate-orange cremeux
lemon and poppyseed cake with meyer lemon cremeux and citrus meringue
chocolate java financier, apricot-orange bourbon compote and chocolate tuile
blackcurrent and violet éclair with candied flower petals
fresh seasonal fruit tart
green tea matcha macaron with yuzu white chocolate ganache
The New Yorker Tea at the Plaza Hotel
smoked salmon on pumpernickel with chive whipped cream cheese and dill
organic deviled egg salad with dill pickle relish on white bread
oven-roasted turkey with granny smith cream cheese on sourdough bread
english cucumber with minted goat cheese green goddess on rye bread
smoky mountain country ham with comte cheese and spicy mustard on pretzel ficelle
herb-roasted prime rib with horseradish cream and watercress on brioche slider
freshly baked seasonal scones
chocolate praline mogador cake, 62% valhrona chocolate biscuit cake and raspberry preserves
strawberry and rhubarb fool with vanilla pound cake, yogurt lime custard, and strawberry and rhubarb compote
passion fruit and mango s’more, chocolate sable and lime meringue
fresh seasonal fruit tart
cherry vanilla cheesecake with oreo biscuit base and macarteted morello cherries
blackcurrant and violet éclair with candied flower petals
carrot cake macaron with carrot spice ganache and golden raisins
Oh, and don’t skip a trip to the bathroom so you can admire the delightfully tacky Rose Club with its lavish velvet and animal print decor. It’s a brush with history, as names like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Billie Holiday have performed in this space. It was previously a jazz club called The Persian Room.
For a quintessential New York City appearance, don’t miss an afternoon of pampering with high tea at The Plaza Hotel.
Afternoon Tea at the Palm Court
The Plaza Hotel
768 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
https://www.theplazany.com/dining/the-palm-court/
See more from my NYC trip, including video from The Plaza Hotel, on my ‘NYC Highlight’ on Instagram Stories!
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