Afternoon tea at the Ritz Carlton can be enjoyed by anyone of any age When I visited there were all age groups and quite a few foreigners. It is especially child friendly due to their special Teddy Bear Tea Set.
1. Recommendations are highly recommended
2. Attire is "casual elegance"
Afternoon Tea is located at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Roppongi, Tokyo. It is on the 45th floor of the hotel in an open lounge space. The closest station is Roppongi Station.
To access the hotel
from this station you can either:
Toei-Oedo Line: Direct
access from Exit 8
Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line : Direct access
from Exit 8 via underground passageway near Exit 4a
Afternoon Tea at the Ritz Carlton is an elegant affair. The atmosphere is very relaxing and the classical piano music enhances the mood even more. Lets not forget it is the highest "high tea" you will experience in Tokyo, making it an exceptional item to add to your bucket list.
The Ritz Carlton offers 3 different afternoon tea sets plus the children set.
Prices are as follows:
The Heavenly Tea 4300yen
The Ritz Carlton Afternoon Tea 7500yen
Artistry Afternoon Tea 8500yen
The Teddy Bear Tea Set 4300yen
Plus taxes of course!
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| I arrived at Roppongi Station about 11:20am Tuesday, May 13th 2014. I followed the signs towards exit 8 for the Ritz Carlton. After the short ride up the escalator... |
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| and swiping my pasamo card, I came to waterfall wall. It was sort of a maze trying to get to the main lobby. I wasn't sure if I was going the right way, but there are plenty of signs so I knew I wasn't lost! |
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Finally, the last direction led me to a lobby with a beautiful flower arrangement in the center I made a right, and headed for the elevators which only had 4 buttons to choose from. The one that lit, was of course the 65th floor. The main lobby for the Ritz Carlton.  With about 15 minutes to spare, I spent my time wisely...  Enjoying the beautiful paintings on the walls all around   Admiring the beautiful flower arrangements fit for a lavish wedding...   Examining this intricately sculpted piece of art made of chocolate....  And then finally (after seeing someone dip their hands into the candy jar) I helped myself to a few pieces of hard candy. Cola on the left and honey on the right. I highly recommend trying the honey candy. Its hard on the outside but when you bite into it, the sweetest honey will pour into your mouth! It's so delicious! I don't recommend eating this before having you afternoon tea!  The Lobby Lounge is where afternoon tea is held at the Ritz Carlton.  It is an open air space that is apart of the main lobby of the hotel. The only thing separating the lounge from the lobby are the pillars along the left side of this photo.  There are a couple different styles of seating. You can be seated at a round table with armed chairs, on sofas with a smaller table lower to the floor, or even a cushioned slipper chair.  |
I requested a seat next to the window when I made reservations, and they even sat us right behind the piano, which I was thrilled about!
The table setting was nice. It wasn't cluttered and there was a lot of space.
After we were handed our warm towels, our waiter came by with the tea selection. This is where things got a little confusing and maybe lost in translation. I sort of knew we only get to have one pot of tea, but he signaled with his hands the number 3, so I thought Oh! maybe they changed it to 3 teas. The next day, I realized, he meant we get to choose up to 3 teas to blend. Not that we get 3 different pots of tea. Sadly for myself and my friend, we only chose 1 tea each, with no blending. There were 13 different teas to choose from:
- Darjeeling
The “Champagne of teas”. Fresh, fruity aroma and refreshing taste - Uva
From the tea gardens in Uva, this tea has a sharp astringency and minty aroma - Assam
Full-bodied flavor with strong sweetness, perfect for Indian style milk tea. - Earl Grey
Keemun tea as the base. Delicious straight or with milk. - Uji tea Yabukita
Ichibaicha produced in Sorakugun, Kyoto, has a refined mellow taste. - Jasmine Tea
The highest grade Jasmin tea produced using Chinese green tea as a base - Fruit & Honey Rooibos
Rooibos tea scented with berries, apricots and honey. - Refreshing Herbs
Lemongrass and peppermint. - Beautiful Herbs
Refreshing fruity sourness with hibiscus, rose hip and cassis. - Relaxing Herbs
Camomile, ginger and dried apples are blended. - Caramel tea
Caramel’s aromatic and bittersweet flavor . - The Ritz-Carlton Tokyo special blend
Black tea blended with aromatic spices, fragrance of bitter-sweet dark chocolate and spices. - Seasonal House Blend Iced Tea
I went with the beautiful herbs tea.
My friend went with the relaxing herbs tea.
Our tea pots were position on the ledge of the window by our table.
It was quite picturesque. The entire duration of our tea time, the waiter/waitress would fill our cups for us as they gotten lower.
We didn't handle the tea pot at all.
It sat on it's own warmer and they used a strainer to catch the extra tea leaves.
The pretend tea pot full of brown and white sugar was cute touch!
A half an hour into some chatting and tea drinking, the main attraction arrives.
The top tier were the desserts...
The middle, savory items...
...and the bottom, scones + the eggs shaped clotted cream.
I was ted no time and dived right into the scone which were still warm inside and out. They were both amazing. Crunchy and buttery on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
All three jams and marmalade's went well, especially when pairing with the clotted cream.
First up on the savory plate was the "foie gras mousse, cherry flavour" which I wasn't too excited about, since fois gras is the last thing I would want to be eating. It was a super tiny portion so took a deep breath through it back and try to get rid of it as soon as I possibly could. It was pretty salty to taste and definitely had a mousse like texture. It was a little strange for me.
Next were the "egg truffle & bone Hum Sandwich" - spelled just like that! These were ordinary, nothing too special going on here, although I did appreciate that it was ham cut from the bone and not just lunch meat.
The "smoked salmon potato pintxios" followed, which was a very tasty, and nothing I have tried before. It was one of my favorites.
Second to last was the "Dry strawberry & Camembert Cheese Crostini." Since this cheese is quite rich, I took bites, but it would probably be best to eat it in one bite because the strawberry really complements the flavors of the cheese.
I saved the "chilled white asparagus soup with rose puree" for last since of course it was not something that needed to be eaten right away. I don't remember tasting rose puree and there was a slight asparagus taste, but I remember it being creamy and a bit of the salty side.
Moving onto the dessert plate, I started with the "Cheesecake." It had a muffin like texture, but was pretty soggy due to the raspberry that were baked inside. It was pretty tangy, and certainly not one of my faves.
Next up was the "lemon tartlet," and boy was it tart! The lemon curd inside was very tangy so I most definitely had to eat it with the marshmellowy meringue that was so nicely piped on top.
As if things couldn't get any sweeter, I went for the "rose macaroon" next. I wasn't too impressed to be quite honest. I'm not a macaroon expert but...usually you are able to see the filling of the macaroon on first glace. this one was kind of shut closed. Inside it tasted like a raspberry preserve and it was a little soggy. The crunch wasn't there.
"Paris=Brest Chocolat" was the name of this doughnut looking dessert. I couldn't figure out what the taste was, I know its suppose to be chocolate but it had an almost nutty taste like it was chocolate mixed with creme de marron? Anyhow, another one I would probably pass up as well.
About 1:40pm I started on the final item which was the "passion mousse." This mousse packed a punch.It was very tangy but there was no skimping on the passion fruit flavor, one of my favorite tropical flavors! I took my time savory every last moment until in walked...
The pianist. 2:30pm on the dot, the pianist showed up and immediately began playing familiar classical tunes. My jaw drops. You can probably guess what I was thinking... Our check had already came and we were getting ready to leave, but we thought we would at least stay for a song or two which is exactly what we did. http://instagram.com/p/n7Oz1qtezN/
The view from our table over by the piano.
I tried not to be bitter and used the rest of our time to enjoy the beautiful view of the city below from our table.
My lovely afternoon tea date Schanita (right) and myself (left)
PROS: There is live entertainment to enhance the mood. The lobby is very extravagant. The view from the top floor of the Ritz is spectacular. My favorite part of the set were the scones. If I could have asked for more I certainly would have!
CONS: It would have been nice if the receptionist making my reservation informed me about the live entertainment. The items offered for afternoon tea were very small in scale, most of everything was bite size. The presentation of the items was not very appealing and a little messy. The chilled asparagus soup is my case and point. Communication can use some work. I was not clear on how choosing the tea works so myself and my friend forfeited our chances of blending teas. You cannot try the different teas that are available so if your not crazy about your selection I guess your out of luck. There was no menu available for us to view as we enjoyed our experience, so I had to guess what I was eating and couldn't really refer to the menu. Furthermore, our waiter/waitress did not explain the items on the plate. The menu on the website was different than the menu for the day so I was expecting a totally different selection of items.
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| notice the ring around the glass...this is how it was presented to us when it came out |
