7/28/2013

Mandarin Oriental Tokyo's Afternoon Tea at Oriental Lounge
マンダリンオリエンタル東京「オリエンタル ラウンジ」のアフタヌーンティー

Today, we went to our final destination of the Tokyo's top 5 afternoon tea.
It's Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in Mitsukoshi-Mae.



The other 4 hotel are;
The 4 others are the following.
#2: Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo
#3: Shangri-La Tokyo
#4: Peninsula Tokyo
#5: Ritz-Carlton Tokyo

My husband called to book about 2 weeks ago and we could get a table at 3:30PM.
Afternoon tea starts from 12:00 and ends at 5:30PM so even though 2 weeks before, the earlier slots were already full.

We got to the station before 3:00PM so we dropped by at the confectionery shop at the 1st floor.
They had chocolate, pound cake, tea leaves, macaroon, etc and also various breads.
My husband was hungry so he bought a doughnut (250JPY). The doughnut looked like the one sold at Krispy Kreme but it tasted better and more expensive for sure.

We got on an elevator to go up to the 38th floor, the Oriental Lounge.
Though our reservation was at 3:30PM, we told the receptionist that we're here and waited in the lobby area.

Maybe within 10-15 minutes, the receptionist came and led us to a table by the window.
So we got at our table earlier than the time we reserved.

The view from our table.
We saw Shinjuku area as we could see NTT docomo building, Opera City building, and Park Hyatt Tokyo.


The table cloth was sheer and had vine patterns.

Sugars were in a jar and they're not powdered ones but crystals.
I only took brown ones but there're white sugars.

It was really bright as the sun was up high.

When we sat at the table, they brought us menus and we ordered 2 afternoon tea sets.
My husband made some change for his portion when he called but I got the set it's written on the menu.

"Legendary Afternoon Tea"

Tea menu
They have Japanese and English so we got one each.



When our drink order was taken, they took the menu away which I thought it'd be helpful and easy to choose next drinks if we had been able to keep it at our table.

Hot towels were brought by soon and the towel didn't have scent.

1st drink: Ile Maurice Vanilla (モーリシャスヴァニラ)
It looked regular black tea but had a slight sweet flavor.
It tasted good as it was and tasted also great with some milk.

I like the way they serve teas here. 
They don't brink them in a big pot so that we can try more teas without getting full of liquid.

First, 4 kinds of sandwiches were served on a plate, which was interesting as other places serve sandwiches, scones, and sweets at the same time with tea stand (usually 3 plates).


Open Face Sandwich with Cucumber and Egg Salad
胡瓜と卵のロールサンド
I have no idea why they call it "Open Face" in English but say it "Roll Sand" in Japanese.
Open Face Sandwich can't be rolled since the concept is "nothing is covering the top," so I think they gotta fix the translation...

Anyways, the cucumber was fresh and egg salad was normal one, but as I hate mayo, after a bite, I gave the rest to my husband.


Smoked Salmon, Soy Bean and Mascarpone Cheese with Brioche
スモークサーモンと枝豆 マスカルポーネチーズのブリオッシュバーガー
I love Brioche and it was as sweet as I thought of.
The salon and soy bean mixed with Mascarpone were something I didn't think to eat together but it was really good.
Brioche was a little bit dry I thought. Maybe the ones I'm used to eating are not cut like this so that they can keep the moist inside better than this I think.


Prosciutto, Yellow Peach and Potato with Focaccia
プロシュートを添えた 黄桃とポテトのフォカッチャサンドイッチ
Salty Prosciutto with sweet yellow peach were flavorful and provided interesting different flavor and texture.
These 2 ingredients were so strong that I couldn't taste the potato.


Pork Ham, Corn and Marinated Cabbage Sandwich
ポークハムとトウモロコシ コールスローのサンドイッチ
Typical sandwich with mayo based cabbage.
It didn't have strong mayo flavor so I could finish eating it.
As my tongue was disturbed by evil mayo, I didn't taste mustard over the breads.

Once both of us finished all the sandwiches, they took away plates and knife and fork which were set at the table.
We used fingers to eat them but I'm not sure if we're supposed to use knife and fork to eat the little sandwiches, which are made to eat with hands.

When a staff saw our drinks were half gone, he handed us tea menus again and asked if we wanted to order something.

It's nice that we didn't have to search and call staffs to give us drinks.

2nd drink: Iced Muscat Tea (アイスマスカットティー)
It had a fruity muscat flavor when I smelled.
It actually had sweeter taste than I thought and I enjoyed this without adding any syrup.
The skinny paper package held a black straw inside and the package had Mandarin Oriental logo and the image of fan in gold.

They brought new plates with knives so we guessed next things would be scones.

And 3 kinds of cream and sauce were brought for each of us.
From the left to the right, Red Peach Jam, Clotted Cream, and Tropical Fruit Cream.

About 10 minutes after we had plates and knives for scones, we finally received 3 scones.

They're warm so I think when they brought plates to us, they had started baking the scones.
These were smaller than I was thinking so they're like mini scones.

Cranberry (クランベリー)
I liked this with clotted cream. 
Cranberry gave sour and sweet flavor to this scone.

Original (オリジナル)
Original was a plain scone and any jam could be added.
My favorite was clotted cream with tropical fruit cream.

Coconut (ココナッツ)
Coconuts were sprinkled over the scone and it was crunchy.
But the scone itself was soft and butter-flavored like plain scone I thought.
This went well with any cream, too.

When we're done with scones, they took away all the cream, plate, and cutlery from the table and brought 2 spoons and a fork on a little plate.

3rd drink: Royal Milk Tea (ロイヤルミルクティー)
The surface was formed and soft.
It had just a bit of sweetness but I couldn't tell if it's from the milk or they added any sweetener.


Yogurt Mousse with White Peach Verveine-Mint Tea Jelly
ヨーグルトムース 白桃とヴェルベーヌミントティーゼリー


It had a petal of orchid on the top and zebra or panther patterns on the skinny white chocolate.
White peach was cut into dice and easy to scoop and eat with the shorter spoon.
It was refreshing after butter scones but I wished this jelly had been much cooler and it would have been tasted better.

4th drink: Weekly Lounge Selection Tea (今週のラウンジセレクションティー)
It was peach flavored tea and it had juicy peach flavor.
However, it tasted like regular black tea and less sweet than muscat flavored tea.
*No photo was taken.


This is the final set.
Selected Petit Fours
This dessert stand is Mandarin Oriental's signature.
The design seems a compromise between East and West.
It was silver with glass plates and this seemed perfect for summer as this provided cool atmosphere.

Every confectionery was stuck on the glass plate with sweet cream to avoid they'd fall off while it's carried to the tables.












There's a little fan decoration (not edible) and the color and pattern were different from the one my husband got.

Here're the detailed description.

White Peach Macaron
ピーチマカロン
The bottom was matcha green tea chocolate.
Slightly bitter chocolate was a good accent to the sweet peach macaron.


Rose Flavored Peach Pate de Fruit
桃のハート・ドフリュイ 薔薇風味
Surprisingly, this jelly had a wonderful rose flavor.
It tasted peach but rich rose flavor came into my mouth.


Canape with Smoked Chicken, Eggplant Puree and Pink Pepper
スモークチキンと茄子のピュレのカナッペ  ピンクペッパー添え
This smoked chicken was amazing!
The chicken was moist and well smoked as if it's pork ham.


Yellow Peach Pie
ピーチパイ
Pie crust was risen perfectly and crispy, yellow peach dices were juicy and sweet.
I'd love to eat bigger one if they had any.


Baked Cheese Cake
チーズケーキ

I didn't know it was cheese cake till I ate this.
It's covered with pink bavarian cream but underneath, there's baked cheese cake.
White rose decorations were made with white chocolate.


Blueberry and Chocolate Tart
ブルーベリーとチョコレートのタルトレット
They used dark chocolate and fresh blueberries were pretty big.
Fresh and sour blueberry with dark chocolate was new to me.
I've tried several chocolate with blueberry, raspberry, or some other berry sauce inside of chocolate, but never tried fresh fruits with chocolate and I like this one also.


Vanilla Flavored Creme Brulee, White Peach and Melba Sauce
バニラのクレームブリュレ 桃のコンポートとメルバソース
Creme brulee had a lot of vanilla beans and needless to say it was vanilla flavored.
Peach slices were sweet and melba sauce added sourness to this sweet cup.
The image I have for creme brulee is the ones with burned and caramelized surface, so this was a bit different from what I know.

Everything was a bite size and to be able to have these different sweets was really nice.
My favorite was peach pie. It was easy to eat and to eat the whole pie (of course a miniature size) was just great.

5th drink: Exotic Orchard (エキゾチックオーチャード)
This was a mix of Oolong and pu-erh teas with lychee flavor.
It tasted different from English tea though it looked close.
After all the sweets I had, this worked really good to put the sweetness away in my mouth.
<Personal Evaluation>
View: 3.5 out of 5
It's located on the 38th floor, so it's easy to see the skyscrapers and see Shinjuku and Roppongi area from our table.

It might be because we're seating by the window. There're other tables far from windows and I don't think it's easy for them to see buildings.
As it was 3:30PM, the sun was up high and going down so that the screens were half down, which could have made it difficult for those who were seating not near the windows.

Not only seeing the tall buildings, we saw trains going back and forth as it's near the Tokyo station.
In case you're seating by the windows, I recommend you wear sunscreen beforehand.
*My husband said it's too bright thought the curtains were down to his eye level.

Food: 3.5 out of 5
They used peaches (summer vegetable) for both sandwiches and desserts.Tea: 3 out of 5
Seasonal tea was peach, and they had 2 original blends, herb teas, English teas, and coffees.

The selection wasn't wide or unique yet all the teas seemed to have served really fresh and flavorful in cups.
Not having pot enabled me to try a lot more teas than other hotels I'd say.

They took orders and some were provided soon but others came a little late like close to 10 minutes waiting.

The menu seemed to have only one cold drink (Ice Muscat Tea) but I saw a few tall glasses were taken to other tables, so I guess they may take special orders to make some teas into cold. 
I should have asked if they could make some teas cold and serve with ice.

Service: 4 out of 5

Same as I mentioned above, they check each table and see if the cup is filled with drinks or not.
I thought it was very nice of them.
And when I was taking photos of drinks and sweets, a staff came and asked if we wanted him take a photo.
Any other afternoon tea place asked the question so I was impressed how well they pay attention to customers.

Service charge wasn't mentioned on the webpage, menu, or receipt, so I'd appreciate if there's any to check the percentage.

*I calculated from the total to figure out the percentage.

Fee: 4,200 JPY (tax included) + 13% service charge = 4,746 JPY
Another 2 different sets available which come with either glass champagne (6,000 JPY) or 3 kinds of glass champagne (12,200 JPY).



38F, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo
2-1-1 Nihombashi-Muromachi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

東京都中央区日本橋室町2-1-1 マンダリンオリエンタル東京 38F

Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

0 comments :

コメントを投稿