12/06/2013

Christmas Special Afternoon Tea At TwentyEight, Where We Hadn't Been Yet
初めて行った「トゥエンティエイト」でクリスマス特別メニューのアフタヌーンティー

From the beginning of December, a lot of places are decorating Christmas trees, wreath, Santa, and illuminations with red, green, and white.
And not only the decoration, restaurants and amusement parks (like Disney) have Christmas special menu.
Following that trend, hotels start holiday menus and also afternoon tea with Christmas features.

By the way, in Japan, we don't really "celebrate" Christmas because not everyone is Christian but we grow up with those advertisement lines every December for example, "Christmas Sale."
So for most of the Japanese, or at least I, didn't really know what Christmas was till I learned history or researched, thus, for me, Christmas was a good time to be able to make a list for Santa Clause to get toys and have a cake with family.

Getting back to the Christmas afternoon tea menu at TwentyEight in Conrad Tokyo.
The bar & lounge called "TwentyEight" is on the 28th floor of Conrad Tokyo, connected  Shiodome station, looking down Hamarikyu Garden.
*No space between "twenty" and "eight" at this bar.

I booked this place to try the afternoon tea menu in advance and requested for some changes in the finger foods for my husband.
Recently I realized that the person on the phone asks me if there's any restriction on the ingredients (allergy or religious, and even things I don't like), so asking some modification is getting easy without feeling awkward.

From Shiodome station, it's 1 minute from exit 9.
However, the station is pretty confusing, so it could take longer if you get lost.

At the entrance, there're 2 lanes to get on elevators.
One goes to parking lot, and another one takes you to the lobby, the 28th floor where the TwentyEight is located.
There's a paper sign to show the way to go to the right elevators, but it's small and nobody was there to lead customers.
On the way to the elevator, there's a big tree.
I think the tree will be lit up at night.

We got there on time and was brought to the window side without waiting.


The table was set.
Little tree decoration at the table.


The view was great.

This is the tea menu.

For the first drink, I got Green Tea.
This was bitter and murky.

While waiting the confectionery, I ordered second drink, Conrad Tokyo Original Tea.
This tea had citrus scent and the taste was similar to Queen Mary as it's not bitter, light, and slightly  refreshing.


This is the Christmas afternoon tea set.

Clotted cream and mixed berry jam for the scone.


This is the menu.

Crab and Mushroom Pie
This mini pie had minced crab meat and diced mushrooms, and it was a really flavorful pie.

Salmon Rillette and Bacon, Tomato Chips, Spinach Bread
The crispy bacon and tomato chips were interesting and I liked the salmon rillettes.
I'm glad it wasn't pork rillette since usually it stinks.

Pumpkin Mousse, Turkey and Griotte Cherry
Saltiness from turkey breast went well with sweet and smooth pumpkin mousse.

Strawberry Tart
On the top, there's a little white chocolate printed "CONRAD."
It was a sweet and sour mini tart. 

Plain Scone
It was really crispy both outside and surprisingly inside.
I left a lot of crumbs on the plate when I cut into half.

Chocolate Scone
It was like a chocolate pie and on the top, there's a lot of sugar.
This didn't need clotted cream or mixed berry jam because it tasted just so good.

Raspberry and Pistachio Macaron
This colorful macaroon was cute and also tasty.
The shell was crispy and mushy at the same time and it's really good.

White Chocolate Lollipop
White chocolate covered raspberry chocolate (I think).
Topped with argent and freeze dried strawberry chips.

Cranberry and Chamomile Gelee
It was two toned jelly with a raspberry inside.
I didn't notice it was chamomile until I took a close look at the menu.
It was refreshing but didn't have too strong herbal flavor.

Mini Bouche de Noel
This mini cake was so bouncy that it was hard to cut with a fork.
Even thou it's a mini cake, the surface was decorated as the regular cake; tree bark.


I ordered Royal Milk Tea for the third drink.



<Personal Evaluation>
View: 4 out of 5
As we're seating by the windows, we could see the Hamarikyu Garden clearly.
The further site, there's Odaiba and rainbow bridge, too.
It's get pretty bright and hot by the windows, so if you'd like to avoid the heat, you might wanna ask them to reserve a sofa table, but you won't be able to enjoy the view that much thou.

Food: 2.5 out of 5
There're some Christmas colored or popular sweets for this season.
Besides that, they had warm scones and finger foods and they're pretty good.
It might because they don't bring them in high tea stand but the flat glass plate, it looked there's less foods to compare with the ones with the tea stand.
The afternoon tea set menu wasn't provided at first and still not when they brought the confectioneries, so I had to ask if there's any.
Though they knew we'd have afternoon tea set, I wish they had given a menu at first as there's no definition on the homepage.

Tea: 3 out of 5
To be able to change tea leaves was nice, and the selection of the drinks was decent.
The green tea which I first ordered was bitter and tasted as if it's been sitting in a pot all day and served.
The Conrad Tokyo Original Tea was my favorite out of 3 teas I had.
It had an interesting scent and light taste. I enjoyed this as it was.

Service: 2 out of 5When we sat at the table, the chair was not big enough to put a winter jacket behind me, but there's no basket to put my belongings either, so I wish they had offered to take our jackets or given us a basket to put our stuff.
They're careful about the food request and provided us 2 different set; one menu was regular, and the other one was specially prepared. It's really thoughtful of them.
When they brought the plate, the order was vise versa, but the waiter noticed so that we didn't have trouble having what's for me and what's for my husband.
When the waiter was explaining each finger food, he stuttered and switched English and Japanese pretty often.
It's understandable to get confused over such various confectioneries and modified foods, but having heard "Ah... this is xxxx (Japanese), but English... well...." or the other way was a little bit confusing.When we asked a manager to put the shades/curtains down as the sunshine was hitting us directly, they said it's the lowest position they could pull.
However, when I saw the behind of the curtains, I could see extra strings rolled up there so I don't know why they said it's the maximum.
They offered another table, which was far from the window and it was a sofa table, but we decided to stay by the window.


Fee: 
4,200 JPY (tax included) + 13% service charge = 4,800 JPY
*The total for the 2 afternoon tea set was 9,600 JPY so I simply divided by 2 even thou the actual calculation shows 4,746 JPY.

TwentyEight / トゥエンティエイト
Conrad Tokyo, 28th floor, 1-9-1, Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 
東京都港区東新橋1-9-1  コンラッド東京28階

Open: 
2:30 PM ~ 5:00 PM (weekdays)
1:00 PM ~ 5:00 PM (Sat, Sun, and Holidays)

*Christmas menu is available from December 1 ~ 25, 2013.
*クリスマスメニューは2013年12月1日~25日まで

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