Lady Mendl's Tea Salon

Lady Mendl's
56 Irving Pl, New York, NY‎
(212) 533-4466‎
Food  6
Ambiance 8
Service 4
Overall 18
Good for half way authentic pricey tea in a proper British setting
So one thing you will learn from reading my blog is  that there are certain foods I am ,one might say, obsessed about. All things cue, as in bbq,  fall in that catetgory as well as all things pork . Another area of intense obsession is English tea and anything that involves clotted cream. For those who have never tasted clotted cream, I am sure the word clotted and cream do not sound appetizing. In fact, writing this, I must confess it conjures up the image of a rotten dairy product. But clotted cream is like the sinful marriage of butter and whipped cream. Cousins that should not mate but wickedly do. The result in my opinion is one of the few food treasures the British have given humanity. I wonder if the Queen has knighted clotted cream's first maker.Bizarre to say  I cannot even recall the first time I tasted clotted cream or sat at my first English tea. All I know is , that despite the fact that  I have never experianced love with a man at first site , I am much easier when it comes to food. Love at first bite, sights, whiff- I fell hook line and sinker for the pomp ,circumstance and sheer food delight of my first English tea. Ever since then I have roamed the world in the search for a tea experiance that will sweep me off my feet again. On occasion, I have been know to throw a tea party myself. And while I can make a mean scone and some tasty sandwiches, my personal take is that  half of the love affair of high tea is being waited upon, properly and obviously. What girl can resist that!
 Lady Mendl's is a lovely historic inn in a brownstone off of Union Square. The entrance is discreetly marked with a golden address plaque with only the words Lady Mendl's. Definantly not a place to be recognized unless you are in the know. Be forewarned that since they have two tea services at 3 and 5 pm in a fairly small room, reservations are definantly needed. When you enter, you feel immediately that you are visiting the home of your well off British aunt. It is a well preserved, dimly lit brownstone with ornate wood molding, period furniture, elegant gold flowered wallpaper and lovely wood floors. Certainly the first impression is that the door magically transports you into your own private English oasis . Our reservation was confirmed by the host and after a short bit of waiting, we were led to the Tea Salon. The Tea Salon consists of 2 fairly small  rooms set up with small tables covered in white tablecloths. Most can fit very tightly two people although there are a few larger tables. Each room can hold about 15 people at most.
The tea is a set five courses for 35 dollars. After sitting, they offered us the option of a glass of champagne for an additional $10 which we declined. The tea menu is varied and offers many options- black to green teas and many herbal flavors as well. I decided on a Lavender Tea and my mother opted for an Black tea with rose petals. Of note, the tea is served in teabags which in my mind is a major no no. Loose leaf measured tea make for a much more delectable tea experaince. Our table was set with lovely gold rimmed china plates and silver plated utensils. Although service was present, throughout the tea there were significant lapses for a place that is cultivating the air of gentility. The wait between each course was fairly long and we were missing simple things like cream or lemon on the table when our teas were brought out or clotted cream and jam when our scones were served. Also the place is somewhat on the cheap side. After I finished my first round of tea which I did not love, I asked to switch to the Lord Mendl, a lapsang souchong tea. At first my waiter hastily told me that it is not permitted to switch teas. When I asked why not, he did end up changing my tea. .As we were leaving, I heard the table next to me complaining that they had been charged for additional scones they had asked for although noone had told them this would be the case. Nickel and diming is not very highbrown in my book.
In any case, back to the tea itself. All tea services I have attended tend to serve the core part of the tea in a tiered serving platter so you can sample the different parts of the tea at will. Typically most teas offer an assortment of tea sandwiches, fresh baked scones and sweet pastries. Some who want to increase the number of courses will add a salad or another savory treat which can be served separate to the core tier. At Lady Mendl's everything is served in sequential order. Once you are done with sanwiches, no going back. I found this lost alot of the charm of a typical service for me.
We started off our tea with a vegetable samosa wrapped in filo dough with a little lettuce. Tasty although mildy undercooked, I would venture that this was not made in house. Then we continued to the sandwiches- 4 choices of an openfaced salmon on pumpernickel or rye bread with butter, cream cheese and cucumber on white bread , turkey on wheat bread, and egg salad on white bread. Your first round you are given 4 portions of your sandwich of choice. All were tasty,although I was surprised at the poor quality of smoked salmon used. You then have the option of one other go around with the sandwiches. Then we had scones, a plain and one with cranberry, served with berry jam and clotted cream. Fairly moist but super tiny. Each was maybe an inch in size. After this ,we were served a mutiple layer crepe cakes, crepes with a lightly flavored whipped cream interspersed.  The final course were a few cookies and a chocalate covered strawberry. Overall most of the food was well prepared and tasty, although not the most generous of portions . But that is fairly typical for most teas. Despite some drawbacks, I would say Lady Mendl's is a good bet if you are looking for a unique and historical setting with fairly well prepared tea snacks in the heart of New York City.
The Quest continues