Afternoon Tea at the Conrad Hotel Tokyo

Happy Holidays!!!

I'm skipping ahead to more afternoon tea posts, because I haven't had any time to post on cosmetics and skincare. My family is visiting this holiday season and everyday we are out and about, which means I have a gazillion more photos to add to my backlog. But I'll get through them all one of these days, I promise!

This is November's edition, when our Afternoon Tea Club gathered at TwentyEight Bar & Lounge, on the 28th floor of the Conrad Tokyo on the upper floors of the Shiodome Building.

A sliver of Shinbashi.

I have to say, some of the tall buildings we've been to are oddly designed with their entrances pretty well-hidden. Our group walked around the whole Shiodome building a couple of times before we found the Conrad Tokyo. Even then, there was some more circling before we located the elevators.

The view from the 28th floor was lovely, but as always being a group of 7 we didn't get a window seat ^.^"



Unfortunately, I'm afraid this is our worst afternoon tea experience yet. It started out on the wrong foot--we had to wait for about 10-15 minutes even though we made a reservation in advance, because they weren't ready when we arrived (on time!). 



Even though there's unlimited refill, each person can only pick 1 type of tea. We couldn't try different teas and had to keep trading with our friends, which was pretty annoying. The worst part was that the service was sorely lacking. Being a group of 7 and right smack in the center of the lounge but we were largely ignored and forgotten. The waiters and waitresses kept zipping by our table and yet our tea cups and water glasses remained empty for the majority of the time. Our repeated attempted to flag down people were mostly in vain. I think each of us had 2 cups of tea max the whole 2 hours we were there. Not happy.

I'd read about the glass platters and was excited to see the presentation, but when the food came out I realized we'd leave hungry, and we did. Each person got exactly 10 bites of food :( To add insult to the injury, the food were all meh and nothing really impressed or even at all memorable.

Savories.

Sweet.

So yeah, we probably won't be back here again. Ever. It was unanimous among us that the best afternoon tea experience so far is still the Mandarin Oriental.