Inside a quaint brownstone in New York’s Gramercy Park neighborhood is Lady Mendl’s tea salon. Here is my review of the five-course tea service from start to finish.

Lady Mendl’s Tea Salon

Lady Mendl’s tea salon is hidden inside The Inn at Irving Place. Up the steep stairs of a brownstone is a tiny teacup sign to the left of the door that lets you know Lady Mendl’s lies inside.

RELATED: 21 Afternoon Tea Etiquette Rules

Lady Mendl’s Reservations

Reservations are strongly recommended but they may take walk-ins. Note that they don’t allow children under 12.

Dress Code

There isn’t a dress code but I would suggest smart casual. Smart casual is dressing neat and put together but still be comfortable and relaxed. There were a lot of people in dresses and suits so feel free to dress up!

Afternoon Tea Hours

Afternoon tea is served on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 1PM –4PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 12PM – 5pm.

They do state on their site that there is a time limit with 1 hour and 45 minutes for a table up to a party of 4. I sat down at 2PM and we left at 4PM, so they’re not going to kick you out if you go over the time limit.

How Afternoon Tea Works at Lady Mendl’s

All afternoon teas are prix fixe, or set menus. The food you get is what everyone else gets. There isn’t a menu where you select what you want to eat.

There is just one kind of afternoon tea and it’s 5 small courses of food and tea. Everyone must order their own afternoon tea.

They offer an option of doing a tea pairing, which there is no extra charge. For the tea pairing, you’ll get a different kind of tea to go with each course of food. You don’t have a pot of tea at your table and instead, the servers will come by and fill your teapot for you. You don’t select the tea to go with the courses since they have pre-selected the teas for the tea pairing.

Lady Mendl’s Afternoon Tea Menu

Afternoon Tea
$89 per person
A 5-course tea service of soup or salad, tea sandwiches, 2 scones with Devonshire clotted cream and fruit preserves, crepe cake, and petit fours.

The menu and prices may change at any time.

Setting: ★★★★☆

Consisting of two rooms, the dining area is dedicated to tea service in the afternoon. (I love it when afternoon tea is served in rooms just for tea since it feels so much more intimate and private.)

The tea salon is cozy and charming. It looks and feels like you’re in a rich aunt’s house.

Service: ★★★★☆

Loved the service. There were 2 servers for our table and one brought the food and one poured the tea. The tea was constantly refilled and they kept track of which tea was poured for each course. If we needed something, they were always nearby.

Tea & Tea Selection: ★★★★☆

There are only 6 teas on the menu so the selection is very limited but I did have have 5 teas since I went with the tea pairing. For each course, a different tea was served. If you can’t finish a cup, they’ll pour out the tea from the tea cup so that they can pour in a different tea.

All the teas are blends which I’m not a huge fan of, but in this setting, it was fitting. I was pleasantly surprised by some of the blends.

Savories: ★★★★☆

Lady Mendl’s tea service is different than other afternoon teas since it’s made up of 5 courses, instead of 3.

The first course is a seasonal soup or salad. I went with the salad and really enjoyed it. Afternoon tea is all carbs, so it was nice to have the salad to start, even if it’s not traditional.

The second course is tea sandwiches. Even though they were 2 of us, they gave us a 2-tiered tray with 3 of each tea sandwiches. There were 6 different kinds of tea sandwiches and I liked them all. They’re fairly really basic and simple, but tasty.

RELATED: Afternoon Tea Course Order

Scones: ★★★★★

The third course is scones. Everyone gets 2 warm scones each. Great portion size and delicious with Devonshire clotted cream and fruit preserves. I love warm scones.

RELATED: How to Eat a Scone Properly

Sweets: ★★★☆☆

The last 2 courses are sweets. The fourth course is a slice of vanilla crepe cake. It’s a sliver of a slice, but it was the perfect portion size since I was getting full.

Lady Mendl’s is where I first had the crepe cake and fell in love with it. At that time, I didn’t realize that they were from Lady M and was just exclusive to Lady Mendl’s so every time I went back, that course was the one I looked forward to the most.

The last course is petit fours. This was my least favorite course since the sweets all looked a little sad and the chocolate covered strawberries were messy to eat.

Overall: ★★★★☆

Lady Mendl’s has been a hidden gem for so many years. The price is reasonable compared to other afternoon tea offerings in NYC and the setting is perfectly suited for tea.

LOCATION:
Lady Mendl’s at The Inn at Irving Place
56 Irving Place
New York, NY 10003 | 212.533.4466

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Afternoon Tea at Lady Mendl’s in 2015

Lady Mendl’s has been going strong all these years and the look hasn’t really changed much since I last went in 2015. The wallpaper is the same but they changed the tablecloths from white to black. (I like the white tablecloth better.)

The afternoon tea then was $59 per person.

I noted was that the flow of the courses was off back then. There were moments when I was waiting quite a bit for the next course, while other courses were brought out right away.

One thing that really threw me off at the time was being rushed out at the end. About two minutes after the last course was served, the waiter came by dropping off the check. Then five minutes after that, we were told the kitchen was closing and were basically asked to leave.

I’m used to a two hour tea service, so it was bit jarring to be rushed out after an hour and a half. (They now state that there is a time limit.)

There were 6 teas on the tea menu back then too.

The first course is always seasonal and it was a bite-sized and tasty butternut squash tart.

The second course of tea sandwiches were served by the waitstaff from a hand-held tray filled with four different kinds of sandwiches. They were really basic and a little homemade looking. They didn’t have a tiered tray they brought out to the table.

The scones weren’t served warm then but they did come with Devonshire clotted cream and preserves.

The crepe cake slice was about double the size then. It was just as delicious then.

The petit fours always included the chocolate covered strawberries.

Back in 2015, I gave Lady Mendl’s 3 stars, mostly due to the rushed exit at the end.