Take a look at the affordable afternoon tea for 2 served at the Morgan Cafe inside The Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.

Morgan Cafe

The Morgan Library & Museum is located in Midtown East in New York City. It was the personal library of banker J. P. Morgan.

To eat at the Morgan Cafe at The Morgan Library & Museum, you don’t have to pay the museum admission. Let the guard know at the entrance you’re there to go to the cafe and they’ll let you go in without purchasing a ticket. There is a separate dining room but afternoon tea is only served in the cafe.

Morgan Cafe Reservations

The Morgan Cafe doesn’t take reservations.

Dress Code

It’s a museum cafe and very casual, so there’s no dress code.

Afternoon Tea Hours

Afternoon tea is served during cafe business hours. Tuesday – Sunday from 11AM – 4PM and Friday from 11AM – 7:30PM.

How Afternoon Tea Works at Morgan Cafe

The afternoon tea is for 2 people, not 1. Afternoon tea is a set menu so you don’t get to choose the food that comes with it. You do get to select your tea.

Let the server know you’ll be getting the afternoon tea and let them know the tea you would like to get. The tea will arrive first, then a 3-tiered tray with 3 courses. The first course is tea sandwiches and savories, which are on the bottom tier. Scones and clotted cream and preserves are in the middle tier. The sweets are on the middle tier and top tier.

RELATED: Afternoon Tea Course Order

Morgan Library Afternoon Tea Menu

Afternoon Tea for 2
$88 for 2 people
A pot of tea, tea sandwiches and savories, scones with clotted cream and preserves, and sweets

Sparkling wine or a bottle of Champagne can be added at an additional cost. The menu and prices may change at any time.

Setting: ★★★☆☆

The cafe is in a glass-enclosed dining area so it feels very airy and open. It’s not the ideal setting for tea since the chairs are a little uncomfortable and nothing about the cafe screams tea time. However, the seating is spaced nicely apart so you don’t feel like you’re sitting super close to the next table.

Service: ★★★★☆

Service was friendly but since it’s a cafe they don’t really check in on you. You do need to get their attention if you want more hot water or additional plates.

Tea & Tea Selection: ★★★☆☆

The tea served is tea sachets from Harney & Sons. The tea menu is very limited with just 8 teas to choose from. I did like that they didn’t go with all blends and had teas like Assam and sencha. There was 1 tea sachet in the teapot.

Savories: ★★★★★

I absolutely LOVED the savories. The bread was SUPER SUPER soft and pillowy. I loved how they had a nice variety from deviled eggs (unusual but delicious) to a mini avocado toast with a sunny-side quail egg. Everything was tasty and fresh.

Scones: ★★★★☆

Years ago, when I first had afternoon tea at the Morgan Library, they had the best scone I had ever tasted. I couldn’t believe how good it was. Unfortunately, these scones were not the best but average.

RELATED: How to Eat a Scone Properly

Sweets: ★★☆☆☆

The sweets were definitely the weakest part of the afternoon tea. The grapes were heavily dusted with edible glitter and the other dessert around the grapes were also covered in the same glitter. I wish they had skipped the glitter since it made me not want to eat anything it touched.

The opera cake was one piece, so I had to cut it myself. It would have been less messy if they had given us 2 smaller pieces instead of 1 bigger piece for us to cut. The macarons were a bit stale and seemed like an afterthought.

Overall: ★★★☆☆

At an affordable $44 per person, it’s worth getting the afternoon tea just for the delicious tea sandwiches, even if the sweets were a miss.

LOCATION:
The Morgan Cafe, The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

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Afternoon Tea at The Morgan Library & Museum in 2012

In 2012, I did the museum tour and had the afternoon tea at the cafe.

They had a scaled down afternoon tea that came on a partitioned tray. The tea served back then was also Harney & Sons.

The tea sandwiches were small but very good and the lemon tart wedge was delicious. The scone was tasty and came with fig compote.