Alice’s Tea Cup

Alice’s Tea Cup
102 W. 73 Street
(212) 799-3006
Menu + Reviews: here

Cuisine: Tea, light fare, sandwiches
Prices: Inexpensive

Admittedly, Alice’s Tea Cup is a bit out of the way, residing on the Upper West Side where I can no longer claim to never have hung out, but numerous positive reviews led myself and two friends there for a birthday celebration one Friday after work. 

(The first thing I did when we got there was… forget to take a picture of the sign.  Looks bare in the upper right hand corner of this post, doesn’t it?) 

Adorably decorated with purple and gold balloons on the outside, it wasn’t hard to find at all even though none of us had been there before.  Walking in, surprisingly, the place was empty save one other table.  I guess it was a little early- 6 pm – but undaunted, we trooped in and were seated at a table in the very very back.  Amusingly, the table was a little oversized and the chairs were all very Alice-in-Wonderland, one larger than another and the last being ‘just right’ (isn’t that Goldilocks?). 

The wait staff, contrary to a lot of other reviews which leads me to believe that perhaps it was just an off night, wasn’t as friendly as they could have been and almost had an air of “I wish you weren’t here” about them.  I ignored it and focused on the menu.  Their tea menu is quite extensive though not completely explanatory (as the one at Lady Mendl’s had been) of each variety of tea; I stuck with my favorite Earl Grey (which is, by no means, a difficult to find tea); one of the other girls had a strawberry chocolate variety and I’m ashamed to admit that I can’t recall what the third tea was (this was the start of my vacation- 18 days ago now!). 

As you can see, the teapot was of interest to us- an adorable cat sat perched atop it- no, not the Cheshire cat- just a little teabuddy that held the lid in place and whose end caught drips in a foamy pad to prevent messes. 

One of the girls and I shared the Mad Hatter which includes a 3-cup pot of tea for each of us, three scones, two sandwiches (our choice), and choice of desserts + cookies.  We chose strawberry, pumpkin, and raspberry chocolate for our scones; for our sandwiches, “lapsang souchong smoked chicken breast – with granny smith apples and herbed goat cheese on 7 grain bread” & “alice’s blt with blue cheese on toasted black bread”; and chai spiced creme brulee to finish off. 

I was a bit surprised when they brought everything out at once, particularly with regard to the creme brulee as, in my past poor experiences with creme brulee, the crunchy top tends to soften and melt over time if you don’t eat it.  But I shrugged it off and attacked a scone; my first choice, strawberry, proved to be the absolute best scone I’ve ever eaten.  It was moist, soft, sweet and tart (warm strawberries) all at the same time.  Granted, I don’t know if this is how traditional/”real” scones are, but it was absolutely delicious; I spread mine with the cream provided.  My next choice, the raspberry chocolate one, was disappointing after such a strong start, and the pumpkin was just dense and not my style.  I would definitely go back if just for thte strawberry scones.  Yum!!  We all agreed that the strawberry one was the best. 

Next were the sandwiches.  The chicken one was definitely interesting but not quite right, like it was just missing one thing from being wonderfully absolutely delicious.  I felt the same about the BLT, though I could pinpoint the problem: I didn’t like the bread.  The insides were yumm, just not the outside, which may have been the problem with the chicken one as well. 

Then, on to dessert!  The creme brulee had, amazingly, not melted by the time I reached it.  It was flavorful and pretty good, actually, but I’ve never been a big fan of creme brulee (since my first experienced was marred by it melting before I could eat it!), so I am not a good judge of how it holds up next to other creme brulees.  The cookies were good, a wide variety of them and very tasty.  But I was still mourning the end of the strawberry scone. 

One of the girls opted to get a real meal, and ordered from the specials of the day menu, which means I don’t remember the exact name of the dish.  It was a grilled chicken breast over cous cous or some such with a wonderful sauce that the picture does not do justice to.  Actually the picture is completely unappetizing in my opinion, but the chicken was very soft and moist; the cous cous’s texture contrasted nicely as well.  The sauce was very good as well, sweet but not completely sweet and complemented the chicken’s neutrality very yummy-ly. 

Yvo says:  Definitely recommend.  I didn’t think it was expensive at all, especially compared with Lady Mendl’s, and the food was creative, pretty to look at, and for the most part, yummy.  It’s true that you need to know what you like and don’t like before ordering, but everything was well done and great to try.  I actually think it was really cheap, but that might be my surprised reaction to the reviews on Menu Pages that claim the prices were steep.  Yummy!