Wild Lily Tea Room
511-A W. 22nd Street (between 10th & 11th Ave.)
(212) 691-2258
Cuisine: Japanese style tea; light fare
Price: Inexpensive
I have to say that this place was fairly far out of the way; getting off the A train at 23rd Street drops you off two and a half whole avenues away from this small, unassuming spot. I would have missed the place completely except for my friend waiting outside; the front is fairly unobvious and unmarked. Outside is a sign of various events etc. including a notice that cell phones are not permitted to be used inside the restaurant; this immediately raised my opinion.
Upon entering, the tranquil “lily” pond on our right (above picture) impressed and amused; there were live fish swimming around underneath the floating candles, a nice touch. The atmosphere was fairly quiet, peaceful; however, my companion and I were both very surprised at how small the place was, since the picture on the website made it look airy and large.
I didn’t take a picture of our teas, but we were both pleased by our choices. I did note that the teapots/service used varied greatly throughout the restaurant; I’m not sure if this depended on your tea choice, or was completely arbitrary.
We both opted to order the assortment of tea sandwiches, which turned out to be an excellent choice. From the top left, going clockwise; chicken with a light curry sauce on a baguette, shrimp paste, smoked salmon with a basil pesto sauce, butternut squash cream, tea egg salad, and cucumber with creme fraiche (I’m sure I got one or two of these wrong, but close). I was not at all impressed with the chicken; it was chopped/shredded fairly fine, and slightly dry (the sauce did nothing), on top of a crusty/hard bread, so with each bite, parts of the topping would fall off.
The shrimp paste was really good though; obviously not dry, and very soft and tasty to the palate. Not overly fishy/shrimpy, and well blended.
I’m not a fan of smoked salmon at all, and I found this time to be no exception. Smoked salmon leans towards the chewy side, and again, it was hard to eat, I had to kind of hold it tightly and bite into it and try to chew it apart. My other option would have been to stuff the entire thing in my mouth, which I wasn’t too interested in doing.
The butternut creamy one… this one was sweet, and I really liked it. Although while I was eating it, it occurred to me that texturally the sandwich was similar to a thick layer of butter on top of yummy bread, which made me a little sick, I rationalized that it was actually a vegetable derivative and therefore not that bad for me, right? But seriously, this was my favorite one out of the 6 sandwiches.
I’ve never eaten a tea egg actually, so the tea egg salad sandwich was very interesting. I thought it was tasty, definitely interesting, though there wasn’t much inside so I didn’t feel like I could get a good grasp on what was going on there.
I love cucumber sandwiches because I find them very refreshing; this one was no different.
For dessert, we opted to split the green tea tiramisu. Unfortunately, the jello/gelatinous layer on top turned both of us off when it was served; I’ve always stayed away from any desserts with that top in any Asian bakery in the past. I gamely decided to try it, though, and was pleased to discover that it was more of a mochi-type layer, since it was fairly chewy and not so … well, jello-y.
The cream/cheese portion wasn’t bad, not too sweet, fairly infused with grean tea; the part I found interesting was that, traditionally the lady fingers- and in some more modern versions, the cake- is soaked in espresso (sometimes also in a coffee liqeur)- but I found that this one had likely been soaked in green tea, which added a certain dimension to the dessert. However, I wouldn’t order this again, as I didn’t like it all that much. I found it too far from tiramisu for me to really enjoy.
Overall: I would recommend this restaurant if you’re in the area for a quick snack; going out of your way maybe if you really want yummy light fare (though we didn’t try anything else). It was fairly inexpensive, but when I got home an hour later, I found myself pretty hungry. Ambiance and atmosphere gets 2 thumbs up, however. Oh, and the wait staff wasn’t all that attentive.
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