YTB (Yūgen Tea Bar) — Restaurant in Melbourne

Dined on a Saturday afternoon at Yugen on their afternoon tea set, and I have to say the whole experience was thoroughly disappointing.

I’ll start with the good - very aesthetic and well appointed decor.

Unfortunately that’s where the good ends.

A couple of unfortunate and below expectation issues we faced: we had 1 guest dining on a ‘no beef, no raw fish’ dietary. Their standard set menu offered 3 different finger sandwiches per person. There were egg sandwiches, avocado sandwiches, all of which would have been appropriate for this guest. Unfortunately they offered the same 3 cooked fish sandwiches to my guest. No doubt because it was easier to make 1 sandwich and cut it into 3, than to offer her the same experience as everyone else to have 3 different choices. By the way - the cooked fish sandwich was awful, very fishy in a bad way. all guests bar 1 were dining on the non-alcoholic set menu option. Rather than offering the full selection of non-alcoholic drinks, they only offered a choice of 2 juices and a lemonade (which were all store bought and poured from the bottle). When questioned why the others weren’t on offer and if we could have the matcha lemonade - the waitress said she was the only one on service and it would take a long time to make the other drinks. Honestly shocking to offer a less than normal service because the restaurant was not appropriately resourced. Why would we pay the same amount as any other guest on another day, but not be offered the same selection? Ridiculous. On the note of being understaffed, it took them an hour from seating for them to even take our order for tea - again, ridiculous. The restaurant was not even full, there were maybe 4 other tables there during our visit. The waitress made several mistakes on taking our order - bringing the wrong milk, an extra drink by accident, not bringing the right tea to the right person. Not impressive for what is meant to be an elevated high tea experience the wine glasses were dirty with lipstick stains on them from previous usage

The food was ok - the scones were delicious, but the bread was stale (dry!) on the finger sandwiches and the rest of the food was ok but nothing to write home about.

Honestly at $105pp, it’s not worth your money. We paid nearly $800 for our table. Whilst this is sold as an elevated, gourmet experience, in reality it is poorly executed food, terrible service disguised as fine dining.

Even if this was just an extremely irregularly bad day, I’m not sure I would...

I went here today as a group of 3 to experience the recommendation I have previously been shared. Coming from Perth, WA, its a big experience choosing to spend a lot of money on a high tea. The food was delightful and the tea delicious, however I had a bit of feedback that I didn't feel was appreciated. While we had a 90 minute seating, for such an expensive, luxury experience it feels like a rushed in and out style of venue and perhaps trying to fit too many people in. We were asked to have our order placed within minutes of sitting down at the table.

I also had grievances with the booking system, I found it very difficult to place a booking and from this alone almost gave up. The booking system asks for confirmation of covid vaccine certificate which is no longer required, I did message the restaurant prior to arrival and had this confirmed, however I feel having this on the booking still could be a deterrent for some wanting to book.

Additionally, on their instagram page 48 hours before my booking it advertised a tea flight and to book through their online page. When I couldn't find this I asked and was told this was not an option at this time as they were reviewing the teas. Not a problem, however advertising it was available on a popular social media platform but not actually having it is quite confusing for someone interested in trying it and quite misleading.

When I asked if I could provide feedback in person on the day, I was met with quite a defensive set of answers for why. A simple "thank you for your feedback" would've sufficed for me. I am also from the service and hospitality sector and found the defensive response quite negative to such a positive experience. I am very aware lots of places are understaffed and challenged but simple things could elevate the experience for all by fine tuning these to avoid confusion given the significant cost it is to dine at this venue.

I hope this review is taken positively for the venue to understand from a visitors...

Came here for the high tea on a Saturday noon. The high tea included five savoury bites, five sweet treats and a scone paired with strawberry jam and cream. For drinks, you can select one cold drink for the non-alcoholic option and a hot tea or coffee. I went with the houjicha sunrise which was refreshing with a bit of sweet tartness from the berry jam; and the Karigane green tea has a mellow earthy flavour without the harsh bitterness which was very refined and tasty. Starting with the scone, it was freshly baked, soft, sweet and buttery. The sweets were decent; the black sesame choux was light and airy, mildly sweet and nutty; yuzu macaron has a strong citrus taste; and the layered dark chocolate cake was not too sweet. Didn't enjoy the cheese tart as it was too cheesy for me, overpowering the sweetness of the apricot jam. As for the savoury bites, favourite was surprisingly the carrot and feta tartlet. The rest were ok; both the teriyaki chicken and the ramen egg salad sandwich were too heavy on the creamy mayo sauce, especially the ramen egg salad filling which didn't have much texture; spam onigiri tasted plain; and the smoked trout taiyaki was dense and dry. Overall the high tea was just ok, very pricey as there was not a lot of food; and the drink refill is only limited to the same loose leaf tea you have selected. The staff looking after my table was kind to get me a flat white when I enquired about the coffee section of the high tea menu which is usually not included as you can only pick one hot tea or coffee. Highlight for me was the scone and the Karigane green tea; would come back just for the tea. Also the booking page for the high tea should be updated to mention the 10% weekend surcharge as it only states the surcharge for Sundays and...