The Lobby — Restaurant in Tokyo

We were staying in the Peninsula, so a bit disappointing to write this - but take your money elsewhere. The Lobby is beautiful, though the whole hotel is a bit dated, but the bigger disappointment is that the food is pretty mediocre (especially for how expensive it was) and the service was slow and at times, surprisingly rude/dismissive.

One day, I tried the new plant-based menu - very cool that they have this, but it was pretty unfilling and bland. The next day I tried the Japanese breakfast - this was outright bad to the point where I didn't even really eat it. They gave a very overcooked/dry piece of salmon and some sort of salad with raw beef on it. I don't eat beef but never specified no beef so I asked a server what it was (since I wasn't sure if it was fish - it was so pink), and she said she would find out, then 5 minutes pass and I had to wave down the hostess [the restaurant was maybe 30% full, so not busy at this time] - this hostess was actually quite rude. I merely asked what it was and she snipped, "It's beef, do you have a problem with that?"

It also took forever to get a pot of tea.

Honestly, take your money and even go to FamilyMart for a better breakfast. This place is just for rich people who want to show off that they're rich but who...

Feb. 2024 Update - Visited the for the strawberry afternoon tea. They've added a few upgrades. They now serve unlimited tea and coffee selections, plus a specialty cocktail. This year, there were also endless strawberries served at your table. The improvements are good. The food this time was also more memorable. I wish they would offer more scones. The clotted cream was really good.

Original - Nice space, beautifully decorated. It seemed rather unimposing for the lobby of The Peninsula Hotel. We had the strawberry afternoon tea. It was nice enough. The food was ok, a mix of savory and sweet. The scones were limited, and you were allowed one tea selection. I prefer the...

The cappuccino looked like it came from a machine - it was served in a soup bowl, the ratio of espresso to milk and milk foam was too low, the foam wasn’t tight, no evidence in the foam that the hot milk was poured. The kids breakfast was two silver dollar pancakes, half a banana, some fruit compote and whipped cream and a pond of syrup on a segmented kiddie plate, which is all fine if it isn’t 2500 yen. The fruit plate wasn’t fresh - the mango was sour. The other coffee we ordered was never delivered. My expectations for the Peninsula are higher - two kids breakfasts, a fruit plate, and one cappuccino shouldn’t cost 10,000 yen AND be unacceptably poor. At least the service...