Prince Tea House — Restaurant in New York

I have NEVER been disrespected like this by a restaurant in my life. As a cherry on top, the food sucked. The only thing that was nice was the decor and ambiance, a comforting thing to walk into, but that joy was gradually trashed over the course of our visit.

ON THE SERVICE: when my friend paid for our tab on his AMEX, he gave a cash tip--66%--in hundred dollar bills (the "unfakeable" new ones). The servers took the cash, and started mumbling to each other AND THE MANAGER in Mandarin, questioning whether or not the bills were real, not knowing that we understood them. Instead of asking us directly, cordially, about the cash, they gossiped to each other. We took the money back and left them a tip on the card—which they hardly deserved after the entirety of our experience.

Our generosity came after it took 4 servers to figure out our request: no spicy on the food, hot sauce on the side, and one tea without milk. I made these requests directly to the face of one of the servers. When the tea came out with milk, this same server said I never requested “no milk”--when I had said it to her FACE!

She responded with an attitude as if we were causing an inconvenience, instead of understanding that we declared a dairy allergy, as requested upon entry to any restaurant as well as at the table during service.

ON THE FOOD: the afternoon tea should be a staple. The tea was delicious, yes, but the food was hardly palatable. The small bites--sandwiches, scones, and other finger foods--just did not taste good. How do you mess up bread, cucumber, and butter? We also ordered a salmon sandwich, and the tomatoes tasted like cardboard. Much of the food tasted frozen, pre-prepared, and not fresh. The fact that it came out fast was nice, but the quality of ingredients and of the whole dishes was sub-par.

Overall, this experience had my group laughing at the night somehow getting worse and worse. From wrong orders and a whole team trying to understand our requests, to bad food, and lastly to completely disrespectful gossip behind our backs, our visit at Prince Tea House showed us that their LOWEST priority is the experience of us, the customer.

Oh, and as I write this review, I realized: we never received our molten lava cake (even though we were charged for it)! This visit really was just...

I went to the first Prince Tea House that opened on the Upper East Side, so I am going based off all my experiences there, which were fabulous…that being said, the service at this location was very good, but this wasn’t my favorite experience. My friend and I were seating very quickly even though the tea house was quite busy. The servers were quick and cleared our dirty items as well as quickly brought our food out-which was a pleasant surprise. They were did not make us rush out or bother us while we enjoyed lunch. There was also a fun robot that comes through to help the servers with clean up. I thought it was great and the robot even plays music!

The tea is why I always want to come back. If you come for anything, try the Lavender Milk Tea and the Rose Milk Tea-hot. Both are the best I’ve ever had. However, I tried it iced and wasn’t sure how much sugar to ask for, so it didn’t quite taste as I remember. The purple Mille crepe cake was still delightful, but the slice was smaller than I remembered and my friend and I were sharing. The fried squid legs were not as good as I had hoped. They were a little tough and I’m pretty sure the heads were still on. I love seafood and squid, but the heads was even a little much for me. I’d pass on that. My friend wanted the crispy chicken wings, and those were pretty tasty and perfectly cooked.

Overall, it’s a fun atmosphere with great options if you know what to order. Do order the Lavender Milk Tea Hot (it comes in a beautiful tea set), and the Rose Milk Tea Hot. I’d also recommend ordering the purple Mille crepe cake but keep in mind you might want one to yourself since the serving size is not huge. Food wise, I’d say order the wings...

I came with my friend during noontime, where there was no wait time. Entirely empty during the time of our visit, only a table or two with customers. The menu consists of half of the tea selections ranging from tropical fruit tea to traditional tea. Teapot ranges from $8 to $10, depending on the combination of the tea leaves. There is only one standard size for the teapot. We got Des Stable Green Tea (G3) $8. Green tea with rose, mango, yellow peach, and citrus fruit. Combination of Tea and tropical fruity flavors. Between the two of us, the teapot serves roughly 6 cups of tea in total, with the tea poured half ]-way in the cup. Mixed fruit Mille Crepes Cake $9.5 consists of a few-layer of crepe and majority cream. Six layers of crepe, one layer of sponge cake, slices of kiwifruit, melon, mango, and strawberries, top off with a BlackBerry and a cube of mango. Trio Combo Mix and Match $8.5, consist of choosing any three. We picked Green Tea Financier, Pâte à Choux, and Éclair. The Green Tea Financier was moist and soft in the inside and hard on the outside. If you are someone who does not like intense Green Tea flavors, I would not suggest this. The Pâte à Choux, and Éclair was average, nothing special. The decor is clean and chic. Super simple but elegant. An excellent place for events. Plenty of picture opportunities. Plenty of seating compared to other locations. Plenty of room for a more significant group setting. The bathroom is located in the back of the teahouse on the right. The bathroom is roomy and super clean. I personally would come for the atmosphere and ambiance and with a bigger group of friends. However, I would not come back just for...