Saturday, April 30, 2016

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Royal York

This month's meet was a special one, we had a special guest who came back from Japan to see GazettE perform in Toronto in April, and it was decided that we should meet up and have afternoon tea in lolita. Becca is the reason I own Twinkle Journey because many years ago, I saw her dress in Japan and it immediately went on my 'need this in my closet' list. 

Becca told us she rarely wears lolita in Japan because she has no one to wear it with...so we told her to bring her lolita gear with her and we would dress up and she could have her first afternoon tea experience. 

Library Bar. Photo credit: Royal York
Initially, I had booked another restaurant for high tea, but it didn't end up working out, so instead, we decided to go to the Library Bar located inside the Fairmont Royal York. I had never set foot inside the Royal York before and the interior and ambience definitely had a lot of history and pride to it. 

They have set times for afternoon tea and they only allotted around one hour and a half for your sitting time in the Library Bar. It is recommended that your party arrives on time because after your afternoon tea experience, the hotel gives complementary tours of the Royal York to add to your experience. The tours are only on weekends and it was definitely a nice touch to our experience there. 
Library Bar
Sandwiches
The day prior to our reservation, the Royal York phoned up my sister to confirm the reservation and to ask if anyone had any food allergies. Thankfully she told them of my chocolate allergy and they said they could accommodate that.

When we got there, we were allowed to check in our coats and were shown our seats. They have a moderately sized tea list, however the selection includes unique and traditional teas.

They served the sandwiches first and brought the 3-tiered stands. It looked like most of them had been pre-plated and where sitting on the side of the bar area, and when they brought over the stands, they already had 6 portions on the plates. Since there was only 6 of us, my sister and I concluded that they must have forgotten about my allergy, which was fine. I could just eat the items that did not contain chocolate, no problem!

However, maybe 5 minutes after the servers had set down the stands, one of them came by and to confirm whether one of us had a chocolate allergy, to which I said yes!


They brought me my own separate afternoon tea set without chocolate. It was fabulous, I had gelato, Royal York's famous coconut macaroons, and a lovely fruit bowl. Definitely very surprised with the selection of sweets they gave me to replace the chocolate confections. 

After we finished our afternoon tea, we went on the tour of the Royal York hotel! They brought us into different ball rooms and the hotel kitchen galley. We also went upstairs to some private conference floors you can rent out for functions. 
The tour was only an hour and afterwards they let you explore the public areas of the hotel by yourself. We took some pictures and then set off for some evening plans. 

These photos are courtesy of Bosu. Thank you~

The Royal York's afternoon tea is $50, however the food was very good and the tour experience really helped make it more memorable and special. They have great service and are very accommodating. If you want to explore a bit of Toronto's history, swing by the Royal York and just walk around the lobby area. There are lots of pictures and plaques of historical moments that are intertwined with the hotel. 

For this month's meet I am wearing Metamorphose's Twinkle Journey as per Becca's request. <3 

 Until next time,
Drink more tea!
 ~*~
Bonus:
Look at this swan cream puff!
Yummy!