Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Butter Avenue

July's lolita meet up took place at Butter Avenue's Lawrence location. I booked about two weeks in advance for the reservation through their website. The booking slots for afternoon tea go as far as two weeks in advance. Even if you call to ask if you can book for a later date, they still ask you to wait for the date to appear and book through the site. 

Picture credit: Butter Avenue

Butter Avenue always provides great service and they promptly respond to any inquiries within a day if you e-mail them. I found that the online bookings were a bit more of a hassle since I had to pre-pay in advance for our group. Any cancellations 24 hours before the date are non-refundable, so I let my group know that if anything changed, to please let me know...or else they would still be on the liable for paying me back. 

We opted to choose the 12pm time slot and this month's meet was a smaller one since not everyone could make it. I was still rather excited to try the afternoon tea here, I had seen pictures and it looked so lovely!

Disclaimer: I have to apologize for the pictures, my phone wasn't cooperating with the lighting >_<;; 

Top of the tealist is Houjicha, Genmaicha and Afternoon Picnic

The tea list is short but I think it's still a decent selection. They give you the option to have your teas hot or iced, which was really nice! I had the Marvellous Moon as an iced tea and it was really refreshing. Everyone had their own little tea pots and excellent presentation of the teas before the hot water was added. To sweeten your teas, Butter provides these cute potion bottles of liquid sugar. I thought it was really cute... even though I opted not to add any sugar to my tea.

My Marvellous Moon tea with fresh strawberry and orange slices and the fancy potion sugar bottle!

They served us our quiches first and this time it was quail egg and smoked ham. It seems every week the sweet and savory options for the tea sets change, my friend Kimi said that it was different from last time she came to Butter for afternoon tea. We were also served an non-alcoholic aperitif that consisted of rose infused lychee jelly and some crumble on the bottom of it. It resembled a fruit parfait without any fruit. They replaced my crumble, since it had chocolate in it, with more lychee jelly. Which was still very delicious!

 Delicious quiche and rose-lychee aperitif.

We were asked which macarons we would like to come with our afternoon tea sets, and they even marked down with macarons didn't have chocolate in them for me. Afterwards we were served our mini brioche buns and our 2-tier stands of sweet and savory items. The brioche buns were served with apricot jam and butter was optional. I loved the savory items, and honestly, I forgot what the french pastry on the stand was called, but it tasted amazing. It was crispy and flaky but very nice cheesy and buttery flavor to it. I wish they had more on the stand!

Photos courtesy from Kimi 

My different desserts on my own 2-tier stand~!

The only difference between my non-chocolate tier and the other ones was that I received 2 mini madeleines glazed with matcha and a mini lemon meringue tart. These items replaced the mini Ciao Bella coconut dessert and the chocolate cubes which were very sweet according to Kimi. They also swapped out the chantilly cream on the mini cassis puff dessert and used an icing glaze instead to secure the blueberry.

Overall, I had an enjoyable experience at Butter Avenue. I usually like going there to get some desserts occasionally, and if you're looking to try a sampler of some of their usual desserts, afternoon tea is a nice option without filling up on the full size ones. The mini versions of the sweets are adorable and visually very appealing. They also gave us a to-go item to take home after we were done eating, a cruffin! I don't have a picture, but the croissant muffin was quite delicious!

Photo: Kimi

Any food that you don't finish you can take home and each of us had something to take away with us. The pricing is reasonable, more towards the expensive spectrum for afternoon tea. It was $50, and when you book your reservation online, they include taxes and gratuity. Expect to spend around two hours during your seating if all the spaces are booked up. They serve each table or group as all the party members arrive. Our group was the last to be assembled and thus, we were the last table to start our afternoon tea.

Photos: Kimi

Unfortunately, we didn't get a proper group photos of ourselves! Amy and Kimi had a cute cat theme with their outfits and Sarcasm-hime's dress was so cute. She made it herself! For this month's meet I wore the pink JSK of Metamorphose's Fancy Egg.

Until next time!
Stay fancy~

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - DT Bistro

We skipped having a meet in May since Anime North was happening and we had a lot of other things to do with Cafe Delish. By some random occurrence of the lolita gods, this meet up fell on the weekend after I was admitted into the hospital for appendicitis. Of course if it happened to be that weekend, I would've insisted that the other girls follow through with the plans and be fancy for me while I was feeling not so fashionable my in hospital smock. (Although I have to say, they are very comfortable...!)

DT Bistro

I had a week to mostly recover and come to June's summer lolita meet up. It was also to celebrate a belated International Lolita Day (summer edition) which usually falls on the first Saturday of June (the other being in December). This month, I chose for us to go to DT Bistro, located in downtown Toronto along Spadina and Harbord St. I came across it in pictures and was delighted to learn that they also serve afternoon tea on weekends from 2-5pm. 

The interior of the restaurant is very open, lots of natural light streaming in and they had set up our table for afternoon tea beforehand. They also have a brunch/lunch menu that you could order from, but I opted to tell them that our group was coming there for afternoon tea when they called me to confirm the reservation. 

They have a shorter tea list, which sometimes makes it easier to choose what kind of tea you would like. They have afternoon tea options, one being the normal one and the other being deluxe, which includes a DT Bistro special cocktail along with the pot of tea you would get in the normal tea option. 

Our waiter kept mixing up our tea orders and poor Keiko had her pot of tea replaced four times, and I still think it wasn't correct after the fouth try. They also ran out of mint tea for Tenshi, so she had to order camomile instead. Archangeli's genmaicha was missing the gen mai, it just tasted and smelled like regular green tea, with no puffy rice bits, so really she just ordered sencha. Their tea selection has some interesting choices, but I would stick to a tea you're familiar with before they mix it up with something else by accident. Our server was trying to convince me that my jasmine tea was chai when it clearly did not look like or smell like chai tea. You got to stand your ground for your tea especially when you know it's the right pot you have!

Afternoon tea

The savory plate was really appetizing, however the cornbread and tomato soup were a bit of an odd edition. There was this amazing braised beef with melted cheese, I would eat a whole plate of those, they were delicious! I was so stuffed I couldn't even eat my scone, not that I did not want to! I just find my stomach capacity to be less after surgery. I'm sure I'll be a food heathen soon enough again!

Each tier had a slightly different dessert plate on top. I actually forgot to mention I preferred no chocolate...so I just didn't eat any of the chocolate items, except for the fruit tart and one of the macarons.

DT Bistro has a lot of potential and it's great that they take reservations. Their afternoon tea sets start at $30, which I think is a very reasonable price point. If only they served sugar cubes instead of packs of sugar, it would definitely elevate the experience. They also did not have enough tea pots with infusers for our group, so half of us had tea bags in our pots, a slight detail I took notice of. 

Some of the patrons who were coming in for a drink were very enamored by our group, I think most of them have not seen lolita before? Lots of subtle smiles and curious glances were thrown our way. A lady on the street, rolled down her car window to yell, "You girls look adorable!" while Keiko and I were making our way to the streetcar. Gosh, I love Toronto. 

Photo credit: Archangeli

Photo credit: Archangeli

This was also Naoko's first lolita meet up! I didn't realize that she was interested in lolita until the month prior.  I invited her to come to this meet up to wear one of her only lolita items she purchased while in Japan. 

Naoko-chan! You're more than welcome to visit Machiko's Lolita Closet Rentals! 

Please don't get any tea or stains on rental items though. You will be subject to dry cleaning fees and eternal tears from Machiko if stains don't come out.  (>o<;;)

I opted to wear something with a high waist so it wouldn't bother the area that had been operated on. I definitely was not able to wear a petticoat. I will have to wear this print again sometime to give it some justice!

For this meet, I wore Angelic Pretty's Dreaming Macaron.

Until our next meet, 

eat some more scones!

~*~

Bonus:

Derp lolita?

Hahaha!

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!

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Yuzu & Macaron Day

For this month's meet, the lolita gods were against me in helping me get a location for us to have afternoon tea. I think I called around 6 places and they had no space for us...and I learned from then on that I needed to book these places probably weeks in advance if we were going to try to get a reservation for a group of 6 or more.

Chirashi

In the end, we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant, Yuzu no Hana, to have lunch and then head over to Butter Avenue (Queen St. W) for Macaron Day.

Yuzu has lovely and elegant interior space. I think the workers there were amused that a group of girls in lolita showed up for lunch, but nonetheless, they were very polite and offered great service. I ordered the chirashi and it was lovely.

Onto the main attraction! Getting those macarons!

By mid afternoon our main group headed towards Butter Avenue and then Bosu and Yumi met us there in the downstairs seating area. Butter had organized a fabulous line up of 30 new flavours for Macaron day with 30% of the proceeds going to charity. So many flavours to choose from...but I can't eat them all!

Photo credit: Butter Avenue

Butter Ave.

Our group managed to hog a nook in the corner in the downstairs seating area and other patrons were kind enough to let us use their empty chairs so that we could sit together and not squish ourselves in the bench seating. I picked up an extra box of macarons for my friend's birthday which was coming up, but my box contained these flavours; Butterscotch Rum, Strawberry Basil, Guava Plum x 2, Toasted Sesame (which I ate and is not in the picture), and Iron Goddess. 

Delysees

By far my favourite flavour is guava plum. They had it the year before...and if they bring it back next year, I should just get a whole box of them. I love them!

We relaxed there with some tea and water for a bit until part of the group had to leave and venture off to different destinations. A few of us decided to go to Delysees to get some of their donut macarons! They were so cute looking and a bit small compared to a usual macaron, but they were very sweet and hard to eat more than two at once. 

Did you enjoy Macaron Day and head out to get some free macarons? Let me know in the comments or just tell me if you love macarons too! 

At this meet I wore Angelic Pretty's Day Dream Carnival (Twilight set). 

Photo credit: Bosu

Until next time!
Stay fancy~!

~~~

Bonus:

I spotted a yellow bird at Prairie Girl cupcakes. I want it... 

So cute and fluffy!!