The Gallery

My friends and I went to Cupcake Tea @ The Gallery one late spring afternoon. The set consisted a pot of tea and five cupcakes per person for $ 20. We agreed that the price was acceptable and the thought of cupcake tea was so «cute» that we couldn’t resist trying it out. Since we made a reservation, we were seated quite promptly upon arrival, but the service was quite slow.
I was quite delighted by the selection of teas and found their blends quite creative. I can’t remember the name of the specific blend I picked, but I was very satisfied with my choice and my friends, as I recall, were quite happy with theirs too. The cupcakes flavors were: Tiramisu, Boston Cream Pie, Lemon Meringue, Black Forest, and Irish Coffee. We were a little upset that all four of us had to get identical cupcakes, so we asked the waiter whether he could randomly mixed in cupcakes on the children’s menu (vanilla, chocolate, red velvet). He seemed quite confused and unwilling, and left without telling us whether that’s do-​able or not.
The waiter end up bring us 4 sets of the 5-​cupcakes on the adult menu, and 1 set of the 3-​cupcakes on the children menu, which was a real pleasant surprise. However, the children’s cupcakes tasted horrible – they were dry, stale and flavorless. The 5 adult cupcakes were however fresh, soft and loaded with flavors. None of them made my «favorite» because they were all too sweet for me, but I gotta say they were all delicately made with a great deal of care for details.
The china and silver tea set was charming and the atmosphere wasn’t too bad either. This tea experience isn’t as «classy» as the other ones I’ve had but I thought the modern feel was quite appropriate for «cupcake» tea. Overall it was good fun, but I don’t think I’d be returning for tea anytime soon.

After 2 years of holiday parties booked at the new Ritz Carlton Boston I received a thank you card that said to come on in for a few complimentary tapas at The Gallery. It was appreciated. But then I popped in with a friend before a concert. We sat down and about 12 minutes (no joke) later no one had approached us. We left because there was no one around to ask for help or talk to. We walked right out without a single Ritz employee in sight. Totally the opposite of what you expect from the Ritz.

For our 10^th and final (or so we thought…) Afternoon Tea review in Boston, us hard-​working souls at The Boston Teacup went to the new Ritz-​Carlton Boston Common to see how they shape up.
It was a cold January day so it was tempting to be sent to spend the afternoon in a lounge with a big real fire. Sadly we were seated in no-man’s land and caught far more gusts of cold air as the lobby doors opened, than warm air as the distant fire crackled.
At least we got to see the interesting guests checking in… 20 or so massively tall black guys in training gear carrying sports bags? I asked our waitress «Who are they?» she replied «I can’t divulge who other guests are»… yeah, nice try lady — they all had Washington Wizards written all over them. No need to be discreet, they’re not.
The food and tea here were both pretty good but totally fell in line with the ‘modern luxury’ feel that was paralleled with the décor and service. Is that a bad thing? Well, kind of. I mean afternoon tea should be romantic and old-​worldy. Having it in a stark modern lobby area with no natural light is not a patch on places like Upstairs on The Square, The Taj Lounge or the Harbor Hotel where light streams in and everything is cosy and lovely with the world. I also felt a bit cheated to be told by the menu that all my tea would be Mighty Leaf tea. What? Supermarket-​bought tea for $ 35. I want trained monkeys climbing cliff faces for that kind of payment!
You can check out a more grown-​up review at our blog
Lots of nice pictures too.
A great tip here would be to tell them it’s someone’s birthday. I got some lovely chocolates out of that scam… although it was actually my birthday! Yay/​Nay for turning 30 and having tasted all the teas in Boston… or so we thought.