I'd Rather Be Eating: Russian Tea Time

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Russian Tea Time - Chicago

While I was in Chicago two weeks ago, one night over dinner, a couple of my running buddies mentioned that they were going to have afternoon tea the next day at the Peninsula Hotel and Sister K and I were jealous and wanted to go too. However, the Peninsula Hotel only served afternoon tea at 2 seatings on Saturday, 2:30 and 4:30pm, and as luck would have it, the next day was the day before the Chicago Marathon and our running group was planning to have an early dinner at 5pm and having afternoon tea at either 2:30 or 4:30pm would have spoiled our appetites for dinner. Plus, I was concerned about having all that sweets before the race. So, after the race on Sunday, I still had afternoon tea on the brain so I called up the Peninsula Hotel to make a reservation for tea that afternoon. Unfortornately, they only had one seating for afternoon tea on Sunday at 4:30pm and the running group once again had a celebratory dinner planned at a steak place that evening. At last, it was not meant to be for us to have afternoon tea at the Peninsula Hotel. I hear there is a Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. ;)

To make a long story even longer, I ended up doing a little research on the internet and found out that the Russian Tea Time was just a few blocks from our hotel. So Sister K and I went to give it a go. It was an ok place for afternoon tea. I've definitely had better but for $22.95, this was about half the price of afternoon tea at the Peninsula. The service was great since it was in the middle of the afternoon but I've had tea in much nicer places with more upscale fare. This was good for what it was and it satisfied my need for tea! :)

I already posted this photo once but here it is again.

Another one I've already posted but it shows the tiers and part of the restaurant, so here it is again.

Top tier: one each of golden raisins and cranberry scones with whipping cream and marmalade. (You can see Sister K at the back of this photo gettin' ready to snap a photo..lol)

Middle tier: assorted finger sandwiches and a mini quiche. The ones on this side are mine so there is no cream cheese, they don't really look right. But if you look to the back of the photo, Sister K's sandwiches are the normal ones with the spreads. The mini quiches was tasty.

Bottom tier: an assortment of Russian pastries. Ohmygosh, more than I had wanted or could have wished for. They were really generous with these cookies! I was eating these for the next few days.

They gave us more sweets on the side!

And because it was a hot day in Chicago, I had ice tea instead of the hot tea. The waiter kept pushing this "Russian" blend but I went with the iced Blood Orange tea. Delicious! I think Sister K went with the Russian blend because the waiter was so nice to us and he really wanted us to order the Russian blend...hahaha!