Afternoon Tea at Bergdorf Goodman 5th Avenue New York

BG Restaurant

Bergdorf Goodman

5th Avenue at 58th Street

Seventh Floor

New York, NY  10019

So the afternoon tea Ladies were in New York this month and as we were celebrating the 21^st birthday of the gorgeous Heather (daughter of one of the tea ladies) we decided that only a posh afternoon tea would do. After painstaking research into where to go we hit upon this as it had good reviews, overlooked Central Park and wasn’t too expensive (some in New York were very pricey – didn’t seem to be any offers )

Located on the Seventh Floor with sweeping views of Central Park, BG Restaurant is open daily for lunch, tea, cocktails and dinner. We visited this picturesque setting, designed by Kelly Wearstler, on a wet cold Saturday during our trip and were first of all struck by the gorgeousness of the room  (I’m not sure my pictures do it justice so used some from their website ) The dining room was picture-perfect - all in duck egg blue, with lovely little tables for 2 with the clamshell chairs that we coveted , and had an art deco  twenties feel that seamlessly complemented its setting overlooking Central Park and the store itself.  

Despite the white coated staff it also managed not to be formal – everyone was charming we were very glad we had booked as it was so busy and they welcomed us like old friends, in fact due to the rain we had arrived about an hour early but nothing was too much trouble and they quickly seated us. Although we were not overlooking the park it was such an overcast day it didn’t matter.

We had no idea really what to expect from the menu as it didn’t specify , but we had a choice of teas; we three chose the breakfast tea and Karen had the Jardin Bleu blend of tea flavoured with rhubarb, wild strawberry, and cornflower petals, which arrived very promptly , in BG china. As you know if you are following the blog an important point for me is the importance of not using teabags;  they didn’t,  and the teapot had an ingenious strainer built into it to create the perfect cup of tea, much needed after a day walking around 5^th Avenue shops!

Karen explained about her vinegar aversion – they immediately said they would bring alternatives.

The savouries were delightful! – open Egg mayo on crustless bread, cream cheese on Rye, turkey with cranberries, Tuna,  smoked salmon pinwheels with caviar, and gorgeous little tartlets with mozzarella and prosciutto. They very carefully offered an alternative to Karen omitting the egg mayo and making other mayo free versions of the other choices.

She said it really was the best ever savoury course she had eaten as normally she ends up with quite a limited choice. We loved the savouries so much we ordered another plateful each which was about £10 each but worth it we felt,  as it was so fresh tasting and flavoursome.

Lovely fluffy scones, with clotted cream and jam and the choice of macarons, french fancies, tart and cupcake (the cupcake defeated all of us) completed the selection.

And because it was Heather’s birthday they brought her special birthday treat.

So in all in all it really was great – would love to go back if I’m ever in New York again – the service, setting ambience and attention to detail was second to none. 

The manager came out to ask how our tea was at the end asking if they had done our English tea tradition justice we all agreed that they really had – in fact they had put lots of our British afternoon teas in the shade !

Wasn’t particularly cheap (especially as we added extra savouries ) but worked out at about $75 dollars per person with service – which was excellent by the way and we had no qualm about paying.

Thankyou BG restaurant !