Tiffany Blue Box Café

There are some places that just inspire you to want to live a little. At Tiffany’s on Fifth Avenue, you’re inspired to live a lot. Even if you’re not in the market for a bauble, the Blue Box Café is a luxury, because everyone loves a blue box. But how is the food and experience? This is the review.

Atmosphere

The new Tiffany Landmark is stunning; the renovation completely transformed the space. The rooms within Tiffany sparkle, and it’s not just the diamonds and cases of jewels. It’s like the walls glow from within, and on the first floor, they literally do, with double-height cathedral ceilings and holograms of windows. The store is worthy to be a destination like the Met on the tourist circuit of NYC.

So, naturally, I had high expectations of the Blue Box Café, and finally slid in for a late afternoon tea. I’ll nutshell this as I was underwhelmed by the decor and atmosphere. The café is given a prime corner window location, but it’s like they ran out of money when it came time to decorate. There’s nothing premium about any of the furniture and the floor by virtue of its design looked dingy. I don’t want to be mean, but I would expect that floor to be at a kid’s daycare and not at a Tiffany flagship. The bar stools are so hard that after five minutes I just wanted to get out of there, but had a full tea service still ahead.

There’s nothing that sparkles about the Blue Box Café, which is why New Yorkers generally don’t return. Instead, what you’ll find are out-of-town visitors. You can see this is a really special treat for them, and for some, a real stretch to be able to manage the $15 desserts. No one seemed to mind around me but as a New Yorker, I feel like Tiffany should have shown them more of a premium experience. We’re better than that.

The Presentation

The other part about the atmosphere I have to comment on were the dishes and serving trays. You walked through the China department to get to the Blue Box Cafe, so you would expect the serverware in a Tiffany restaurant to be off the charts. Like at the Baccarat, you want to put everything that you drink and eat out of in your purse, it’s so beautiful. That’s not the case with the Blue Box Café. None of the dishes or tiered sandwich trays stood out beyond what you’d find in any normal tea service.

Food + Beverage

I’m going to be brief; there are better places to have a department store nosh. I opted for the afternoon tea and it ranked between okay to good. I liked that there was a slightly creative take on the sandwiches. The egg salad was made with quail eggs and topped with a salmon roe and dill. The lobster roll was more bread than lobster salad. The cucumber sandwich was a nice traditional version but the star was the smoked salmon. I could have had at least 3 more of these, which were in an everything ultra mini bagel-shaped bread.

Instead of a dense bagel though the bread was light and moist. The salmon loin had just a perfect smear of cream cheese. It was the one outstanding aspect of the tea service. Scones didn’t come out warm and the desserts were nice, particularly the Tiffany blue chocolate madeleine. Desserts don’t impress me though, and for $100 it wasn’t anything to write home about.

Service

The service was nice, but I wouldn’t say that people really knew what they were doing. For example, I ordered a tea and they poured my first cup before it had a chance to steep. They also never checked back to see if I needed more hot water. You could tell that this was a job and not a passion for the servers. It’s okay; we don’t all have to love where we work.

Overall: 6/10

I was really cheering for Tiffany’s Blue Box Café, but I think I will stick to Baccarat and Bergdorfs.

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FAQs

Q: Where is Tiffany Blue Box Cafe located?

A: Tiffany Blue Box Cafe is located within the Tiffany Landmark store on the 6th Floor, 727 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022.

Q: What are the hours of operation of Tiffany Blue Box Cafe?

A: The hours of operation of Tiffany Blue Box Cafe are below, where the last seating is around 6:30 pm. The store has a hard close by 8 pm as after all, it is full of valuable diamonds.

Q: Do you need reservations for Tiffany Blue Box Cafe?

A: Reservations are highly recommended, and can be booked on Resy. However, you can drop by and try to get a walk-in table. Alternatively, you can find a seat at the bar pretty easily for 1-2 people.