Sangria found a Groupon for vegan high tea!
I’ve only had high tea once at Neverland Tea Salon, back when I was free to eat all the dairy I pleased. I enjoyed it and I see why high tea is appealing, as it is a cute, fun, and social activity. However, I don’t think I would personally pay more than $30 per person for high tea… which means I won’t get to try the other upscale high tea places. That’s fine with me though, because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth anyways! I much prefer savoury items.
Indigo Age Cafe is a small and hidden cafe in downtown. If you aren’t deliberately looking for the place, chances are that you would have missed it.
It was a hot day that afternoon, so the cafe was a bit stuffy. However, it felt very cozy and welcoming with a woodsy/nature theme inside. We were greeted right away and told that they would prepare our high tea. It took quite awhile to prepare and we were getting impatient … maybe like 35-40 minutes since we sat down?
Anyways, we were very happy when the food finally arrived. We were told what each food item was, but I didn’t bother writing it down because it changes constantly depending on the day.
Instead, feast your eyes on the pictures!
Now the most important part… was it delicious? Yes! After going to Eternal Abundance a couple weeks before, I did not have high hopes for Indigo Age Cafe… but it was actually really good. Each item was carefully made with little details. We could see why we waited that long for our food.
There were some items that had an eclectic mix of different food but they actually went really well together!
All the veggies were fresh and crunchy too! I really liked the cucumber cup and would love to recreate it at home or for a picnic!
The stuffed mushroom with avocado paste was so good! Same with the stuffed tomato cup!
Last but not least, a close-up of the vegan desserts!
I would highly recommend the high tea with a Groupon. It is a nice place to go if you want to try something new and exciting.
Apart from high tea, they also serve vegan Ukranian dishes. Talk about unique!
I had made reservations on Open Table for an early dinner, at 6 pm. When we arrived, the parking lot was completely full! We ended up parking on the hotel side, which was still a really quick walk. The outside of the restaurant looked pretty modern and posh.
We were quickly seated, and the restaurant was pretty empty, save for a few other tables. Other parties ended up coming in as well, but it was nowhere as busy as The Keg would be. I guess this place isn’t really located in a residential neighbourhood or an entertainment district either, which explains the quieter venue!
It was an special occasion, so of course drinks were ordered!
Tuna tataki, $14.95: As an appetizer, we decided to order the tuna tataki because the boyfriend looooves tuna tataki. Unfortunately, this dish was really disappointing. The tuna was pretty hard on the outside and tasted as though it had been prepared awhile ago and left in the fridge.
Bread, complimentary: The bread was served nice and warm, with no complaints!
Filet mignon, $39.95: On to the main course! I had my heart set on the prime rib, but changed my mind last minute and ordered the filet mignon, cooked medium rare. The filet mignon came with a red wine reduction, and I chose fries as my side.
Rib eye, $37.95: Unlike how I was set with the prime rib before changing my mind last minute, the boyfriend stuck to his original decision and ordered the rib eye. When we were looking up the menu a few nights prior, he knew immediately that he wanted the rib eye!
Mini birthday dessert bite, complementary: I had called in requesting a birthday dessert for the boyfriend. After confirming with our server, they brought over the mini birthday surprise! She was nice enough to give us the option of a complementary full dessert due to her dairy mistake above, but the boyfriend was already too full at this point and I am unable to help him eat this =(
Green tea float, $6.99: Essentially a green tea ice cream smoothie. Yes, it was as good as it sounded, judging from how CheeseĀ was raving about it. I would have tried it too, Ā but that’s just asking for death when you are extremely lactose intolerant.
Rice cake with bean flour & apple sauce: I wanted something sweet that day, which is usual for me because I would take savoury over sweets usually. Sadly, my options were limited seeing that I can’t have dairy, so I settled for the rice cake from the recommendation of the server.
Strawberry sorbet, $4.99: I wanted to order this, but was afraid there was dairy. Luckily, MacaroniĀ ordered this and confirmed that there wasn’t any dairy, so I was able to try it. It was so delicious that I ended up ordering one myself (especially since i was in a sweets mode and my rice cake ended up being surprisingly salty). It reminded me of the strawberry slush at Milk and Sugar. I found it to be a bit chunky and not blended enough, but it was still full of fresh, delicious strawberry flavour.
Nice Vice is located in Yaletown, a quick walk from the Canada Line station. It is pretty small, so it is easy to miss.
Vegan Buddy and I came on a Tuesday evening. It was cloudy, Ā but not cold or rainy that day. Due to the weather and seeing how it was a weekday, the store was empty except for us! Luckily, this meant we could sample more flavours.
I wasn’t particularly in love with any of the flavours, but they weren’t bad either. In the end, I ordered strawberry fiends forever and mango. I ordered the one scoop for $5.00, but you can get two flavours for an additional price – I don’t remember exactly, but it was either 50 cents or $1.00 extra.
VBĀ ordered one scoop of the matcha and vanilla strawberry swirl. The matcha had a medium matcha taste, not too strong or subtle. I didn’t really like the vanilla strawberry swirl because I found it a bit bland and just icy.
They also have a bunch of assorted salts that you can top off your dessert with! We tried a bunch of salt flavours. Some went well and brought the flavour out, while some did not pair well at all. I recommend you sprinkle a super, tiny bit of salt – I’m talking about like 4 or 5 grains tiny, because we found that even just a pinch was too much!
So, after an afternoon of exploring Central Park and The Met museum, we explored the Upper East Side and went to Candle 79!
We were still pretty full from our lunch at Blue Dog, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to try this place. Since we already had plans for the rest of the trip and wouldn’t be in this area of NYC again, we decided on just having a small snack to at least try something!
Housemade ice cream sampler, $9: The nachos were already really filling considering we weren’t hungry to begin with, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to have ICE CREAM. I was already sold when our server told us it was made with rich coconut milk. I’ve been deprived of ice cream for soooo long.