Afternoon Tea at Neiman Marcus Rotunda

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Being inside the Rotunda at Neiman Marcus, this has to be one of the more luxurious afternoon teas in the city.  Having tea underneath the stained glass ceilings surrounded by thousands of dollars worth of merchandise is serious tea sipping with pinkies in the air.  

Chicken consume starts off the afternoon tea.  Its very rich and full of flavor.  A little cheddar biscuit is provided for dipping. 

Instead of regular bread the Rotunda gives you popovers.  I'm a huge fan of popovers, particularly Wayfare Tavern's (see post HERE).  The popovers at the Rotunda are brought to the table piping hot and fresh accompanied by strawberry butter.  The popovers are crusty with an eggy, fluffy inside.  While these are pretty delicious, I prefer the Wayfare Tavern's slightly fluffier version. 

One huge letdown here is that the fancy tea service here didn't include a fancy tea set.  Even the cream and sugar were just packets of sugar.  Pretty disappointing. 

The lobster club isn't part of afternoon tea, but it is a must get here at the Rotunda.  Similar to a regular club sandwich with the three tiers layers of toasted egg bread.  Large chunks of sweet lobster along with avocado, tomato, and arugula.  Everything on this plate is kinda awesome from the sandwich to the thinly fried crispy potato chips.

The tray of afternoon tea selections for today. 

The sweet items!  From left; clockwise: petit four, madeleine, raisin and berry scones, chocolate cake, lemon tart, and carrot cake.  Carrot cake has never been my thing, but this one is admirably moist and decadent.  Same for the scones.  Most are usually hard and rarely worth my attention, but this one was downright fluffy and scrumptious.  It was probably the best of the bunch. 

These tiny savory finger food items really make you feel fancy.  From top left;clockwise: crab puff, deviled eggs, chicken salad, smoked salmon, and cucumber and cream cheese.  While all the others were decently tasty, the crab puff was the absolute star of the savory choices.  Shredded crab inside the buttery puff pastry was full of flavor.

From top down:  lemon, cream, lemon curd, strawberry jam, honey.  Condiments for scones aren't as fun as some of the afternoon tea spots I've been to, but the clotted cream and the lemon curd were quite delicious.

Address:                    Rotunda at Neiman Marcus
                                   150 Stockton St.
                                   San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                          afternoon tea

Popular chomps:        afternoon tea
                                    lobster club

Chomp worthy:           afternoon tea
                                    lobster club