Two E Bar/Lounge

Went here again last month for a afternoon tea celebration. Once again it was fantastic. I had the same server and he remembered me from last year. Gave my party free champagne and great attention. I will be going back.

What a lovely place for afternoon tea. The service was excellent, with being very attentive from the second we walked in and accommodating my request for vegetarian sandwiches. The bites were all delicious and I didn’t feel like they skimped on my savory bites just because they were veggie. The room had high ceilings was well appointed and seating was comfortable. Deducting one star because I wish the room was not interior and had windows to look upon Central Park. Despite that the high ceilings did give it an airy quality and was not stuffy at all.

Three stars would have been too generous here. If I’d paid full price for this Tea, I would have given it one star. Fortunately, I used a Groupon which bought the price down to about $ 30.00 per person, not including tax and tip. At $ 55.00 per person, it is simply not worth it.
The tea selection is fabulous and you get a nice sized pot which is, well, a requirement at tea right? The tea sandwiches were extremely small, more like savory petit fours, rather than sandwiches. Yes, I understand that tea is supposed to be a light savory snack accompanied by scones and sweet confections, but I’ve had tea at some of the finer tea houses in the world (Plaza, Ritz, Fortnum & Mason) and these sandwiches were woefully inadequate. The flavors were bland and many tasted like they were prepared well in advance of service. The scones were lovely and the confections were sweet, but lacked any distinct flavors of their own, rather, they were different decorations of the same thing.
The abject failure here was in the service. Everyone was indeed polite, but the service was slow. We waited at the entrance of the room far too long before being acknowledged or being seated. We saw the waiter two times, once placing the order and once when he checked on us. We had to waive him down for the check. Speaking of the check, he reminded us that tax and tip were not included in our prepayment and circled the menu price on which to base the tip. Now, that is fair IF and only IF, the service was befitting such an haute establishment as the Pierrre. Sadly, it was not, and speaking of sad, the room itself was a drab beige that lacked any life at all. The chairs looked nice but if you’re anything over 5′ 3″, you’re going to hit your knees on the table.
This tea service was clearly an after thought; a poor attempt to fill an empty bar between 2 and 6 PM until the well healed come in for their pre-​dinner drinks. Walk 2 blocks South and go to the Plaza instead.

Very nice place for high tea in NYC. This is my 2^nd time dining at here. Food and beverage taste very good. I love the service. Price is a little high, but still a reasonable price at the NYC hotel. It located just one block away from subway (N & R)

I’ve been here twice, once on a Groupon and once for my grandmother’s 85^th birthday. Both times were excellent — pastries and scones with jam were above and beyond, as was the tea. Their signature 2E Lounge tea is very good. Presentation is exceptional. Savory options are also very good, although the sweets certainly outnumber the savories.
I did not find the breads or sandwiches stale as some other reviewers did… maybe time of day matters? Both times we got there right at 3:00 PM, when they opened for afternoon tea service.
The price reflects that the food and tea are very good.
For special occasions, I certainly would return.

My friends and I came here for a Birthday recently, and we were VERY impressed!
The place is absolutely gorgeous and the bartender, Paul, took great care of us.
The drinks were some of the best I’ve had, and the service was flawless.
I highly recommend Two E and look forward to returning soon!

Bought the groupon for afternoon tea and came with mom. The tea and food were delicious. The ambiance was elegant and relaxing. It was such a great experience!

My friends and I came here for afternoon tea after buying the Groupon deal. We had a wonderful experience here! The service was top notch, the choice of teas was excellent, the sandwiches, scones, and pastries were delicious. The room the tea service was located in was lovely. Exactly what you would expect from The Pierre. I have been to other highly rated and expensive tea services in the country and have been disappointed. Not the case with this tea service! It is pricey, but I feel it is worth it. I would absolutely come back and would recommend this to others!

I wasn’t going to post this review originally but this was one of the greatest letdowns that I’ve had in terms of afternoon tea. The lounge itself is great. We still managed to enjoy our time here because service was fantastic and we loved our table view.
However, the food was disappointing. While it may look appealing in the pictures, all of the sandwiches are stale and dry, while the pastries are just slightly more palatable. When I noticed that my friend had barely touched the food, I felt so guilty for cajoling her into joining me.
The tea however, was adequate and the signature Pierre Blend is nice. They use glass teapots here so the tea tends to cool down quicker; service is swift and prompt in refilling the hot water though so it’s not a problem.
I’m sure the 2E Lounge & Bar is great for non-​Groupon related dining. It is clear though that they have to fulfill such a demand of Groupon customers that the afternoon tea food is all made in advance. Unfortunately, this really leads to unappetizing food when everything is dry and flavorless, for lack of better words.
I’m willing to leave 3 stars, just because I think service did us a great favor by letting us stay and chat without rushing us. However, the savories and sweets could be much improved. Go with a groupon at your own risk.

The fahncy schmancy Pierre hosted a bunch of us for a small, invitation only VIP cocktail party here in their bar. Everyone got dressed up and trooped over and we were greeted by some of the senior marketing staff. In the meantime, servers came out and offered us a variety of small appetizers. I don’t remember what all of them were (damn pinot grigio) but I distinctly remember tasty little burgers sliders and a cone-​shaped ceviche thingie that I really enjoyed. And we mingled and mingled and chatted, as one does at cocktail parties, and the servers floated and kept everyone’s glasses filled. I had a nice chat with the bar tender who had spent some time in my neck of the woods, Tahoe, and I appreciated his taking a few moments out of filling drinks with some chit chat with me. The nearest bathroom is a good little trek away — not bad probably except when you really need to go and have to run the gauntlet through the hallway in high heels. On the plus side, you get to ogle a lot of diamonds on the way.

The Two E Bar Lounge is located in the Hotel Pierre in the Upper East Side. Very swanky. The afternoon tea is of high quality and the customer service is excellent. I recommend this place after a long day of sightseeing. It is great to continue the British tradition of afternoon tea.

I had the Rose Colored Glasses Tea Service which offers a choice of tea with sandwiches, scones and pastries and unlimited Tattinger Rose Champagne. Everything was delicious. Definitely would return for afternoon tea again.

The tea place is really comfortable and relaxing. I think it’s a great place for friends and love ones get together. Time fly before we know it, while enjoying. The environment, servers was really friendly/​caring… Over all it was great. Consider coming back here.

The Two E Lounge in The Pierre Hotel serves a fantastic afternoon tea. My aunt had purchased a Groupon for tea services. Normally for tea, you choose a selection of sandwiches to come with your tea, but the Two E Lounge is different in that they just give you EVERYTHING! It’s seriously a ton of food, I wonder how women stay skinny if they like afternoon tea?
Basically everything our lips touched was devoured in seconds. This is the way afternoon tea should be. Refined, quiet, elegant. Not only is Two E in a beautiful hotel, but it’s a skip away from Central Park, which makes for a great after lunch walk.
If you come with high expectations — they will be met.

Stale! I was very excited about the tea experience in NYC. And I was really disappointed! I did go on Wednesday afternoon so that might be why everything was stale but 55 dollars for what I got was just not justifiable. I have had similar but not as extravagant experience in England and the tea service came with really amazing fresh pastries. For 55 dollar affair the sandwiches and pastries were just so bad. I think you can get a similar tasting sandwiches at Duane Reade refrigerated aisle. If 55 dollars for a great cup of tea is not much to you, go ahead the tea was excellent. If you are looking for an extraordinary experience… Ehhhh

I always wanted to try afternoon tea so when I saw a deal on groupon I decided to go for it! Came here with my boyfriend on a Sunday for a 3pm reservation (that is the first available reservation) and we got there a bit early and got one of the comfier seats with pillows since we were probably the second people to arrive. The place filled up pretty quick shortly after.
The groupon included your choice of tea each and a 3 tier plates of sandwiches, cookies, scones and pastries. Teas were very good, I ordered the jasmine tea and he ordered the chai tea. The only thing I really liked from the the plates were the raspberry scones, they were soft and delicious. The sandwiches were bland, tasted a bit stale and old and as for the sweets, they were just way too sweet for my tasting. Service was excellent, our server was very nice and informative and we didn’t feel rushed at all during our time there. Glad I got to experience it but for the original price of $ 55 a person I don’t think I will be going back.

Came here for afternoon tea. The sandwiches does not taste fresh. The scones was the only thing I like, it was warm on the inside. I only tasted sugar on all the pastries. The presentation was nice. The manager is friendly but the other staffs were constantly missing.

2.5 stars. Perhaps I had really high expectations for afternoon tea based on the rave reviews here and its prominence on «best of NYC» lists, but our visit fell flat.
I was happy to find a Groupon, as I love afternoon tea and the service here is normally $ 55 a person. As soon as we sat down, the first thing our server asked us was to see our Groupon, which was a little bit unsettling as we didn’t even mention we had one. I’m all for getting it out of the way, but it felt a little as if whether we had a Groupon would set the tone for the rest of our visit.
As for the tea service itself:
Savories: A good selection, but they didn’t taste very fresh. The bread seemed stale, as if they had been sitting out all day rather than freshly prepared.
Scones: Definitely our favorite course of the three. Crumbly and sweet, with good lemon curd, jam, and clotted cream.
Sweets: Very heavy on sweets (like most afternoon teas), and just ok. The macarons were my favorite, although one of ours looked like it had been dropped at some point and was a bit shattered.
Ambiance: The Lounge is basically underground, so it’s a bit dark without natural light. It also got a bit loud as the afternoon wore on.
Service: Alas, this was probably the worst part of our experience. Although our server was pleasant, it was incredibly difficult to wave him down. While both our server and the hostess checked in on us at the beginning of the meal, no one stopped to check in or refill our water glasses for most of the tea. Getting the check took a very long time, and we eventually had to ask the hostess to bring it over. Although we definitely took our time during tea, closing out was like pulling teeth. Unfortunately we didn’t feel very well taken care of, which is usually a highlight of afternoon tea.
I’m not sure if it was just an off day, but we left a little dissatisfied. I’m glad we used the Groupon to try it out, because I don’t think our experience would have been worth the full price of the normal afternoon tea.

Came in with $ 75 groupon for traditional
Tea service (value at $ 110). Mini foods and 2 pots of tea. Food and service was Nothing special. Nice atmosphere & clean private baThroom.

If you are into afternoon tea, you might notice that Two E Bar at the Pierre hotel appears on almost every «10 Best Afternoon Teas in NYC» list. For good reason.
SAVORIESSS:
They have some of the best savories I’ve ever had, and I’ve had more than a handful of afternoon teas spread across NY, HK, and London. Everything is miniature, which is wonderful because you essentially get bite-​size tastes of everything. And because everything is miniature, they offer a lot of variety! I felt like a child in a candy store looking at these cute miniature sandwiches and trying to decide which one to eat next (I always try to save the best for last i.e. anything with salmon or caviar).
SWEETS (eh):
While they do offer plenty of savories, they offer even more sweets, which kind of throws the experience off balance in my book (or makes you yearn for the savories you started out with). Actually when I finished, I was so overloaded with the taste of sweets that all I wanted later was something more salty. I’ve never found afternoon tea sweets to be a highlight, and I did not find any of the sweets particularly memorable. Probably too sweet for my very Asian taste buds.
SCONESSS:
I did, however, enjoy the scones! I’m a sucker for «hot carbs» — unfortunately these were more warm, edging on lukewarm, rather than hot. But they were perfectly baked with a crisp shell and fluffy inside, as many others have observed.
TEAS:
Now onto the tea. I made a bold choice to go with an off-​menu item that I had read on Kathy’s blog (see here:
). Somehow anything with «Sunrise» in its name sounds delightful (except maybe the tequila variety), so I decided to order it even though I’m not big fan of chamomile or citrus drinks. OK, here’s a big piece of advice: Never order something you don’t like (a-​duh, Elaine). Novelty got the best of me, but I was not a fan from the first taste. It felt like drinking sugar water… not to say it was too sweet (it wasn’t), but there was just nothing glorious about it. I ended up calling for refills of my mom’s Lung Ching green tea and sharing that with her instead.
A few other notes:
– Only one bathroom, which could pose a problem for tea drinkers especially when the salon is busy/​full
– It would be nice for them to provide warm towels to wipe your hands before you eat (these are «finger» foods after all, and there is only ONE bathroom per sex)
– I do also want to point out that this place seems to get kudos for excellent consistency! Literally ever picture of the afternoon tea dating back to years ago appears almost the same in terms of the selections… it is quite pointless for me to add another identical picture to the mix. Scroll through them — you get the picture.