A spot to have a relaxing afternoon tea and live like a celebrity on the side of Inokashira Park is Mlesna Tea Tokyo (ムレスナティー東京). The cafe that overlooks the park looks like a villa. The space beyond the gate is like a VIP lounge. Being in the luxurious space already feels like you are part of the upper class!
About Mlesna Tea Tokyo
Mlesna Tea Tokyo is a tea specialist. The company offers more than 140 different tea flavors! Each product is nicely packaged, making them the perfect gift and souvenir. As it is hard to tell if you would like the flavor just by looking at the names, free sampling is available! The friendly staff will also help you choose the teas that you may like.
If you don’t have time to enjoy a tea-tasting session, you can still check out their tea shop on the ground floor. You will be surprised by the wide range of tea on the shelf. Taking a picture with the two giant teapots is also a must!
Afternoon Tea at Mlesna Tea Tokyo
If you have time for afternoon tea, leave the shopping to the end. Head upstairs to the salon space first!
Order a scone set if you have space in your stomach after lunch. In fact, if you love scones, come with an empty stomach and order the all-you-can-eat scone set. The set comes with an unlimited supply of scones and different-flavored tea. But please note that if one person wants to order the all-you-can-eat scone set, everyone who sits at the same table will need to order it too. Each session has a time limit of 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Once you are seated, a list of Mlesna Tea Tokyo’s tea flavors is given to you. It is the sign of the beginning of your elegant afternoon tea session! The staff will pour you more tea throughout the session whenever your cup is empty. The flavor differs each time, so you can enjoy more of their products!
It would be quite boring if only one scone flavor were available, so at Mlesna Tea Tokyo, a couple of different types of scones go with various tea flavors! No matter which flavor you choose, the freshly baked scones have a crispy skin and moist interior. The set comes with cream and jam too. Again, you will need to decide which cream or jam you prefer.
As a tea specialist, Mlesna Tea Tokyo offers Ceylon tea sauce to accompany the scones. It is a must-try!
If scones sound too ordinary to you, try their Ultimate Hot Cake. Instead of the fluffy and wobbly ones, the cafe’s hot cake has a firmer but moist texture. The butter on top and the whipped cream goes really well together.
Tips:
☛ A reservation is recommended by calling 0422-24-6710. They take reservations a month in advance.
☛ According to their staff, the most popular session is the 1 pm session.
☛ Reserve the private room on the first floor next to the tea shop if you plan to visit with families and friends. The room can be reserved for one person. But note that you will be charged 300 yen if you are by yourself. If you have more than one person in your group, only one person needs to order a dessert set to avoid the room surcharge.
Our Visit to Mlesna Tea Tokyo
We booked the 3 pm session on a Tuesday during Golden Week. Surprisingly, the session wasn’t full. A few groups were still enjoying tea after the 1 pm session had ended. They must be the walk-in customers who started later than others!
The staff at the reception gave us a number plate. The plate had the number two, meaning that we were the second group of customers in that particular session to be seated. During the wait, we explored the shop briefly. It was packed, but we managed to grab a few cups of tea samples to try.
Our seats were not window seats. While the thought of asking for a window seat briefly passed my mind, I decided to go against it. After all, the view from the window is just so-so. But if you want to observe people on the street, check with the staff to see if they can relocate you.
Our Tea Session at Mlesna Tea Tokyo
When we were seated, Mlesna Tea Tokyo’s tea list was already on the table. Unfortunately, it only comes in Japanese. But the tea is still fabulous, even if you don’t know its name!
The staff reconfirmed our order with us, as our minds might have changed since we made the reservation. They also asked us whether we wanted clotted cream, fresh cream, and jam flavors. They also checked with us if there was any type of tea we disliked (but it was pointless for them to ask the question as they still brought us fruit teas after we told them it was the type we least preferred). Our scone set was quickly brought to us after the second round of tea sampling.
The scone set comes with three scones, the perfect number to share between two people after lunch. If you order the all-you-can-eat scone set, you will start off with two scones.
Out of the three scones, one is of a different flavor. It had a flaky pie texture which was unique. But we preferred the original as it was slightly harder to put cream and jam on the flaky layers.
We tried 15 different flavored teas throughout the session. It seemed like the number of teas brewed for each session was predetermined, and that number is probably determined by experience. They would always give us another cup of tea when I started to wonder what the next flavor would be!
And while the two bottles of sweetened tea sauce are for scones or hot cake, we added some into our tea to create different flavors too!
Mlesna Tea Tokyo’s Business Hours and Access Information
- Mlesna Tea Tokyo is open from 11 am to 7 pm daily except from the end of December to the beginning of January.
- The last order is taken at 6 pm for food and 6:30 pm for tea in the tea room.
- The Tea Room on the second floor has four reservable sections:
- 11 am to 12:45 pm
- 1 pm to 2:45 pm
- 3 pm to 4:45 pm
- 5 pm to 6:45 pm
- Refer to HERE for the cafe’s menu.
- The cafe is a 3-minute walk from Kichijoji Station’s south exit.
Other Vegetarian-Friendly Cafes Around Inokashira Park
Inokashira Park in Kichijōji is a great urban park to enjoy nature. You can easily spend a couple of hours in this vast park. But the longer you stay there, the emptier your stomach will get. In fact, many tourists would visit one of the cafes in and around Inokashira Park. A couple of them are also vegan/vegetarian-friendly!
Thus, refer to our Vegetarian-Friendly Cafes Around Inokashira Park to plan your visit!
Discover the Attractions in Kichijōji
Now that you know where to go for a tea break, it is time to discover the attractions in Kichijōji. The neighborhood rated “The Most Desirable Area to Live” is great for almost everything. It is also where the famous Ghibli Museum is located!
So for more ideas of what to do in the area, refer to our Kichijōji article!
