Growing up as the only girl and the youngest in the family meant either having to join the wrestling match (ouch) with my 3 brothers or playing with dolls and tea sets on my own (snif). Luckily, I get to have a second childhood and share all the girly stuff with my 2 girls now. We spend hours perusing through toys, playing dress up, having tea time and so much more.
One of our favorite things to do is have tea parties. Uhhmm.. ya, I sit on those tiny chairs at home. And since my eldest daughter is old enough, I can already bring her to an actual afternoon tea service. And just this weekend, we visited the American Girl store at The Grove in LA to experience their afternoon tea service at their cafe and it was quite an experience.
We’ve experienced the Princess Cruise Afternoon Tea, Carnival Cruise Afternoon Tea, and Hello Kitty themed afternoon tea at Chado Tea Room in LA. What makes the afternoon tea at American Girl Cafe special and different from the rest is you get to have tea with your American Girl doll.
The interior of the cafe is really geared towards young girls and so is the food. It’s really for the kids and not the prim and proper Downton Abbey-like high tea for adults.
We brought our American Girl Bitty Baby with us and she got to sit down for tea with her own tiny tea cup and saucer that you can actually take home. My friend’s daughter brought hers as well(a blonde American Girl named Charlotte).
Do you know American Girl sells so many kinds of dolls that you can actually find one that looks like you. They even have twins, read about our visit to the American Girl Store at The Grove in LA..
If you forget to bring your doll, no worries, they will lend you one during your stay at the cafe. The meal is pre-set but you can order from a variety of drinks and it’s not only teas that they serve.
I ordered hot chocolate, then the cinnamon rolls were served. By the time I looked up to take a picture, the kids have already taken their share. They got hungry while we were shopping at the 2 storey American Girl store before our scheduled tea time. To a point that they’ve neglected their dolls. Check out her doll staring at me, waiting to be serve, haha. You want some scones Lil’ one?
Then the 3 tiered platter filled with goodies came. This part always gets me excited.
What’s on the food platter? The top layer has fruit kabobs, Jell-O on orange peel(pretty cool), and mini pumpkin scones. The middle layer has cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, peanut butter(no nuts-soy based) with apples sandwiches. Bottom layer: Turkey burger and pig in a blanket.
The kids’ favorite is of course the Jell-O smiles and us adults loved the pig in a blanket and I could eat a lot of those.
There were a lot of kids celebrating their birthdays at the American Girl Cafe that day. They were wearing this cute party hat that I’ve been eyeing even before we sat for tea. I had to ask our friendly server Mynor if I can borrow it for picture purposes coz’ it was really cute. He was super nice and brought us the hats and stickers for the kids. Check out the party hat below. I can’t wait for our daughters to have their American Girl Afternoon Tea Birthday Party very soon.
Dessert consisted of a brownie, a fruit tartlet, and a strawberry mousse. Yum. I ate it all.
It was a real bonding moment for me and my daughter and our friends and their dolls of course who finally got some attention after the kids ate their rolls and scones. My daughter had such an amazing time. So just imagine all the “I love you Mommy” I got when we got home.
If you want to do something special with your daughter. I would suggest a trip to the American Girl Cafe. American Girl currently has 20 branches.
The American Girl Afternoon Tea is for $20 per person (check their website for accuracy as this may change in the future) that includes the food and the drink, you get to take home the tiny tea cup and saucer for the doll and also the hair tie that served as the napkin holder.
You can also visit the American Girl Cafe for brunch, lunch and dinner or book a birthday party. The American Girl Cafe in Los Angeles has an indoor seating and patio seating that is overlooking the festive retail strip of The Grove below. Make sure to call ahead to reserve. And make time for shopping as well, get ready to splurge.
And one last thing, there’s a doll holder in the restrooms. I think we should have this at home as well. Haha. Hope you all enjoyed this post.
disclosure: We ate as guests to the Cafe. All pictures and opinions are my own. We had fun. Real fun!
