Happy Golden Week my fellow Ibarakians! I got some good news and bad news about this year's Golden Week.
The good news is that this year we have consecutive holidays after a weekend so longer vacation time.
The bad news is that corona is on the rise again. Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo are in a state of emergency. As for Ibaraki, at the time of writing this, Tsuchiura, Ami, Ishioka, Mito, and other cities around Ibaraki are under restrictions. Meaning all bars and restaurants have to close around 9 pm. It is quite a bummer and hopefully this rise will be over soon. This news can be very stressful, so why don't you sit down and relax with a nice cup of English tea in Ishioka.
It was a nice sunny Tuesday afternoon in March. Both the wife and I had the day off and decided to drive on up to Ishioka city, the city I used to live in. I had heard there was a British style tea room in Ishioka that served carrot cake. It was quite a while since I had carrot cake so it is only logical that we decided to get some afternoon tea with sweets. After searching for this tea place for a little while, we finally found our afternoon tea spot. We parked our car and headed into M's Tea Room.
M's Tea Room
As I stated above, M's Tea Room is in Ishioka city. It is inside a building that is owned by an appliance company (I think). When we walked into M's Tea Room, the first thing we saw was a show room. The room had gas stoves, BBQ grills, and a bath tub for some reason. M's was to the left of the show room in a cozy looking corner. You can't miss it, there is even a big old red English pay phone at the entrance. Can't get more British than that.
Tight Squeeze
M's Tea Room is a small place. I believe that the maximum capacity is ten people and that is pushing it. We were seated right by the big window next to the entrance which was a bit of a tight squeeze. The tea lady at M's gave us our menus and returned to one of the smallest kitchens I have ever seen to continue working. While looking at the menu we both went straight for the afternoon tea section.
Afternoon Tea
When we got to the section of the menu about the afternoon tea set, the wife said "あら" and dropped her head in defeat. I asked her what's wrong and she said we were not getting the afternoon tea set. She explained that you have to reserve the set a day in advance which we did not do. According to the menu, the afternoon tea brings, scones, sandwiches, orange cake, carrot cake and one pot of tea for two people. We were really excited to try it but it was not in the cards that day. The afternoon tea set will have to wait for another day.
Seasonal Tea
We were saddened that we couldn't order the afternoon tea set, but we came for tea and carrot cake so we were getting tea and carrot cake. I looked over the seasonal tea menu. These different seasonal types of tea seem to be available from March to the end of May. One of these delicious looking types of tea caught my eye. The Yuzu Ginger Tea. I like yuzu so I asked the lady running the tea room if I can get that. She said "the last Yuzu Ginger was just ordered by another customer." The Ba-chan who came in before us beat me to it. I looked at the menu some more and decided to try the Strawberry Tea Latte. The wife was looking at another part of the menu and had here eyes set on a different tea.
Fruit Tea and Apple Crumble
The wife was checking out the Fruits Tea. You can order this tea for two people or for one. The tea had four different fruits in it so it looked quite enticing. The fruits tea looked good but I was extremely interested in what was on the bottom of the page, The Apple Crumble. The Apple Crumble looked extremely delicious and I don't think I have had apple crumble since I was in the states. It would also be a first for the wife so we were excited to try it. We order one of those and we also ordered some scones and carrot cake.
Strawberry Tea Latte
When my tea arrived, I was afraid I would burn my tongue because the cup was hot. But the tea was actually the perfect temperature. There was a lot of foam on top of this tea which was nice. I didn't taste any strawberries though and the tea was not sweet at all. The foam with the tea was a nice combination but it was disappointing to not get the strawberry flavor I was promised. There were sips where I did get a faint taste of strawberries but otherwise it was just regular foamy tea.
Fruits Tea
The wife's fruit tea was awesome. The fruit tea came with slices of lemons, strawberries, and oranges . I could taste more strawberries in this tea than mine. The sweet and tangy flavors of all those fruits mixed together was splendid. The wife loved her tea. We were given a cover to put over the tea pot to keep the tea warm. It was really nice and we were having a great time enjoying our tea. The sweets started coming to our table and we were both very excited to try everything.
Scones
I will be honest with you, I don't know why people love scones. The wife loves them, I have friends who love them but I don't see or taste what is so great about them. They are sweet crumbling cookie like things that I never understood. That being said, the scone lover will give you her opinion:
"They were great! The scones went really well with my fruits tea and I enjoyed them. The cream butter was really good with the scones but I didn't really like the jam."
And there you have it. I completely agree about the cream butter and jam. I wasn't a big fan of the jam myself and really had no idea what kind of jam it was. The cream butter though was awesome.
Carrot Cake
We come to the dessert I was waiting for, the carrot cake. I can't remember the last time I had carrot cake so I was really looking forward to M's carrot cake. The wife let me have the first fork full of carrot cake. When that piece of carrot cake when into my mouth, it brought back all the familiar flavors that I knew and loved about carrot cake. The frosting on the top was a little hard on the outside and creamy on the inside just like it is supposed to be. The carrot cake actually enhanced my non strawberry tea latte. The sweetness of the cake with the bland tea went well together. The wife loved it too and vowed we would order it again next time we came.
Apple Crumble
Finally, our small apple crumble graced our table. It comes in a cute small pot from that famous company Le Creuset. The bottom of this dessert was hot with gooey apple slices but the top was warm so the vanilla ice cream did not melt right away. The wife got the first spoon full that brought a piece of ice cream, apple crumbs and a glistening slice of apple. She ate her spoon full and the "おいしいいい" came out. I got the same spoon full and was transported to apple crumble heaven. That lady in the small kitchen knows what she is doing because that apple crumble was amazing. All those hot apple slices with the vanilla ice cream was just perfect. I wanted to order another but it does take some time for the tea lady to make this awesome dessert. So it will have to wait for next time.
Very Britishy
After all our tea was done and all our sweets were consumed, it was time to go. We payed the tea lady for all the lovely sweets and tea. She told us to please come again and try the afternoon tea set. Also she reminded us to please call ahead. We told her we definitely would.
M's Tea Room was a really pleasant experience. It feels like a nice place to relax and have a nice cup of tea while enjoying the best apple crumble in all of Ibaraki. There are still way more teas to try at M's so the wife and I are definitely going back.
So if you are in the Ishioka area and want to stop and have a great cup of tea, why don't you try M's Tea Room? Who knows, you might see me with the wife there, finally enjoying our afternoon tea set.
Enjoy!
For more information on M's Tea Room, check out their website:
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