COURSE MENU ANNOUNCEMENT
From January 2023, we are making an adjustment to the Course Menu by removing the Two Course option. This means that while we are not raising any prices on the menu at this time, the minimum spend per person is increasing from £25 to £35 for all in-teahouse reservations. In addition, we will be adjusting the reservation timings to bring all in-teahouse reservations to two hours in duration. We understand that we are not an essential business, and that with costs rising across the board for everyone this may come at a bad time. We have resisted raising prices since the Course Menu became standard in early 2020, instead choosing to increase the minimum payment per person and focusing on providing the best experience possible. Thank you so much for understanding!
This change does not affect guests who already have a gift voucher for the two course menu. The voucher will still be honoured - although you are more than welcome to upgrade to the three course menu should you decide during your visit!
An example of the three course menu:
First tea - a cold brewed tea that changes regularly throughout the year
Snack - anko filled monaka with butter, vegan butter or genmai
One matcha of your choice (prepared and served in the chawan of your choice from our curated selection)
One loose leaf tea of your choice
Two choices of wagashi from our wagashi menu - some that change twice a year, and some change every month
Small sweets - nama choco or wagashi portion to finish
This concludes the announcement, but If you are interested in reading and understanding a little bit more behind the scenes, please keep on reading.
We provide a very personal service and tea experience - serving no more than 6 guests at a time, as well as no walk-ins/take away orders during our sit in services - Quiet Tea Time, Casual Tea Time and chakai. This means our guests should not be disturbed and any guests sitting in the same timeslot will be respected.
Every single bill has gone up for us. This includes things like rent, utilities, service charge, bin service, music license, security system, website, scheduling service, on top of the rising cost of ingredients and delivery fees (both domestic and international). Luckily the GBP:JPY exchange rate has been okay recently, but is unpredictable and we expect it to get worse as Japan slowly recovers from the lack of tourism due to COVID.
We are not willing to compromise on quality. We will continue to serve some of the finest teas Japan has to offer as well as using fine quality wagashi ingredients, and fresh local ingredients.
Rest assured, our focus and attention remains unchanged. We have not taken this decision lightly. We looked at past data, which suggests us there are more guests upgrading to three course menu than staying with the two course menu. We hope we have given enough notice in advance and that this announcement will cause the least disruption in your decision to visit us.