In Culver City lives a new space that is very, shall we say, unique. Royal T! It’s part gallery, part shop, and part cafe. Maid cafe. Like the kind in Japan. The waitresses in maid costumes. I’m not even joking. This kind of thing being half a block from work is so awesome I was compelled to check it out and it’s become one of my new favorite places ever!

Inside you’ll find some seriously pricey artwork by famous Superflat Japanese Artists for sale. Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara both have work displayed here. ( The dog statue in the picture above is by Nara.) But today my goal was not art, but to obtain High Tea!

I’d been here for lunch before, and the Steak, Brie, and Roasted Tomato sandwich is mighty fine, but what really caught my eye was the High Tea, a set meal for $20 and served only after 2 pm. So today the lovely Gwen accompanied me to check it out. Thanks Gwen! There’s her elbow screen right.

Pictured above is what you get with the High Tea. My choice of tea was Iced Royal Matcha Milk, although there are many hot tea options. On the very top tier is a Mini Quiche. It had a mushroom herb filling and was pretty tasty but not mind blowing. What really caught my attention were the bottom two layers. The middle tier contains a tiny fruit tart with berries and a key lime – like filling. Next was the most interesting sweet, the Sesame cake. It seemed to be made of layers of a black sesame mousse/pudding, white spongecake, and adzuki bean paste topped with an unidentifiable pink jelly. Really interesting texture and subtle flavor combination, and I think it may have been my favorite. Last was the Chocolate Espresso cake OMGWTFBBQAWESOME. This guy was chocolate incarnate. A thick, brownie like cake is covered with layers of chocolate ganache and touched with just a hint of coffee flavor. Very, very intense and very, very good.

And to the bottom layer! These little sandwiches were
the most interesting to me, because they tasted very much like sushi! From the left was spicy tuna with avocado, cucumber, and a wasabi mayonnaise; middle is crab, avocado, cucumber, and a mustard/mayo mix; and to the right was cucumber, white sesame seeds and what I think was a seaweed mayonnaise. I could go back and eat my weight in these things.

Final conclusion, so very tasty! Everything on the menu here is a good 10 to 20% more expensive than it should be, but I figure you’re paying for the ambiance as well as the food. It’s not often where you can eat lunch while looking at your favorite artist’s work. And for the mens, I snuck a shot of one of the maids in action. You can thank me later. Also, two of my fingers for some reason. Ignore them!

If you ever find yourself in the Helms Bakery area of Culver City, do yourself and your colleagues a huge favor and stop on by Tea Forest. Not only are the staff some of the nicest people in the history of ever, this place is filled up with some serious yum.

After a long, hard day of animating I usually need a break and head on down for an Iced Green Tea. All of their iced tea selections are super tasty, and they offer some unusual teas such as Earl Grey or Mugicha. I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t tried any of their hot teas yet, cause hey, it’s summertime. But they have an expansive offering of hot teas, with 5 or more varieties each of Green, Black, Oolong, etc. on the menu. They also offer coffee, for those of you who like that sort of thing. Ooh! The Green Tea Frappe is also a thing of beauty, comparable to Coffee Bean’s Green Tea Ice Blended, and I think just a tiny bit better. And don’t overlook the boba milk tea selections. Super yum, and it tastes like they use actual brewed tea instead of the creepy powdered stuff.

As for treats, man do they have some yum sammiches. I’ve been for lunch several times, and the food is always fresh, high quality, tasty, and above all, very reasonably priced. They also offer some baked goods in the form of muffins and cookies and other diet breaking awesomes.

I really suggest this as a nice, calm place to take a break or have a lunch. They don’t mind you hanging out and doing your thing, and like I said, super nice! Beats the pants off Starbucks any day.