During Our latest trip to New York City, we finally got to check out the new Blue Box Cafe situated in Tiffany’s Flagship Fifth Av Store. We have been wanting to eat here since it opened earlier this year and more importantly have been wanting to have breakfast at Tiffany’s for as long as we can remember.
We put together a review of the cafe to help you decide if it’s worth stopping by and how to get a reservation and what to expect on your trip to the Blue Box Cafe for Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
UPDATE: Tiffany’s on 54th Ave is currently undergoing reservations and the Blue Box cafe is currently closed, expected opening date is sometime in 2023.
Why Breakfast at Tiffany’s?
The Phrase Breakfast at Tiffany’s has been in common use for decades, ever since the Audrey Hepburn Film and the Deep Blue Something Song of the same name further ingraining the phrase. But as you all know Tiffany’s is a jewelry shop and short of having a coffee and pastry outside the store, Like Audrey in the film, it’s never been possible to have breakfast at Tiffany’s.
This all changed in 2018 when Tiffany and Co on Fifth Avenue opened their new Blue Box Cafe and finally invited people inside for Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This was an opportunity we couldn’t miss…But nearly did.
Reservations Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The Blue box cafe is pretty small and does not offer a lot of covers per day. If you want to eat here we recommend booking. Actually, that’s an understatement: booking is all but essential. In fact, we recommend making this your sole mission. Reservations are only accepted online and go live at 9:00 am (Eastern Standard time) every morning 30 days in advance. And the Prime slots vanish seconds after going live!
For breakfast slots, you will require a credit card to hold the reservation, and if this is not pre-entered into the booking platform, by the time you have done it your reservation will have expired! So beforehand do a few dry runs and get as far as the final confirmation booking to make sure you can book instantly to get the day you want, and it pays to have a couple of backup options in case you miss your first pick.
We had 3 possible days to visit and we missed the first two. One because of the Credit card issue above, the second because we were tied up at the time they went live. This put a lot of pressure on getting the last date. Sat at the computer refreshing as the time approached means you get the choice of slots the second they go live. The breakfast slots are gone within the first few seconds and even lunch slots are all gone within a minute or two. This time with the card pre-saved we bagged a 10:30 am slot and sighed a BIG sigh of relief.
Reservation opening times:
The 9:00 am release time is for the US East coast time and as such if booking from another time zone you need to be ready at the correct time. This means an early start for those on the west coast! We were in the UK and as such it was 2 pm (winter)
- East Coast US – 9:00 am
- UK – 2:00 pm GMT 3:00 pm British Summer Time
- Pacific Coast US – 6:00 am
What if I missed the initial rush?
If everything is sold out you can sign up for E-mail alerts in case a slot opens up. We tried this out and we had the opportunity to book 2 or 4 times in the 30 days leading up and even got an alert the day before so don’t give up hope. Also, make sure you get push emails and be ready to log on and get reservations at a moment’s notice as you won’t be the only one with the alerts set!
Finally, you can try a walk-up. It’s not likely we are afraid but the worst they can say is no. People do fail to show up for one reason or another.
The Blue Box Cafe
The Cafe is located up on the 4th floor of the Flagship store on Fifth Avenue. To get there you have to pass through their home and tableware department and try and resist spending. The Cafe itself is as you would expect primarily tiffany duck egg blue with beautiful table settings featuring Tiffany & Co tableware.
It’s very “branded” but the subtlety of Tiffany’s branding hides this a little and it just feels like a well-decored restaurant rather than an overtly branded affair. However maybe our love for the brand is blinding us a little as it is very tiffany, we just like that.
Menu
The Menu is a choice of three set menus either Breakfast, Lunch, or Afternoon tea. We obviously went for breakfast and will focus on this but lunch seems fine and the Tiffany Tea seemed very popular considering it was breakfast time. But neither Lunch nor Tea… are Breakfast at Tiffany’s are they!
The Breakfast menu was :
Seasonal Fruit and Berries with a Croissant with Nutella, honey butter, and fruit preserves
Choice of:
- Smoked Salmon Bagel Stack
- Coddled Egg
- Avocado Toast
- Buttermilk Waffle
This is priced at a whopping $32.00 and comes with either tea or coffee, but at $32 we should hope so! Still, this is a rare treat so we are not too fussed about the high ticket price.
Obviously, prices and the actual menu may change from time to time so check for the most up-to-date Menu here.
Service
Service was impeccable. We think we had at least 4 or 5 servers and any want and need were resolved almost immediately often before we were aware we needed it. The service was swift but not rushed. Really we couldn’t ask for more.
Food
Honestly, despite costing $32 per person, we were not expecting too much from the food. This is more about the experience than the actual culinary excellence, however, we were pleasantly surprised!
The first course was lovely. The Croissant, Audry Hepburn’s choice in the movie was a nice touch. The Honey Butter was fantastic, especially with the dainty little fruit salad. It was a nice little refreshing course to start us off.
Being in New York I had to go for the Smoked Salmon Bagel, while Kate could not resist the millennial’s choice of avocado on toast.
Both were good, however, the bagel was a little too thin and crispy for my liking but the Salmon was excellent and fairly plentiful and the horseradish creme fresh was beautiful. The Avocado on Toast despite being fantastically presented was just avocado on toast. This is no bad thing really, but the funky toppings did little to add to the taste, and all you are left with is toast and avocado. This is fine but at $32, maybe we expected the impossible. Still, we both enjoyed our dishes.
Was it Worth it?
While we definitely think so, we probably would not return in a hurry. The food was really good but it was priced to be really good. The whole experience was amazing and we would heartily recommend this to anyone. It’s just once you have done it, the food is not so great you would need to return. And without the Tiffany theatre, we would probably not have been too impressed! That’s kind of the point though.
Quite why Tiffany & Co took so long to open the cafe is a bit beyond us. There has been a demand for decades and like we imagine a lot of others, we took the opportunity to do a little shopping in there while we had the chance as well.
So get online and get reservations as soon as possible and enjoy your own Breakfast at Tiffany’s!
Have Your Say
Have you been for Breakfast at Tiffany’s? Let us know in the comments below what you thought of it? Did you think it was good value or too expensive? Did you try lunch or Afternoon Tea? What did you think? We would love to hear from you if you have anything to add or just any questions.