Sunday Brunch : Rose House

Rose House is popular go to place for Lolitas. It's statisfies the hankering for tea and cakes with a decent price without a wait. The waiting part is most important in New York City when everywhere you go there's a waiting list.

Located in the heart of Flushing in the Queens Crossing Mall, it's pretty easy to find - that is if you are familiar with Chinatown's bustling and crowded streets.

While majority Lolitas have found their comfort place to drink English tea and dine on tea cakes and sandwiches, this European style teahouse is a very uncommon in Asian metropolitans. There's a strange fascination with the pseudo-European style in Asian culture. The English teahouse being the most popular to replicate.

True to its name, Rose House is decorated in all things roses and overwhelming smells like an English rose garden. It's almost intoxicating. Even the water is sprinkled with a dash of rose water.

Since its located in Chinatown, the menus and waitstaff are fluent in both English and Chinese.  Most people feel customer service varies from experience, personally I think it's no different than any Chinese restaurant. However the reason you go to Rose House is not to be waited hand and foot - it's for the food!

Cream cake with a dash of rose water in the cream.

The menu selection is very simple and ranges from a typical Afternoon Tea set to full Asian entrees like curry beef. By selecting any sweets they have a faint aroma and taste of roses.

Unlike Alice's Tea Cup, afternoon tea at Rose House has two versions: a two-tiered and three-tiered (both very good). And the top tier has a small scoop of ice cream, which tends to vary every time you go or if several of you order the same set.

One thing that is also standard about afternoon tea is that you'll never go searching for another meal immediately after.  Rose House is no different. They also have a nice selection of Belgian waffles (I am personally fond of the waffle with ice cream or the tuna waffle), which is also great for a midnight snack.

Fun fact: Rose House is open until midnight.

For the most part, Rose House is a nice place to treat yourself to tea but, personally, conditions to go here must be right.

If you have the cash (they do take credit), time to venture out to Flushing, Queens (it is really out in the boroughs), and, of course, good company, then you should hop on the 7 train and head to Rose House.

Rose House
136-17 39th Ave
1st Floor
Flushing, NY 11354