Yugen Tea Bar

Just take a glance at the photos, and you'll see what I mean – this place is impressive, making the dining experience truly enjoyable. You can sense the owner's passion in every detail, from the tasteful décor to the nice food presentation. During our visit, it wasn't too busy. The waitress, not only being incredibly nice but also highly professional, added to the positive vibes. The experience was comfortable and good overall. The food was delicious, and for a tea lover like me, the tea selection was spot-on. I must highlight the scones – a personal favourite!

Apparently their tea are very nice, and looking at their prices, they are quite reasonable if you decided to try making them at home.

Wow! What a beautiful high tea and lovely experience.
Staff were very accommodating and the high tea was very tasty and balanced.
Will definitely be back again

Dined on a Saturday afternoon at Yugen on their afternoon tea set, and I have to say the whole experience was thoroughly disappointing.

I’ll start with the good - very aesthetic and well appointed decor.

Unfortunately that’s where the good ends.

A couple of unfortunate and below expectation issues we faced:
- we had 1 guest dining on a ‘no beef, no raw fish’ dietary. Their standard set menu offered 3 different finger sandwiches per person. There were egg sandwiches, avocado sandwiches, all of which would have been appropriate for this guest. Unfortunately they offered the same 3 cooked fish sandwiches to my guest. No doubt because it was easier to make 1 sandwich and cut it into 3, than to offer her the same experience as everyone else to have 3 different choices. By the way - the cooked fish sandwich was awful, very fishy in a bad way.
- all guests bar 1 were dining on the non-alcoholic set menu option. Rather than offering the full selection of non-alcoholic drinks, they only offered a choice of 2 juices and a lemonade (which were all store bought and poured from the bottle). When questioned why the others weren’t on offer and if we could have the matcha lemonade - the waitress said she was the only one on service and it would take a long time to make the other drinks. Honestly shocking to offer a less than normal service because the restaurant was not appropriately resourced. Why would we pay the same amount as any other guest on another day, but not be offered the same selection? Ridiculous.
- On the note of being understaffed, it took them an hour from seating for them to even take our order for tea - again, ridiculous. The restaurant was not even full, there were maybe 4 other tables there during our visit.
- The waitress made several mistakes on taking our order - bringing the wrong milk, an extra drink by accident, not bringing the right tea to the right person. Not impressive for what is meant to be an elevated high tea experience
- the wine glasses were dirty with lipstick stains on them from previous usage

The food was ok - the scones were delicious, but the bread was stale (dry!) on the finger sandwiches and the rest of the food was ok but nothing to write home about.

Honestly at $105pp, it’s not worth your money. We paid nearly $800 for our table. Whilst this is sold as an elevated, gourmet experience, in reality it is poorly executed food, terrible service disguised as fine dining.

Even if this was just an extremely irregularly bad day, I’m not sure I would ever go back.

NIDAIME Omakase @yugendining @yugenteabar
$175 pp
- House Made Shiso Drink
- Oyster - Tosazu Jure, Onion Salsa
- Tako - Tomato Ponzu, Mustard ️
- Kingfish Sashimi - Black Garlic, Butter Ponzu
- Sushi
* Hapuka️
* Kingfish️
* Ora King Salmon
* Bluefin Tuna
* Bluefin Toro
* Scampi
* Seared Hokkaido Scallop️
* Seared Paradise Prawn ️
* Unagi Temaki
- Ochazuke - Victorian Smoked Eel, Fried Kale️
- Dessert - Apple Ice Cream, Mochi, Malt Biscuit️

Yugen just launched the second Omakase - NIDAIME! It has a much approachable menu price! It has fewer courses than downstairs but I was left satisfied.
Started with the house made shisho drink followed by three entrees. The three entrees were great individually. However favour wise was kinda similar and heavy for an entree. Would love to see some varieties. The octopus was my favourite entree. It was so tender and packed with flavours.
Then we had 9 pieces of sushi. The hapuka, kingfish, scallop and paradise prawn really stood out for me. The prawn was seared with butter and tasted just like lobster!
After that, we had the Ochazuke, probably one of the best I had in Melbourne. It was light yet flavourful. The tea wasn’t too overpowering but balanced out the umami flavour from the eel and kale!
Lastly we ended with an amazing apple dessert! The ice cream, mochi, biscuit were all singing together in my mouth! Absolutely in love with the texture and flavour profile of each component!
Considered the food and service we received as well as the price point, it was utterly worthy! I also recommend getting the tea pairing for a more exquisite experience!

Really a must try, relaxing atmosphere, perfect dome desserts - simplify amazing! If this was in Sydney I’d be going every weekend

Loved it there!
Had a beautiful time there. Staff is very kind. They have a good knowledge about there menu. Which is filled with an amazing selection of treats. Ambience is very calm. And there bathrooms are clean too. Paid $310 for two of us for easter high tea incl 1 glas champagner. Added a tea each plus one more scone. Which was super delicious with there homemade jam

Really nice interior and lovely staff. Desserts are amazing. Great selection of teas, but I didn't like that I only got 2 brews and then the pot with leaves was taken away - the tea was good for at least 2 more brews.

Went in for their good Friday afternoon high tea. It was nothing special about the menu and it was more expensive compared to their normal high tea menu. The service was a slightly let down as we had to remind them couple of times to replenish the hot water in our tea pots

I went here today as a group of 3 to experience the recommendation I have previously been shared. Coming from Perth, WA, its a big experience choosing to spend a lot of money on a high tea. The food was delightful and the tea delicious, however I had a bit of feedback that I didn't feel was appreciated. While we had a 90 minute seating, for such an expensive, luxury experience it feels like a rushed in and out style of venue and perhaps trying to fit too many people in. We were asked to have our order placed within minutes of sitting down at the table.

I also had grievances with the booking system, I found it very difficult to place a booking and from this alone almost gave up. The booking system asks for confirmation of covid vaccine certificate which is no longer required, I did message the restaurant prior to arrival and had this confirmed, however I feel having this on the booking still could be a deterrent for some wanting to book.

Additionally, on their instagram page 48 hours before my booking it advertised a tea flight and to book through their online page. When I couldn't find this I asked and was told this was not an option at this time as they were reviewing the teas. Not a problem, however advertising it was available on a popular social media platform but not actually having it is quite confusing for someone interested in trying it and quite misleading.

When I asked if I could provide feedback in person on the day, I was met with quite a defensive set of answers for why. A simple "thank you for your feedback" would've sufficed for me. I am also from the service and hospitality sector and found the defensive response quite negative to such a positive experience. I am very aware lots of places are understaffed and challenged but simple things could elevate the experience for all by fine tuning these to avoid confusion given the significant cost it is to dine at this venue.

I hope this review is taken positively for the venue to understand from a visitors perspective.

Experienced the high tea which was unique compared to the usual western high tea offerings at hotels. Not very comfortable due to lack of space (small table)

We went here on my wife’s birthday. The afternoon tea menu was average. We’re impressed by the selections of tea and the spring roll tart with salmon roe and bonita cream. The tart heroes the salmon roe dearly. However, other food was either under-seasoned or off-balanced.
The biggest disappointment was that they did not do or offer anything to celebrate my wife’s birthday, even though in my booking I specially asked for it.

’Senses’ high tea set $105
This set offers an exquisite and unique selection of food. Even though the price was quite steep, we could tell they use top quality ingredients and tea. We enjoyed most of the items on the set especially the ‘banh mi’, scones, molten chocolate tartalette, and spring roll tarts.

The service and food were amazing. One of the best high teas I've had. A unique selection of savoury options (not just mini sandwiches) that were thoughtfully curated and they catered for my allergy of no onion/garlic which very little places do. The selection of tea was huge and the ones we tried were delicious. Our waitresses were very friendly and knowledgeable. Thank you for the amazing experience.

Bad service, the manager said we only got 1 hr for the afternoon tea. And asked us to go because they needed the table back for other customers, but there was nobody sitting this table after we left till the shop CLOSED!

The service is really bad. Especially the manager. We just staying here for half hours and then he ask us to leave because they need table for “next customers”

What a rude altitudes

Awesome atmosphere, amazing service and outstanding food. Can not thank the manager enough for making our experience and that of everyone around us so special. Fave spot in Melbourne by far.

We got a very bad experience in Yugen Bar and i think i being racially discriminated against by the manager today. After we get in the bar the manager told us we just get one hour for the brunch time, but they did not told us about that when we book it. And I don't think a people who is Chinese just drink tea for one hour base our tea culture. Also she let us order minimize 5 foods and drinks cause we got 5 perple, and she said if we don't order that we still need to pay $100 per people. Also they forse us to leave cause there have others waiting for our table, so we leave. But after we come back this bar and seen there is no one sitting that table, they use a lie make us leave.

Food was great as always, used to be my favourite afternoon tea spot but not anymore. Unacceptable service, never coming back.

Amazing Tea Bar. Very hospitable staff members. I really like the sweets too. Vanilla was my favourite. Interiors are really cool. Thanks