Ruelo Bakehouse located at 463 McNicoll Ave. in North York.

I am so glad that my friends brought up the idea of having afternoon tea for our catch-up session (in lieu of a lunch or dinner spot)!  I haven’t been to afternoon tea in more than ten years and missed the idea of it.

We chose Ruelo Bakehouse located at 463 McNicoll Avenue (McNicoll/404) in North York.  My friend made the reservation for our afternoon tea set which was from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. on a Sunday.

Storefront

The exterior of Ruelo Bakehouse is a bit unsightly since it’s located in an industrial area, but you’ll forget all about that when you enter the doors because it is decorated so picturesque and nicely inside.

Our afternoon tea set ($35 per person; minimum order of 2 people) included coffee or tea, two scones, two small toasts, two sliders, and three mini desserts.

Pot of decaf tea and assorted scones

I chose decaf tea (they only had one type of it).  It was really smooth and easy to drink (I don’t drink tea at all usually) and was served in a muted cool blue ceramic teapot.  They didn’t have fancy British-style teacups or teapots if that’s the thing you’re looking forward to in an afternoon tea setting.  It’s more of a modern and casual type of afternoon tea here.  The utensils were in gold colours.  The small plates and mugs were simply white.

Our three-tier tower of afternoon tea delights arrived in a pretty display with white plates tinged of purple.

Raisin scones and plain scones with clotted cream and homemade jam

The scones (plain and raisin) were smaller than I expected (I remember eating gigantic scones from the Windsor Arms Hotel and King Edward Hotel back in the day) and served with clotted cream and homemade blueberry jam.  The scones were a little dryer than I preferred and I found that putting more clotted cream on it helped improve the texture.

The three-tier afternoon tea set

The egg salad on a house-made crouton was very good with just the right balance of flavours.  The crouton was unexpectedly super crunchy!

Both the Italian parma ham puff pastry slider and the smoked salmon slider were pretty good but not spectacular.

The imitation crab salad was really good too but it was a very small item on a small piece of toast/crouton.

The three desserts consisted of a chocolate macaron with their namesake on a thin piece of chocolate, a matcha cake, and mini cake.

The mini cake had a fluffy light cream on top of it.  Everyone loved the Green Tea Red Bean Sesame as it consisted of layers of what tasted to be matcha, chocolate, and sesame.

Ruelo macaron

The chocolate macaron was soft yet with a crunchy shell.  It was chocolaty and the inscribed logo on the chocolate coin was a nice touch.

I really enjoyed the time we spent here enjoying these small treats.  It was quiet and the four of us were able to enjoy a solid catch-up session.  In fact, there was a kid’s cupcake decorating session held in the open kitchen but we barely noticed it because it was done so discreetly and quietly.

Drinks and baked goods counter

I would recommend this place for solid offerings from Ruelo Patisserie and a modern and casual style afternoon tea, but look elsewhere for afternoon tea if you prefer the more classic British style with fancy teapots and teacups — the kind you want to dress up for a la traditional British afternoon tea.  I paid approximately $45 after tax and tip; not cheap for the small amount of food served.  It’s still a good introduction into the world of afternoon tea if you haven’t tried it before and the dine-in setting was very peaceful and calm.