The Rotunda’s $54 set menu in San Francisco’s Union Square is very worth it

On a crisp December afternoon in Union Square, I rode four flights of escalators up to the restaurant at the top of Neiman Marcus. Inhaling the heavy scent of mall perfume and tinny din of holiday tunes, I tried to catch glimpses of the department store’s towering Christmas tree light fixture on the way up. Two life-size nutcrackers stood at the restaurant’s entrance, indicating I’d arrived. 

It was time for one of San Francisco’s bougier holiday traditions: afternoon tea at the Rotunda. 

The host welcomed my colleague and me when I indicated we had a reservation, and we were quickly seated at the white-tablecloth booth overlooking the restaurant’s namesake rotunda. The opulent white-and-gold stained-glass dome dates back to 1909, a new addition to the City of Paris department store when it was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire. In 1972, Neiman Marcus bought the building, and it demolished the old City of Paris building in 1981, but preserved the rotunda. 

On the other side of the restaurant, windows look out over Union Square and the Macy’s Christmas tree.

People may do most of their holiday shopping online these days, but it seems they’ll still venture out to the mall if it means an excuse to dine at the Rotunda. On a Wednesday afternoon, the restaurant was bustling, a mix of middle-aged women with sleek blond bobs gossiping over tea, couples toasting glasses of champagne and corporate types at holiday luncheons.

The Rotunda’s afternoon tea service is a set menu at $54 per person, with the option to add supplements such as oysters and blini with caviar. My colleague and I selected our pots of tea (a green tea with bergamot, kiwi, yellow beach, orange blossom and violet flower for me) and we each added on a glass of the cheapest sparkling wine on the menu ($13). At this gold-accented, festively decorated venue, bubbles felt necessary.

The meal began, as all meals do at the Rotunda, with popovers with whipped strawberry butter and teacups of chicken consomme. Since 1955, Neiman Marcus has served the popovers at all of its in-store restaurants across the country, a simple pastry made with just butter, flour, salt, eggs, and milk, according to Taste. 

The popover was light and flaky and hollow on the inside, made decadent when smeared with the lightly sweet strawberry butter. I demolished it, washing it down with the silky chicken consommé. We had many more pastries coming our way, but this one was so light it didn’t ruin my appetite.

It would be almost another 40 minutes until the main attraction arrived — the three-tiered serving tray of finger sandwiches and pastries — but the people-watching was so good, I barely noticed. Next to us, a glamorous woman in sparkly silver heels plopped down with a jumble of shopping bags. An argument broke out between two customers at the bar, causing the well-dressed, tony crowd to widen their eyes and crane their necks for a better view. 

When the tea service arrived, the server thoroughly explained each item on the menu: a layer of miniature pastries on top, savory finger sandwiches in the middle and scones at the bottom. The presentation was beautiful, from the pastel pink and yellow pastries to the carefully placed sprigs of fresh herbs. 

I started with the savory: a thin slice of white bread spread with lemon butter and topped with smoked salmon, caviar and chives, which was delicate in flavor but delicious all the same. Another finger sandwich with thinly sliced cucumbers, cream cheese and dill was tasty as well, but my favorite was actually the vegetarian slider, filled with super flavorful marinated eggplant. For the more carnivorous, this tier was rounded out with a roast beef and Swiss cheese slider and a mango coronation chicken croissant.

The miniature pastries on the top tier included a lemon meringue tart, a raspberry cheesecake, a vanilla bean macaron, a chocolate waffle cone filled with cream and a chocolate lemon tart. My favorite was the lemon meringue, tart and creamy with its puff of torched meringue. 

The scones, though, were the least alluring bit of the tea service. While the orange blossom ginger scone was decent when covered in lemon curd and butter, the rosemary cheddar scone was so dry I had to chug tea to get it down.

After nearly two hours of sipping and nibbling, we finally got the check. With the two glasses of champagne, plus an automatic 20% gratuity, our total came to about $172.

It was definitely a splurge for such a light meal, but for a taste of holiday opulence, it didn’t feel like a waste. The price was also either on par with or lower than most other afternoon tea services in San Francisco. 

The food didn’t knock my socks off, per se, but sometimes restaurants are more about the atmosphere than the actual food. And if the food happens to actually be pretty good, as was the case — hey, a nice bonus.

After mowing through three trays of tea snacks, my favorite may not have been part of the tea service at all. If there’s one item I’m still thinking of, it’s the light-as-air popover, topped with dreamy strawberry butter. 

After we paid, buzzing with bubbly and sugar, I wandered down to the railing to peer up at the stained glass dome, which portrays the ship that brought the founders of City of Paris to San Francisco in 1850. Below me, I would have once seen a real 60-foot-tall Christmas tree reaching up into the rotunda; sadly, that tradition died years ago, replaced by a less impressive light installation arranged in the shape of a tree (the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms). 

Still, though, the holiday spirit of the place was contagious. As we left, floating down four flights of escalators, I found myself humming along to a corny Christmas tune.