Nicole

Prices for afternoon tea is on the high side but they bring a LOT of food and all of it pretty good. The tea is good as well. If you are traveling with a man (or are one yourself) and can stand the very flouffy decor, they do offer a regular menu. We went for breakfast. I had the full tea and he had bangers & mash with bacon on the side. The staff is very nice. Our waitress told me that they blend some of their teas and sone they buy blended. They do bring a large teapot with a large infuser basket full of loose tea. There is a timer on the table and while she made a suggestion for time on my choice of Nilgiri, the steep time is ultimately up to you. Which can help prevent bitter tea or give you no one to blame but yourself if you get it bitter. :)

I got some Ambootia Darjeeling here. It was served in a glass mug with an in cup strainer packed with probably a tablespoon of tea. A lot for an 8-10 ounce cup. The water was about boiling at least and I think I let it steep a bit long looking for some more color in my cup. It was a bit bitter.

But that I chalk up to my error as they give you the cup with water and the infuser with tea and control over steeping time is up to you! The tea was good quality I believe, despite the bitterness. I wish I had had time to stay longer. I’m sure this would have been more than up to a second steeping.

Would love to come back and try a crumpet as well. They make them fresh there in the store.

The food was very good. If you are accustomed to actual Thai heat, you need to go on the high side to get heat here. This is a very Americanized heat level. The service was slow but courteous.

The jasmine tea was excellent! It was a bagged tea, and I have no idea what brand it was. It had Chinese characters on it and it said TEA across the top of the tag in orange letters. The flavor was full and well rounded. Not bitter and not overpoweringly floral. Almost a buttery character. I would happily have had another pot of it had we not been so tired and ready for bed.

Very meh. It’s a restaurant that also does tea. We had a table in the middle of all the other dining tables, not a very tea room feel.

We were told when making reservations that various teas were available and included with the basic tea service but when we arrived we weren’t given a choice other than the house blend black. It was brewed far too strong, more like coffee than tea with bitter coffee undertones to the liquid. When we asked if there was another option the server told us about 3 other blacks but no greens or whites at all. We were also told that a flavor other than the house blend would be an additional $5. We didn’t ask for clarification, but it sounded like that additional money was per person!

At $18, you get what you pay for to a certain extent. There were the standard foods in the standard amounts. Three sandwiches, three sweets, three scones/breads. The banana bread with cream cheese was very good. The mini chocolate eclairs were tasty and very much dark chocolate. The clotted cream wasn’t – it was basically sweet cream instead. The scones were interesting – small dropped scones with not much sweetness to them. Not bad. The sandwiches were on a large crumb artisanal type of bread and were okay.

The service was unimpressive, bordering on lackluster. After we finally got the host’s attention to get new or different tea, it improved somewhat, but it felt like our group of 5 was an imposition on the staff. They were not full when we went and they were just finishing a large tea party in the backroom and some girls were putting up decorations for another tea of about 15 in the front room. Maybe 5 people were just beneath their notice.

You have to try different places – maybe some will be good. We won’t be back to this one. I’m glad it wasn’t more expensive than it was.

Very traditional savory menu, scones were good, and the pastry selections were excellent. The house blend tea is very, very good – an Indian black tea with babaco fruit (kiwi, pineapple and one other kind of fruit taste). The staff is marvelous and the server I had was knowledgeable about teas. The live harp music was wonderful. The tea room itself is small and in a side lobby but despite being open to the larger lobby it still seemed quiet and set apart.

The price seemed reasonable for DC. The price of 3 ounces of their house blend tea, however is definitely high. I bought some because I want to share it with friends, but I will have to think about buying any more, despite the fact that I really, really like it.

Reservations are required, though when I arrived early, Julie, the hostess, sat me immediately.

Picture of their tea: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25072757@N04/6899774279/
I have more, but am only linking this one. You can find the others in this same photostream.

A lot of inventory, more spices than teas. But their teas are all displayed on the wall in clear prepackaged plastic bags and the teas are pretty pricey for 1 ounce bags. They are very nice, and seem to have a wide experience with their products but maybe not a wide knowledge of teas.

Definitely knowledgeable staff. Friendly and helpful. A little pricey, maybe, but the whole area is pricey, so it may be in line with everything else.

The teas do not appear to be kept in a good manner. They are in clear glass jars that are not sealed tightly. Their black tea base doesn’t appear to be very high quality and the girl vending the tea didn’t know anything about what she was selling. The upside is that the tea isn’t expensive.

This is simply an amazing place to while away the afternoon. Gorgeous setting, lovely live music provided by violin and cello duo, fantastic service. If you live in New Orleans and haven’t been there, go, go now. If you visit New Orleans, make time to do this. Well worth the time.

The food was wonderful and beautifully presented. Real Devonshire cream! They have two menu options. One is the standard tea sandwiches/scones/sweets and the other includes alcohol and possibly caviar, I can’t recall. Lots of choice in teas.

My only quibble is that since I was there by myself I only got to try one kind of tea. There was plenty of it and I could have stayed an hour longer, simply having my cup refilled. But I do like to try more than one tea when I go for an afternoon tea service.

Tasty chocolate cake balls. Beautiful tea room setting.

I love this shop. Wonderful stuff in here.

I have not had La Duni’s teas, but their food is absolutely phenomenal.

Maudee’s is simply wonderful. The owners are knowledgeable and super friendly. The ladies in my family and I have had tea there frequently and we just love it. The food is always very good. The teas are probably what some purists would see as low quality – the leaves are smaller and they carry a lot of flavored teas. Personally, I love their pomegranate-raspberry black and their green sencha boysenberry apricot. They will bring pretty much unending teas as long as you drink it all. :) They are a must, must, must visit whenever I am in Dallas.

Lovely setting for the Austen tea. The food was fine. Nothing spectacular but all good. The presentation and decorations of the tables was very nice indeed. I do wish more than one tea had been available. The blend they gave us was good, but if you didn’t like it I’m not sure what you would have done. Might also have been nice to have a glass of water on the table as well.

The shop itself is very small and limited in what it offers. Prices do seem pretty reasonable though, and one of the only tea oriented shops I have seen that offers table linens. Fewer collectible dolls and more tea ware might be nice to see, though if the dolls make money I certainly understand having them on offer. I’m sure it’s difficult enough to survive as a tea business in this area as it is!

In short, do give them a try! The directions on the website are a bit confusing (or they were to me). The tea room and the shop both front onto Terrace, even though since the tea room is on the corner it has a different address.

Food was excellent, the tea was okay – I wish it had been served in something other than styrofoam cups as I think this flavors the tea somewhat. Always very busy at lunch times. Prices are very reasonable.

Super nice folks. Very small place, but huge tea selection. They use Shang tea for their whites and have high quality teas across the board. Scones are excellent! Prices are reasonable. They also do classes there. Every Saturday is afternoon tea, but you must make a reservation. They blend their own chocolate for their truffles as well. :) Keith is very knowledgeable about teas and seems to really enjoy sharing what he knows.

The ambiance is spartan and somewhat minimalist but they now have some photos on the walls taken by folks who work there – the store is full of artsy folks! If you are looking for flouncy afternoon tea, this is not your cuppa, but if you are there for good food and excellent tea, you’ll be pleased.

Teadrops is a nice place to grab a quick cup of tea on the go. They have a decent selection of loose leaf teas. The only thing I don’t like about them is that parking is somewhat difficult to find sometimes.

I have had their version of high tea (which I think is more of a cream tea) a couple of times. Cute little place, very nice staff and excellent food. If you are into the gloves and hats type of tea, they do have some of those as well so you can have as silly a dress up tea as you’d like! Well worth the drive from Kansas City.

I love this shop, but not necessarily as a tea specific shop. They do have a decent selection of bagged teas from England. They also have Devonshire cream, tea biscuits and scone mixes. It’s a great little store for Anglophiles needing a fix. :)

Very knowledgeable staff, the owner is there most of the time and is very nice. Her classes are small and very good and very reasonably priced. I have yet to be to a class there that I didn’t think I got my money’s worth. Good quality teas and nice selection of teaware.

Super, super nice folks here. Lots of tea selection and although I have read that one should never keep tea in clear glass jars, their teas seem to be flavorful. The gentleman who helped me with my purchase told me that they keep their stock in frequent rotation. I have also read since then that light isn’t the main enemy to the flavor of tea, it is moisture.

Their prices also seem to be very reasonable.