Jillian M.
Yelp
Edited to reply to owner: Hi Amy, thanks for the speedy reply. I do appreciate that we were able to be accommodated and rescheduled due to illness, so thank you for that. I do apologize if my criticism was seen as an attack on your personal preferences for high tea, it wasn't supposed to be. I just wanted to say, when we went it was very busy and I'm assuming fully booked, so we should not have to ask for basic necessities like silverware or plates. As it was, I asked for the tea menu again because I was going to order another pot of tea, but no one ever came back and we were just brought the bill. Again, I would encourage others to still visit your establishment, I was just trying to point out things that could be improved upon for the future.
Would have liked to give 3.5 stars if I could. To start off, I love a tea house and have been to many... so I was looking for a kind of authentic tea house experience. My husband and I went on Valentine's Day for the luncheon high tea, and it overall was a good experience. I do just have a few nitpicky things to comment on and as an avid tea house goer I do hope Jolie takes it as constructive criticism because I did enjoy my time.
First, the cups......... why a mug?? It's a cute, dainty mug.. but it's a mug. When I do high tea, I expect an actual tea cup and saucer with a little teaspoon. Next, they could also really up the ante by having cloth napkins instead of paper for the high tea. There also are no special little spoons for your cream/ sugar. Up the ante even more? Little sugar cubes with tongs instead of just a bowl of regular sugar. These are all just little details that make high tea even more special... not necessary, but just nice.
On a good note. Jolie is adorable inside and does have a huge tea menu, which is great, but when we were leaving we saw a specials board with some special teas for Valentine's Day which we would have liked to try, had they been offered to us. The teas we did try were good. For lunch my husband got the quiche, and I got the tartine. The tartine was really good - good flavors and tasted fresh. My husband's quiche was good, but a little loose/ watery. The issue with the meal was it came with a HUGE pile of greens.... almost the entire plate, and it was just dry/ undressed. What a waste.... those are expensive! Hard to eat so much undressed arugula. It'd be great if they gave a smaller but dressed pile of greens.
Next for the mini tier of desserts... overall, okay. There was a glazed scone that was just okay, good flavor but very crumbly and the outer layer is kind of hard to break into. The bigger issue here was our silverware was taken with our lunch plates, so we were given scones and jam with no knife or anything to spread it with. I had to use the opposite end of my spoon from lunch to spread the jam. Also, no plates... so it was just crumbling all over the table. Give new cute tiny plates and knives! There was some little chocolate sponge heart that had okay flavor but was very dry. The best part of probably the whole day was the macaron.... so good that I ordered some to go. I got the classic almond and it was delish! 10/10, no notes.
Overall, I did enjoy my high tea experience and I would go again. The service was fast and friendly, the food and tea were good, and the macarons excellent. I do hope Jolie sees this review as a genuine attempt to improve their already great product :)