Fresh B.
Yelp
Myself & a guest recently visited. The sign is difficult to see from the road. A teapot shaped "open" flag could alert potential guests that there is a tea shop in this location.Upon entering, there was a foyer and a room on the right left of the foyer. The room on the left was the store(shoppe)where you can select your tea w/the expert help of the owner. There are some tea related items that can be purchased as well as "to go" tea & food items.
A small counter top display case had some foods that were available. We were handed home printed menu on an 8 1/2 x 11 inch piece of white computer paper folded in half. There was only 1 person working,we were the only 2 customers. I believe the woman working was the owner. We gave her our food and tea order in the shoppe, then walked over to the room to the of the right foyer (cafe)to wait for our order. I'm not sure if we were supposed to sit &be waited on, but there was direction given by the owner as to the procedure.
The Cafe: The room is beautiful, bright, clean, spacious with a lovely gas fireplace, sofa and dining room table, but does not in any way exemplify a traditional tea room atmosphere. It has traditional coffee shop/restaurant tables, no tablecloths, no place settings, no menu, no teacups, no centerpieces. TCTC site calls the room a "cafe".
The definition of cafe: a "coffee house, restaurant or bar".Tea: Our tea was brought over to us in a cute teapot w/a timer.We ordered a pot of tea so we could have our tea in traditional tea cups otherwise we would have received paper cups.
The timer never went off, but when enough time went by, we poured our delicious tea. There was no silverware,napkins, sugar or creamers on any of the tables. When our food came to the table, we were given napkins,plastic forks and knives, no spoons.
My guest had to get up and go into the tea shoppe a to ask the owner for sugar, creamer and a spoon.The owner came in and gave her a huge, unappealing pitcher of skim or low % milk, a bowl of sugar packets &no spoon. The owner never asked if we wanted, milk, cream or skim. My guest settled for the skim milk, and stirred her tea w/the plastic knife she did not want to get up again to get a spoon or cream.The Food. At this time, there is no menu listed on the site. There is a limited selection of delicious sounding items.
The food, we were told, is purchased fresh from local vendors, sectioned in portions, frozen and reheated in a microwave and served. I asked for something that had not been frozen. The owner said the ham and cheese croissant was not frozen. My guest ordered a square of the Greek spinach pie (3 x 3 square).Our food was served on beautiful porcelain dishes. When the food arrived at our table, mine was still cold, the spinach pie was still frozen in the middle. We went and got the owner and asked to have the food heated again.
The second time around, the food was hot, but the spinach pie was a bit soggy.Note: We were the only two guests in the room during the entire time we were there. There was no traffic going into the shoppe area during that time.Dessert: For dessert we ordered scones, with clotted cream and lemon curd. The scones were also microwaved and taken to us. When they cooled down a bit, the edges were inedible. These items would have fared better if heated in an oven or toaster oven.
Our expectations were to go to a tea room with a tea room atmosphere. Have a light, freshly made lunch with soup/sandwich, tea & dessert, served w/silverware, traditional teapot, a sugar bowl w/sugar cubes and tongs & creamer, befitting a tea room. Possibly having some of these items available in the store area for to be purchased by guests as a remembrance of their visit. We were disappointed that none of these expectations were met. Having gone to many tea rooms, we were excited to visit this one.
The identity of this "shoppe/cafe" for guests might be confusing. Based on the name of the business, one would expect a cozy Victorian room with baroque music, white tablecloths and bud vases on cozy round tables. It needs to be defined.Is it a tea room, cafe or tea shop.There is no doubt this owner is an expert on tea, and has made quite an investment of time & money. This business needs a chef & a hostess or an attentive waitstaff.
On restaurant makeover shows, one of the most important things is service and fresh food. Greeting your guests and seating them with a menu & information on your menu items, at a table that has silverware on it is one of the things that is stressed in making a good first impression.Although the statement from their site is "The Cozy Tea Cart is dedicated to the art of fine tea and the ceremony of tea." You will not find this to be the case unless you take part in one of their 1 per month Sunday tea events.I hope that this review will be taken as constructive feedback on what can be done to improve the business and generate more customers and revenue.