I'm giving 1 star because the decor is beautiful, and it has a very Japanese theme to it. I also…read morelike the retail space, with little items to purchase.
I'd been wanting to go here for the longest time, having seen someone having an afternoon tea through the window. Finally today, we decided to go. I was sure they did lunch items, but couldn't find a menu anywhere. The server apologized and handed me a menu, and pointed out the soup specials. Husband selected the loaded baked potato soup, and I chose the curried egg salad sandwich. He got an Americano (because there was no drip available) and I requested English Breakfast Tea, noticing that they had big black tubs of teas around the shelves. I requested skim milk (it wasn't available) and had to settle for whole milk. At this stage I'll point out that I am 100% English, I moved here in 2012, and it's difficult to get a good strong cup of English Breakfast Tea in town (The Perfect Cup was a noticeable exception to this, and were indeed the perfect cup of strong English black tea) but I had high hopes for somewhere called a Tea Lounge. His coffee was served quickly, but I waited a while for my tea. It arrived with the milk already in it, and had virtually no colour at all, so I could instantly tell, it wasn't strong enough. I took a sip, couldn't taste any tea, and I took it to the counter and asked for an extra tea bag. 2 of the counter staff seemed to need to deal with this issue, and kept my mug of tea behind the counter, and I was sent to the cashier to pay $5 for a brand new cup to be made. I'm quite outraged by this. I had already paid for the tea, my tea was made wrong, I was happy to pay to add an extra tea bag, or leaves to the cup I already had, or have them remake it to my liking, but I am aghast to have to pay twice for one mug of tea.
After another wait, the tea was brought to the table - no milk, so I asked for milk. A jug of milk was brought, but no spoon to stir with. Again, this was weak tea. I have tea bags sent to me from home, I make it for myself every morning. This was weak tea. I had asked them to make the second mug STRONG. Am I not making myself clear?
Anyway, the dining room was mostly empty, a reserved table's customers came in, and there was a guy sitting in a corner space. We had to wait an interminably long time, for a bowl of soup and cold sandwich requiring no cooking.
The server brought the soup out 1st, soup splashed all over the plate. It was a nice big bowl. However, the potatoes in this soup are not baked potatoes, they're boiled. The bacon has not been cooked prior to putting it in the soup. And every other time I've had loaded baked potato soup, it's got a creamy broth. This is a runny broth. I love loaded baked potato soup, but that didn't look appealing to me at all.
My egg salad sandwich followed, I was even more disappointed by this I think. I believe this egg salad is prepared in a food processor, as there are no discernible pieces of egg, it's kind of like a spread if you will, and a very thin one. A smear on one side of the bread. However if you love arugula, and tomatoes, you'd like this sandwich, because they are violently, aggressively abundant with it, to the point that I could not taste any curried egg salad whatsoever. I'll stick to making my own, at home, I shred the egg in a grater so there aren't big chunks of egg, but it still has the egg salad flavour. This was bland. Like I say, all I could taste was arugula. Best thing about this - the potato chips were fresh.
I do feel VERY disappointed and let down by my experience today. It was an expensive lunch, an even more expensive mug of mediocre tea, which is ludicrous in a place calling themselves a Tea Lounge. I won't be revisiting, no matter how pretty the space.
