The Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden — Attraction in Victoria

Disclaimer: this was my first time going to a high tea place.

Atmosphere: The garden outside and the establishment itself was very cute. There was patio seating overlooking the gardens outside and intimate indoor seating inside. A lot of natural light shines in through the large windows.

Service: the servers were very polite, attentive, and wore masks for diners' safety. The teapots, teacups, and plates were so cute and fancy! The teacups weren't very comfortable to drink from, but I felt stylish regardless.

Tea: the tea selection was small, with 3 black teas, 3 herbal teas, and 3 green teas represented. I got to try 4 teas with my party and loved all of them. Despite not being a big tea drinker (usually coffee instead), I drank about 12 teacups' worth. They offered cream and sugar, but they were seriously better without. I was impressed.

Food: there were 3 tea service choices - high tea ($65), afternoon tea ($54), elevenses ($28). The pricing is a bit confusing, but each selection comes with a set of food that is proportioned down to feed one person. You get more food with each higher tier, but there is 95% overlap so you more or less get everything of a lower tier by ordering a higher tier. I will post my short impressions of the food below, but in summary, their strengths were in the puff and butter pastries and weakness was in their desserts, which were much too sweet (like American dessert sweet). I don't know if this is normal, but I did not like most of the dessert, even with bitter tea.

Food review: -Salmon blini: the caviar tasted like tobiko, the crème fraiche was fatty and delicious. The rye pancake was very rye-y in flavor and delicious. Although it was good with the salmon, I recommend trying it on its own. -Cucumber sandwich: tasted like a Japanese convenience store sandwich (which isn't ab insult, just by opinion) -egg salad sandwich: also tasted like a Japanese convenience store sandwich -Lamb sausage pastry - tasted like curried lamb with bread, or like a schwarma or doner kebab with pita. Very interesting. -Chicken brioche: tasted like turmeric powder and chicken mixed together, but not cooked together. I was not impressed. -mushroom and bechamel vol au vent: actually tasted more like an asparagus gruyere pastry. Subtle yet savory from the cheese/bechamel. The asparagus(?) was nice. It was delightfully flaky. -Savory egg tart (mini quiche): notes of mint and asparagus! -ham and cheddar mini croissant - delicious, but the cheese kind of tasted like Swiss cheese. The croissant was great! -Salmon profiterole- delicious choux! Salmon was good, too. -Scones - they were basically biscuits. Before this, I thought scones were supposed to be dry. Their scones were filling and really nice with their butter/clotted cream, jam, and tea! ---desserts--- -Lemon curd tart - really sweet cookie and curd. The shortbread could have been baked longer. Very sugary. -Chocolate ganache thing - tasted like a moist brownie. -Macaron - one of them exploded when I put my knife into it. Very hard, sweet, and tacky on the teeth. Terrible. But the other one tasted like a proper macaron with the right texture. Not sure what was wrong with the first... -Panna cotta - tasted like custard. Pretty good, but sweet. -Creme brûlee - nice ginger flavor! Very, very sweet, though. -Date, fig, and walnut? with cinnamon in pastry: Great puff pastry. Nice sweetness. One of the best desserts they had. Went well with tea. -Raspberry mousse in chocolate tulip cup: Good raspberry flavor, but a tad sweet, despite the tartness cutting the sugar. The chocolate tasted like candy - yuck. -Strawberry or raspberry cream in a cream puff: tasted like it was artificially flavored filling. -Lavendar sugar cookie or shortbread. Very, very hard. Too sweet but aromatic.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience itself but would not mind not doing high tea again if they are all like this. I thought it was pricey for the food quality, but maybe people don't do these for the food? 3/5 - was not my cup of tea (haha) but may be yours if you...

We went for high tea yesterday for my Mom's birthday, and while the gardens are beautiful, we found many elements of the experience to be disappointing, unfortunately.

For the positives; the waitress was lovely, they gave my Mom an extra little treat with a candle which was thoughtful and sweet, and we had a nice view of the garden. The food wasn't dry, the texture of the scones was nice and the sandwich bread was soft. I appreciate that they use free range eggs in their egg sandwich, and it sounds like they potentially use some fresh produce from their gardens, if I understand correctly? The flourless chocolate cake was tiny but tasty, and the green and white layered cake with pink jelly topping (I think that might have been the napoleon?) was tasty too. The sundried tomato tart was small but nice as well.

For the negatives; they could benefit from checking over their collection of teacups and glasses, as my Mom's initial teacup had a crack, my first one was chipped, and then my Mom's water glass had a chip at the base as well. We found the flavour of the majority of the food to be a bit bland, or too sweet. The portions were also very small, given the cost of the towers. For example, the panna cotta was probably smaller than a quarter in diameter, and not very tall either. They put all three of our orders on one tower, which made it a bit confusing as to who's food was who's, especially given that we ordered both a high tea and two afternoon teas, one of which was vegetarian. I understand not wanting to serve multiple towers at one table given how small the tables are, but I do feel like there are some other ways the food could be served to make it less confusing, such as offering for each person's food to be served on an individual plate in the tower rather than sorted by type, if preferred? We also found the tea quite bland, even after extra tea was added to the pot, unfortunately and my Mom found the sausage roll disappointing and greasy as well.

Additionally, when the waitress checked in on our thoughts on the food and my Mom let her know she wasn't super happy with it, it felt like her concerns were brushed aside. Normally we like to let restaurants know directly if there's something we're disappointed with, so that they have the opportunity to remedy the situation without a mediocre review, but given the lack of response, she felt like even if she phoned to give feedback, it might not make a difference since we'd tried gently letting them know already when we were there.

Overall, all three of us felt that there were several things that could've been improved, and were quite bewildered when the tower came with how small everything was for the cost, and then disappointed when the flavour didn't make up...

Food itself is okay, better than average high tea places. However, we were not satisfied with the overall service. We had a total of 9 people (including three kids) at 11am. I called well in advance (a month in advance) and asked about the choice of menu due to some dietary restrictions (I.e. diabetics). The person who took the call said there is an a la carte menu or a lunch menu so whoever that did not want regular high tea can order that. On the day before our reservation, they called to confirm and I asked to have a table so all of us can sit together (this was after the restrictions were lifted) and she said she should be able to do that. Upon arrival, we were told we cannot sit together, and that they don't offer other menu other than high tea. WHAT THE HECK! AND on top of that, they told us that they will charge us 18% gratuity for table over 6 (but realistically, we were separated into two tables with one that sits 6 and the other 3)...So how is this different from just serving two separate tables for different clients.

Fine with the tips, right before 12:30pm, the server told us that we only have 1.5 hours (I guess that included all the vaccine passport checking? They also did not mention this at time of booking nor at confirmation for our booking, they only kept emphasizing the 18% tips... ) for each sitting and asked to pack everything on our table and cleared up many of the plates and rushed us to leave.

I am sorry, but for 18% tips at over $300 spending, I expected a more relaxed environment and service. We were NOT even asked if the teapots need to be refilled, until I had to ask when the server comes out from the kitchen area. It is not our fault that there is only one server and service was slow and we need to adhered with the time restriction.

Lastly, don't trust their machine...Their 18% tips is MORE than the actual 18% amount if you calculate it on your own! Really!? I believe they calculate tips on top of taxes...

I personally hate mandatory tipping as the server don't do anything as they know they will get the tips anyways.

Not...