Miramont Castle Museum and The Queen's Parlour Tea Room — Attraction in Manitou Springs

Warning for vegans interested in visiting this castle:

I went to Miramont Castle the other day and had a mostly amazing time, and I want to highlight how amazing all the food stuff was first before getting into my criticism. So first lemme say what I enjoyed

The staff was so warm and friendly, I unfortunately didn't get their names but the woman at the front desk was so kind and interesting. She told us a bunch of good stories. The woman at the gift shop was also very nice. And the staff was very attentive and quick. The castle is beautiful, and totally worth visiting. I still would recommend it even with the criticism I'm about to mention. The map is very descriptive and made for a very interesting visit.

My biggest complaint was the food at high tea, which was a huge disappointment for me. I am a vegan, and I noticed on the website that I could call ahead to ask for vegan accomodations. I also paid extra, about $25, to have vegan accomodations. This may have been an assumption on my part, but I took this mean that my extra fee would be used to acquire vegan ingredients so I could participate in the party.

But unfortunately this was not the case and the food we were brought was not very good or appetizing.

At one point - and this sounds like a complaint but actually I was very impressed by the server who ran over and admitted their mistake to protect us - a server gave me a white chocolate scone that I was very excited to try. Then she ran back and said wait sorry I gave you the wrong one, and then brought back a gray scone lol it was pear hisbiscus and not nearly as pretty or appetizing as the white chocolate scone. To be fair it was actually more tasty than I was expecting with how unappealing it looked, at least compared to the chocolate scone. But there is vegan white chocolate at sprouts that I was hoping would be offered. You can even get premade vegan pastries at Sprouts (brownies, lemon cakes, cupcKes, etc)

Then when others were having pink cupcakes and cheesecake cups, my friend and I had fried heart of palm and a raw cucumber with a huge glob of dairy free cream cheese. Again we were really hoping to be able to participate in the tea party like others were, esp since we paid extra. We did get a very thin bread cracker with apple and chili pepper than i did like, but again apple compared to a cupcakes 🙃 I know vegans don't eat animals but this doesn't mean we don't like junk food!

Then the deserts at the end were not very good either unfortunately. There was a cup that I thought was fudge, but after trying it realized it was more like a hard Pillsbury frosting.

I could tell from the presentation and the food that the other people around us had that the chef is very talented, so I would encourage them to take on the challenge of making vegan equivalents for what they're giving everyone else. I really wanted a cupcake and the chocolate scone!! For the price we paid it was disappointing that we didn't want most of the food we received.

Otherwise it was a very cool experience drinking tea in such a fancy room and they have this really cute hats you can wear for...

We did the high-tea and the castle tour today, October 28th. Since today was their Halloween themed day the price per person for the high tea was increased from the normal $45 to $55 not to mention it’s an additional $12 to request vegan food. (Which don’t get me wrong is awesome that that is even offered, just unfortunate about the additional price increase). We got to the Castle at 11:30 and paid for the tour which we got a measly $1 discount since we were doing the high tea. The woman that checked us in was very nice!! The tour is self guided and only took us 30 minutes, and that was with us purposefully trying to walk slow and read everything. We still had 30 minutes to kill before we could do high tea so we just kept walking around. The museum part itself is pretty neat and the history is really cool. With the price of high tea, I had really high expectations. Once we got to high tea and I saw how beautifully the tables were set, I had even higher expectations. Each person in our party got to pick their own tea and each teapot was unique and beautiful. I ordered the seasonal pumpkin spice tea and it was unfortunately tasteless. The first dish was a tiny little scone that was super dry. Then out came a fancy glass with cut up fruit which was delicious. Then we got 4 small sandwich types things to eat. They did a great job running with the Halloween theme for the food, but the food itself was horrid. Bland, cold, hard, like seriously so incredibly disappointing. Finally came dessert which was a little worse than the food. 4 tiny little desserts, again following the Halloween theme, which were gross and a lot of the food had weird textures and seemed like it had just been sitting out all day. You only get an hour which makes you feel slightly rushed as they bring the food and collect your used plates and utensils. The people working that brought the food were really great and nice and I did feel pampered. But man, the food was just sooooo disappointing for the ridiculous price tag. Not only was it disgusting but the portions were maybe enough to fill up a 5 year old. I was still so hungry after we were done that we had to go and spend even more money to get food that was actually filling. Not worth it. I wonder if the food is better when there isn’t a holiday...

Victorian Senior citizens run this Victorian castle and they believe they are from that Era. It's not a joke they really believe that, the curator being almost 80 years old is out of touch and delusional. They make claims to talk to ghosts on a regular basis and which only proves the level of delusion that's within. No spirits just a bunch of retired seniors Not willing to listen to changes made by Staff or Tourists. For historians you'd think they would know slaves were ripped apart by dogs, and yet they allow a dog to sit in front of their business, and they have off color signs about your kids being sold into slavery, they can't even hear that they appear racist even if they may not be because they are stuck in 1895. Young people and children shouldn't take the tours nor work there because they are unwanted, there is not one interactive or touchable exhibit for kids. They discourage every employee. Their Victorian Garden is overgrown, underbrush can be seen, and it just looks unloved, unkept, and neglected which reflects Gardener who tends it. The tea room has been losing money since the 80's with high turn over for chefs. The Chef for the last 9 months completely turned it around, making sure the products were fresh everyday, standard of cleanliness met, and he inspired those around him to care about the food service being provided. All they could see was too many tourists dirtying the carpets and they refuse to hire a maid service because the maids steal money out of the donation bins which is why there are so many reviews of a dark and oppressive Castle. The history of the Castle is dark too, with a pervert priest and nuns who used the castle as their own personal retirement home, which is what the current Curator does now, hires her retired senior citizen friends who intend and hope to not be busy. If you're not from Manitou, not over the age of 50, and you're not willing to play political games with senior citizens then you'd should Not work...