The Palace Tea Room — Restaurant in Sydney

This was possibly the worst high tea I’ve ever been to. We booked 2 days prior, however, when we arrived they were only able to seat us at a small/uncomfortable plastic table in the back. We requested to we be moved to a better table, to which the staff refused on the basis that they were ‘full/booked’. Although, it’s important to note there were numerous better tables available visible to the customer eyes. We even saw a group that didn’t have a reservation get a nice table that was supposedly ‘full/booked’. Once we ordered our high tea, we were informed the initial tea we requested wasn’t available. The second one we ordered also wasn’t available. Luckily our third was lol.

When they provided us with our meal, they gave us an additional tea cup for no apparent reason. Additionally they filled our glasses a quarter of the way with water. Not leaving the bottle for us to refill our glasses. They then left us to enjoy our food.

During our high tea, we ran out of tea. It took 20 minutes to get the waiters attention to order the tea. However, once the waiter took our order for more tea, he took one of our teacups away; once again for no apparent reason. Lucky we had that random additional fourth teacup so we didn’t have to go without!

After 15 minutes of waiting for our tea, it was clear we weren’t getting it. One of the members of our party then had to get up and approach staff directly to re-order the tea. In the last 10 minutes of our sitting, our tea finally arrived in three seperate pots. We informed the waiter that we didn’t want three pots, we simply wanted one for the entire table. We then requested water (because we had none), to which it took another 5 minutes to provide.

Our sitting took 1.5 hours to consume a traditional high tea. Although, majority of that time was waiting on staff and requesting simple items.

Ultimately, I do not recommend this place and will never return. There is a lack of attention, support and communication to customers. Moreover, there seems to be a lack of co-ordination between staff. It is sad to see paying customers treated so poorly by a business. If you would like to waste your money, time, be disregarded and degraded by a cafe/restaurant this is the perfect...

I originally wasn't planning on leaving a review, but after examining the other 1 star reviews, I think it's best I share. I didn't have a terrible experience, but it was weird and it left me feeling a bit uncomfortable and made me question whether this place was racist/classist.

My daughter and I visited the Palace Tea Room this week whilst exploring QVB. As we approached the door, we were quickly cut off by who I assume was the floor manager. She bluntly said "You can sit anywhere OUTSIDE", which at the time I thought was a little weird, especially considering her cold tone and the fact I could visibly see empty tables inside.

I didn't think too much of it, we sat outside and waited. A waiter came over and took our order, she wasnt exactly friendly, but she wasn't rude either. The service was pretty quick, a second waiter brought out our meals, she was also quite cold. By now I was already getting a weird vibe, the 3 employees I had interacted with had all been quite cold, and almost seemed reluctant to serve us.

As I was eating, I noticed the floor manager allowed a person in and I could see the interaction was quite friendly, at that point I paid attention to the people seated inside. Then it hit me, all the people seated inside were white and all the people seated outside were of other ethnicities. I was a bit shocked at what I was seeing.

Now at first I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt, it could just be a coincidence. However as read through the other reviews, it appears other ethnic customers have also experience the same treatment while trying to dine at their establishment.

It's really disappointing service, especially for such a beautiful location.

I definitely would not go there again and can not recommend it to others, especially to those of ethnic backgrounds.

Apart from the poor service, the food was quite mediocre, however I must admit, their chai latte was delicious.

But personally, customer services is the most important factor for me when dining, and for that reason I give this place an F.

I hope the owner can get their staff some appropriate customer...

If you order the high tea, it is a surplus of food! Often at high tea, the sandwiches will be smaller, but these were such a great size, and so many sweets! The scones were big and perfectly soft but crunchy on the outside. They served a lot of clotted cream with it and a lot of jam. Sometimes when I go to a high tea, I have to ask for extra clotted cream or extra jam, or I leave feeling hungry, but not here. Wow. Such a great offering! We ended up taking four or five sweeties home. And, in addition to the sandwiches, they also had a savory spinach roll. A wonderful mix of savory and sweet. The tea selection was on point as well. Everything was excellent. Bravo!

Five stars for the food and the atmosphere! The service was good as well.

My only complaint is that we made reservations and they seated us at a two- top table. And we told them we had reservations for high tea, and thus the table felt too small. The server was even struggling to figure out where to put things. So it would’ve been nice to have been at a larger table. We saw another couple arrive that was just two people, and they were seated at a four-top. And they did not even order high tea. They left after just having some tea, so it would’ve been lovely to have had their spot. We inquired about a four-top, but they said they were all reserved, but the entire time we were there, (which was quite a long time) nobody came to those reserved tables until we were ready for our bill. Still, a minor complaint! Also, the server does not take your bill, you bring it to the front. Overall, an elegant experience with...