Calico Cat Tea House — Restaurant in Nanaimo

This was my first time at Calico Cat and unfortunately it will be my last. I want to provide a justification of my experience however, and hopefully provide some insight before you consider visiting for yourself.

I'll start off by first saying that the interior design and decor is welcoming and fits the ambience of a tea house. There was nice relaxing music, beautiful tea sets, and big windows for optimal warmth and brightness. The food was surprisingly very delicious. I got a croissant egg salad sandwich and a side of cream of mushroom soup. They were both extremely fresh, full of flavour and decently portioned. The meal was a bit on the pricier side, but the taste made it more justifiable.

Unfortunately with that being said, it was not enough to redeem the other parts of my experience. My biggest complaint was the set up for readings. I personally thought it was quite uncomfortable having my reading done at the table, essentially nearby/beside other people. I personally think that having your reading done is a very personal and vulnerable experience that should be availible privately, even if you're accompanied by close friends/family. I additonally thought the quality of the reading wasn't that strong. I didn't feel like the individual doing my reading was that intentional and genuine. They couldn't really pick up anything other than some very generalized insight that could be relatable to many different people and circumstances in life. Typically your reader should ask you the least and instead spend most of the time giving insight and explaining what's coming up for them intuitively. The individual who did my reading asked several questions that I believe they used as a catalyst to further explore my reading, rather than it coming from intuition. I'm also very new to tarot cards and they didn't explain any of the cards to me. I understand the reading is condensed but a simple explanation of what the card actually says or means could have been helpful to understand the reading further. The whole experience was a bit disheartening for my first tea leaf reading. For 36 dollars and only 10 minutes you don't get a lot of justifiable service. We had the last slot of the night, so I felt things were very rushed. I would have rather been told there wasn't enough time to do my whole table then to feel like I wasn't given much care or attention.

Overall, the serving staff and reader were very kind, welcoming and personable. The food was delicious and fresh but for the higher ticket prices of service, I would personally go to different resturant and get a reading done at a more professional location. This is definitely a location for a one time experience, I will not...

I went here today with two other women as a birthday gift. We had previously been before and had great experiences with Heather. When we went today, I can’t even truly express how odd the situation we experienced was. To give an idea of just how weird, she told my sister and I we were both “E.T’s” which she meant we are extra terrestrial healers.. I have no idea how to even take that type of comment. Our entire session (all 3 of us) was a health reading which we were not expecting, and all of us felt we were being sold on this service (was referred to as the machine, and explained as some neuro- feedback machine that the reader must have been affiliated with). The reader even said “I’m not supposed to say this” after she brought it up for the first time. Everything that was said in our reading somehow led back to this “neurofeedback machine” the reader was trying to sell us on. She explained none of the positive things she was saying could happen, would happen if we did not go to this neuro feedback machine experience . Even when I asked a personal question, that would have had no relation to the neuro feedback machines benefits, the reader didn’t answer and then told me it wasn’t going to happen unless I went to this machine. To use our experience as a way to sell us on something she must get personal gain from left me feeling really dissapointed that we spent our morning driving here from Victoria. The reader abruptly left the table without saying goodbye and went to her next session. When I expressed to our waitress I was confused as I didn’t expect this type of experience as it was nothing like we’ve had before, she basically told me it...

Extremely unimpressed by my experience at the Calico Cat Tea House this afternoon. The waitress was rude and the reading was one of the most bizarre experiences I've ever had. I was under the impression that my party of 3 had all booked tea readings, but all 3 readings were mostly health-focused palm readings by a woman who seemed to be a very unintuitive con artist with a vested interest in a service provided by a 3rd party company that she repeatedly tried to sell to us. All of the future predictions she made were extremely vague, but the most offensive part was that she insisted that none of what she said would happen if we did not first attend at minimum 6 Neurofeedback sessions provided by an Elinor Taylor at NeurAlive Counselling and Neurofeedback in Victoria. She even told us to tell Elinor that she referred us. Promoting this obvious business relationship (in return for some kind of referral fee, I'm sure) is extremely inappropriate and unprofessional. The entirety of our 3 readings was focused on the benefits of using the neurofeedback machine and how that and taking some herbs would change our lives. This was obviously not the experience I was expecting, and I don't recommend this establishment to anyone. When we told the waitress we were disappointed, as we expected a more traditional tea reading, we were told it was our fault, as we didn't specify which reader we wanted to see. However, I am unable to find a list of readers or their specialties anywhere on the internet, so how were we to know? Very bad vibes all around and not at all worth the trip up...