The Teahouse in Stanley Park — Restaurant in Vancouver

We travelled to Vancouver BC knowing there’s lots of great places to dine but had to have a very short list for the few nights we were going to be here. The Tea House made the short list. It is in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC. The route we took to travel was even more scenic & made it that much better. Any visit to Stanley Park is going to be a great one either way.

We made our reservation months ago & timed it with the sunset. There are lots of great rooms to eat in. I hope I am explaining it well enough but imagine an old mansion or older mess hall. Anyhow, there is one room where you can dine if you walk in the first thing you see is the bar. It is the room that would be to your left.

We got seated just as the sun began to set. We faced the window & watched the sun set behind the Vancouver mountains. It was a seemingly slower sunset & seemed to take forever (in a good way).

We started off with Cocktails & they were fabulous. I had an Old Fashioned which was very alcohol forward tasting & very tasty. They served it properly with a big rock in a very nice rocks glass. The Mrs. had a Spritz style cocktail that came in a wine glass. It looked nicely garnished & very bubbly.

The appetizer we chose was the Charcuterie Board. It had a mild blue cheese, brie, aged gouda, nicely pitted olives that had a very mild less salty flavor (appreciated), those tiny pickles, some artisan crackers, fancy grainy mustard, grapes, raison crisps, cornichons, prosciutto & a couple of other very nice artisan meats. There was a nice bread & butter service with the appetizer that was just enough.

For our entrees we enjoyed the Steak Diane. It is a fabulous tenderloin “Diane” style. I’ve never had it but it was great. The sauce was a good balance & just right. It went nicely with the steak. It came with some seasonal vegetables, greens, broccolini, full size carrots & a potato pave. The other was a Crab & Shrimp crusted Halibut. It was cooked perfectly. It seems like it can be a challenge to get fish done just right. The Chef did not disappoint. The fingerling potatoes was skin on buttery & melt in your mouth.

We ended up getting a couple sides to share. The Mushroom Risotto. Another dish that can be a challenge for The Chef & this one did not disappoint either. The Crispy Brussel Sprouts were wonderful. These were cooked just right. I like the outer layers to fall off & have the mini light crunch & as you bite through the consistency is just as it should be. I have no idea what sauce cheese was on the top. It looked like flakes of cheese but was actually a sauce that went so well with the dish.

I don’t want to steer anyone away from the sides. There was so much food & each entree it seems comes with enough vegtables. We couldn’t eat everything. Either way, we were happy to try some different things. I did see the Frites come through & it was HUGE. It would seem this place is good for sides with a very large group as well.

The service was awesome. The dining room we sat in had many options & the manager let us pick the 2 top table we wanted. We chose the one with the best view (see pictures). It was so much fun watching the staff set the tables. The rep had a finger measuring system so each piece of silverware, forks & plates were just so perfect & uniform. We are going to use this method at home when entertaining guests.

The manager was nicely dressed & was always present even making sure each wine glass was neatly polished & ready to go. He paid so much attention to detail. He even came & asked if we got cocktails ordered & how things were going.

Finally our server Debora was so polite. She made it great! We weren’t rushed. We didn’t feel rushed. We like to have drinks then order an appetizer as we finish our first round, then order the entrees as we finish the appetizers & so on. Debora was so attentive & a very pleasant appearance.

You will not be...

I would 100% NOT recommend the Teahouse, and would strongly suggest you save your money and go elsewhere.

Apologies in advance for the long review, but I want to give context to the terrible review I am giving here. I am not someone who has ever written a review before, but our experience was so bad, that I felt compelled to do so.

Myself and my husband just took our Mum's who were visiting for an early Mother's Day celebration at the Teahouse and the whole experience was appalling, and truly terrible.

I had called in advance to make a reservation and let them know we were doing an early Mother's Day celebration prior to coming in. Unfortunately it wasn't acknowledged in any way, which was a little disappointing. However, the service and food was by far the most disappointing part of the experience. In a group of 8, the server only took drink orders from the males in our party, and the woman had to get up to ask for a drink after about 20 minutes. We then waited an hour for the food to arrive, and when it did it was mediocre, and definitely not worth the cost. My Mum ordered a dish that was missing half of the ingredients to which she had to request them, and my 'veggie' dish, for almost $30 was laughable. I had ordered the Vegetarian Stanley Park Breakfast with no eggs, which, according to their menu, consisted of a grilled garlic baguette, tomato & arugula salad, grilled tomato, roasted fingerling potatoes, and sliced heirloom tomatoes. When it arrived it was literally just a large plate of lettuce with half an avocado, half of a very small sliced tomato, with a few potatoes on the side. There were no 'heirloom' tomatoes, the 'grilled' tomatoes were 2 (I kid you not) cherry tomatoes cut in half, and there was no baguette in sight. When I asked if my bread would be coming, the server said three times it was on it's way and then finally came out with a plate of broccoli and carrots. After asking many more times, I finally got my piece of bread, that was half the size of the rest of the tables portions and plain, with no herbs or garlic to be found.

We then tried to get our bill, which I asked for split into two. The bill was then presented to the wrong person from what I had asked for, so I explained again, and it was still wrong. I finally gave up, and went to the till myself, the bill was then split into 5, I explained again how to split it and it was still wrong. Finally we got there, but this was mean't to be a gift to my husband's and my Mum's, and this all made it incredibly awkward.

The bill was $400 in the end, and quite frankly we would have had a nicer experience anywhere else, for a lot less money. The service was appalling, the food was a joke, and the whole team didn't have a clue what was going on. I would absolutely not recommend the Teahouse, and personally won't ever be going back. I will be reconsidering going to any of the Sequoia...

My husband and I took my mother for brunch for mother's day today and after booking over a month in advance I have to say we were pretty disappointed overall with the experience that we had given that this place is supposed to be a bit more upscale. Firstly, we showed up and the host who greeted us was nice and kind but the host that seated us didn't ask us anything, didn't wish my mom a happy mother's day, didn't ask how our day was, she simply sat us at our table and dropped the menus and left. We all thought it was strange since it was obvious we were there for mother's day and were trying to make the day special. Our server greeted us and was kind, he didnt rush us and even accomedated some last minute changes to our order which was very nice. We ordered the croissants, the ceaser salad and the muscles to start. After we finished those items the strangest thing happened. One of the bus ladies, came over to our table, asked us if we were finished, we said yes and she started to pile the 5 + plates, bowls and all cutlery in one pile. It was unprofessional but that wasn't the worst part, she then bend down and put both of her elbows on the table around the bowl of dishes and hangs her head and said ahhh I'm so tired, waits about 30 seconds and then stands back up and takes the dishes away. We were all shocked and couldn't understand how such unprofessional behavior is allowed at this type of restaurant. It was very strange. The rest of the food arrived, the waffle, the shakshuka and the fish and chips. The shakshuka was strange because it was essentially the same sauce as the muscles which my husband was a bit disappointed with. It also came in a very small onion soup bowl which didn't make it pleasant to eat. The fish and chips were also quite salty. We finished the meal, paid the bill and when we got up to leave we could hear the 3 waiters arguing over their schedules and who was going to stay 20 mins longer or who was going to take any more tables, so much so that we stood behind all 3 of them for over 30 seconds and with them making eye contact with us, no one moved at all for us to get by to be able to leave. They seemed more interested in arguing than actually paying attention to the customers, then when we did get by, they didn't even sat thank you or have a nice day or anything at all.... it truly wasn't the experience we thought it would be or the class of service you would expect from the Tea house. Pretty disappointing and sad to say that we likely would not return. Training and coaching on professionalism are certainly needed with...