Tea Villa Cafe — Restaurant in Zone 9 Teynampet

We went to Tea Villa Cafe for lunch today with a lot of expectations & left disappointed. Summarising our experience:

Food:

Cream of Almond & Brocolli Soup: Great start to the lunch - mildly flavoured with crunchy almonds & creamy flavour profile

Cream of Tomato Soup: The usual

Pav Bhaji Fondue: Enough has been spoken about it in Zomato & Google Reviews. One of their best selling dishes & for a good reason. We loved the subtly flavoured Bhaji - not spicy, not bland, not too cheesy.

Schezwan Hargao: Crystal dimsums with Schezwan Sauce - delicious & subtly flavoured

Exotic Italian Pizza: Good thin crust pizza, not disappointing, no wow factors either

Mac & Cheese Pasta: Delicious & flavourful cheese sauce & perfectly cooked Macaroni. We loved it!

Churros: Didn't try but my wife liked it

Strawberry & Chocolate Lassi: Good Strawberry Lassi, Chocolate Lassi is for adventure lovers

Desi Lassi (Salted): The usual Salt Lassi

Service:

Polite but inattentive staff

Slow service (but that's forgivable since they were running at full capacity & they were clearly trying to do their best) - but Sunday lunch may not be a great time to visit if you need prompt service

Wait staff do not have knowledge about the menu items or their availability either. It took a lot of back & forth to understand that pretty much 90% of their Tea Items (& 100% of their non-standard Tea items) are unavailable. The wait staff didn't know about availability or the items, choosing to go back & forth to check until we asked them to just let us know what they have.

Language gap: Wait staff neither speak the local language nor understand basic English (even for short questions about the menu items) In a city like Chennai, especially T Nagar that's frequented by expats, this is a problem 🤷🏼‍♂️

1.30 PM on Sunday (just a couple of hours after the opened) & they were out of most of Tea varieties except a couple of Green Teas & Masala Chai. For a place named "Tea Villa", boasting of an extensive Tea menu, this was thoroughly disappointing.

We had to keep calling the wait staff repeatedly to get water refills, to light up the Fondue candle, or to place our orders. While this can be understandable in a rush, it's also disappointing when you see at least 1 or 2 staff standing idle/staring at random tables without checking.

Price:

Paid a total of Rs. 3500 for 4 people, averaging Rs. 875/head - the food & service aren't worth as much tbf.

Another sore point was that the bill was for Rs. 3407 which already included a service charge. We paid Rs. 3500 in cash & they didn't return the change. We were planning to tip more anyway (since the default service charge was only 5%) despite the shoddy service but the fact that they didn't even bother checking if we wanted the change & just pocketed it without asking made us leave.

Overall Rating:

Food: 4/5 Service: 2/5 Ambiance: 3.5/5 Price:...

Rating: ★★★☆☆ (3/5)

I recently dined at Tea Villa Cafe, and my experience was a mixed bag. While the restaurant excelled in terms of service and atmosphere, the quality of the food was a significant letdown.

Service (4/5): The service at Tea Villa Cafe was truly commendable. From the moment I walked in, I was greeted with a warm smile and promptly seated at a cozy table. The waitstaff was attentive, courteous, and seemed genuinely interested in making our dining experience enjoyable. They were quick to take our orders, and cater to any special requests we had. The attentive service definitely added to the overall positive atmosphere of the restaurant.

Atmosphere (4/5): The restaurant's ambiance was one of its strong suits. The interior was tastefully decorated with a comfortable and inviting layout. Soft lighting and soothing background music created a relaxed and intimate atmosphere, making it an ideal place for a date night or a quiet dinner with friends. The noise level was low, allowing for easy conversation without the need to raise one's voice.

Food (2/5): Regrettably, the food was where this restaurant fell short. The menu boasted an array of enticing options, but the execution left much to be desired. My Wife and I ordered a variety of dishes. Unfortunately, almost every dish seemed to miss the mark. The flavors were bland but the presentation...

teavillacafechennai is a place where you can nit just taste an array of foods that will excite you and your tastebuds but also put you in a relaxing mood to have a quiet time out from the busy life.

Have been wanting to visit this place for quite some time and recently got the opportunity to do so.Always been a huge fan of exotic cuisines but it’s a tiring process of having to taste different cuisines in different places.But teavilla cafe is the place where you can indulge yourself in various continental cuisines.

I had Schezwan hargoa-dimsum with cabbabe,beans with schezwan sauce.

Stuffed cheese fritters-corn,jalapeno,basil stuffed with cheese with a side of sweet chill sauce.

Crispy lotus root-Lotus root which was so yum with sweet chilli sauce with a hint of honey to top it off.

Assorted cup pizza-Whole wheat pizza with exotic vegetables with basil pesto and cheese sauce.

Ratatouille-A take on the classic French dish.

Cheese fondue-A must try.

Peach Fairies-A tea where chrysanthemums with 7 jasmine flower infused with peach which blooms when dippen into the tea.

A match made in heaven for all the vegans.You can never get enough of this place.Once you visit here,it will only make you to go back again to try different items each time.A definite worth while experience for me.A place that will linger in your mind for quite a while...