The Garden Tea Room — Restaurant in Birmingham

Nice building with unrealised potential. Mediocre service.

Set at the eastern edge of the park, this delightful 1920s / 1930's style building is in need of some TLC. The outside looks unloved despite the attractive nearby rockery whilst the seating area needs some repairs and a good weeding.

The inside is worse with a mish mash of styles of varying degrees of quality. Tables and chairs were clean but the sofa was tired looking and stained. Tatty COVID distance markings didn't help lift the feel of the place.

The food on offer seemed like it had been brought in from someone's kitchen larder with the cakes tasting dry and 'shop bought'.

It took several minutes to be served by someone stood a few feet from me with no other customers present. Another server was unsure of what some of the cakes were.

Tea was OK and hot but only just. Prices were however very low.

It's easy to see the potential in this place but also the difficulties and expense of operating it especially as trade is likely to be seasonal.

I'd love to see it thriving maybe as a more specialist eatery: ice creams in Summer, hot chocolate and locally made cakes in Winter maybe?

I sincerely hope that someone comes along to make a real go of the place. Until then, I doubt I'll...

Never coming back. I threw the order straight in the bin . I ordered Americano but was served instant coffee! They don’t even have a coffee machine. The receipt was handwritten on a piece of paper with only the sum not the actual price for each item — very unprofessional.

When I questioned about the prices, I was told £3.30 for the Americano, even though the menu says “coffee £2.50.” When I questioned it, she said, “That’s for coffee, not Americano” — even though Americano isn’t written anywhere on the menu . The hygiene was absolutely awful. The girl serving ice cream had long fake nails, scratching her face with them, then grabbed cups and even got her nails inside coffee cups. Her hair was hanging down into the ice cream counter — I honestly felt disgusted.

Completely unhygienic and misleading....

Hands down, the worst 'cafe' I've ever been to in my life. The building looks like something from the world of Jurassic park 2, it's obvious no one's spent a single penny on it since it was built. I didn't want to judge a book by it's cover though and gave it a chance. I went up to the till to order and the waitress was unbelievably rude, like she didn't want anyone there. My girlfriend got a hot chocolate which consisted of a single teaspoon of powder in hot water. I asked for a mocha which they didn't have, so I got a coffee which was literally just a spoonful of Nescafe in water. The tables weren't clean, the chairs were cheap and uncomfortable and for some reason the mugs were all different. There's such an opportunity for a nice cafe here, but this place just...