Malaya Tea Room — Restaurant in Alameda

Gf review! I’ll say the nice things first. Malaya Tea Room is a nice high tea experience. Each time I go I call and ask if they can do gf and they say YES. It’s relatively inexpensive compared to other high tea places in the bay. They have flavors for both picky and adventurous eaters, and their desserts change seasonally. What I like about them is that the desserts are usually gluten free; mango sago, ondeh ondeh, macarons, and chocolates. My parents got some of the items (not the macaron), in addition to a small slice of cake (they are not gf)— they also received scones and potato canapés and fruit, none of which I received. They SOMETIMES have gluten free bread for the sandwiches, plus gf crackers. They have a summer item (this cost extra— not included) of Air Batu Campur which is shaved ice with toppings: red bean, sweet corn, pandan jelly, grass jelly, rose syrup, coconut palm sugar, and evaporated milk. It’s gf and refreshing! Overall the staff seems aware and knowledgeable about what gf is. Staff is very friendly. Service is good.

Here are the critiques: My one chief complaint is that I didn’t get any fruit but my parents did— since when is fruit glutinous??? This, in addition to not having gf scones or canapés (even though the price of the meal includes the scone and canapés whether or not you receive it). They offered neither to replace fruit nor scone and canapés with another gf sandwich flavor, or an gf extra dessert. So the lack of fruit and scone with no replacement makes it $35 for two sandwiches, three small (SMALL) desserts, and tea. It was good but just disappointing that they did not want to substitute either. You can check out the other pictures posted here to see the difference of how much food regular diners get here vs what I got.

Did not get glutened.

If you want a gluten free tea, you MUST call and tell them beforehand when you make the reservation so that they can buy gf bread, as they don’t...

My friend wanted to have Malaysian tea at Malaya for her birthday, but there weren’t any reservations available online. Luckily the owner Leena responded promptly to my email and booked an outdoor table for us. She warned us that it’ll be a bit chilly so we wore thick coats; they provided one small heat lamp for one side of the table and offered blankets too, but we didn’t use the blankets. My favorites were the meat floss with basil spread sandwich and the Malaysian pull tea. Each sandwich flavor comes with 4 slices. The Malaysian tea was strong and sweet. We also enjoyed the apple cider tea and no. 24 tea with passionfruit and mango, and requested almond milk and sugar for our tea. Our server recommended the flowering tea too, but that one had an unpleasant flavor so they were nice to let us switch it out for their Malaya English breakfast blend (they were out of the Malaya signature golden monkey tea that I wanted to try). For my friend’s birthday they surprised us with an ice cream mochi with a candle and two Pocky sticks. This was the first time we actually got full from afternoon tea. Their scones were good too and we barely finished the desserts. We were thinking it’s good that they are waiting until the end to bring us our pull tea, but realized they forgot the tea since they brought us the bill and charged us for the tea, so they brought the tea over. The three of us shared one tea to try which was perfect since we were full. I’d get one for myself next time; the Malaysian pull tea is available on weekends only. It’s a small space with one bathroom, so it can feel tight and cramped inside. I liked the outdoor table. The only issue was we felt rushed to leave; at first another staff member came over to tell us that we can have the table as long as we wanted because there’s no reservation after ours, but then he suddenly came over to tell us we had to leave in 10 minutes because another party...

Booked an appointment here on Monday and was able to grab a spot for 3:30pm on Saturday. I was surprised because it's Valentine's Day weekend!

We each got the $33 afternoon tea. The price is very good compared to prices in SF and other parts of the Bay. For tea, we got the No. 44 (peaches and cream) which smelled so nice if you love fruity teas (but it wasn't overly fruity) as well as a classic earl grey with vanilla (the staff recommended vanilla over lavender earl grey). There's lots to choose from, from black to green to herbal teas. We also got a Malaysian pulled milk tea to share. From experience I know it can pack a punch in terms of caffeine. It was hot and creamy! Loved it.

Sandwiches: Curry chicken - While the layer of meat is quite thin, you can definitely taste the flavor. This was my favorite Malaysian flavor.

Fig, brie and turkey - This was my favorite traditional flavor. The sweet fig jam and the brie went together so well!

Beef jerky - The beef jerky reminded me of Vietnamese sweet beef jerky. I think it comes with a butter spread, and I love salty and sweet combinations.

Salmon - this was shred up, quality smoked salmon. We could barely taste the dill, it felt like just fish.

Scones - This is my favorite part of every afternoon tea, and this does not disappoint. It is perfectly crumbly and moist, and I loved the honey glaze on top. Pack on the clotted cream!

Sweets - I think there was pandan bread, a fruit tart, and little yogurt cups. They were all really good, I liked the Asian twist.

The service was so friendly! I thought it was a bit weird that you had to ring the bell to flag someone down (it's a covid precaution and I completely understand--just felt funny grabbing someone's attention with the bell). They checked up on us often even when we did not ring the bell.

No-shows get a $25 cancellation fee per person.

I would...