Emma's Tea Spot — Restaurant in Baltimore

I wrote a more extensive review on TripAdvisor for information purposes, but Google limited my characters so this is the short version. We used the Living Social deal for high tea for multiple people. I preface this by saying I have lived in London (not visited, lived) so I've had proper tea and another in our party has also had tea in London while visiting, so we're well aware of how tea should be. This tea was not up to standards. From reading other reviews and seeing the pictures, I now see there is a Living Social version of the tea and a full price version of the tea. For instance, other pictures of the tea in Google reviews have cute cupcakes, adorable iced cookies or petit fours. We received none of these and I wondered why until I went back through other reviews trying to determine why there are such good reviews and our tea was so bad. Apparently, when you use a deal like Living Social or Groupon, you don't get the cute cupcakes, cookies and petit fours, you only get mushy melon balls that tasted old and over sugary lemon or raspberry tarts, which I cannot eat due to the acidity of them which causes me problems with my acid reflux) but I wasn't allowed to customize because of the coupon. The macarons were the width of a quarter (bite size), the scones were not proper scones, (too crumbly) and we were served an unlabeled jam that looked like orange marmalade in an individual jar that was open, seal broken, little button in the lid popped up, open. Even though two of our party don't like cucumbers, we were not allowed to swap them with a different sandwich, as it would be an "upcharge." The next issue is that one in our party has celiac and must eat gluten free. We emailed Emma before even booking the tea and asked specifically about what items are available for a GF tea. We were told there was GF bread for sandwiches, no GF scones, but a soup or salad could be substituted and there were GF desserts. Emma was not there when we went and there was another male manager whose job is apparently to nickel and dime customers to the point of frustration. Now in the non GF tea, we had four different sandwiches. For the GF version, the gentleman told her she could only have one kind of sandwich because he can't cut the bread up or he'd "never sell" the other pieces. I am not out to demean anyone, but it isn't rocket science to cut the bread first then put the toppings in rather than making a whole sandwich with filling and cutting it into four triangles. Therefore, two pieces of bread for one person, one tea, nothing left to sell. To make matters worse, they have no idea about cross contamination, because when the tea was served, the GF sandwiches were literally touching the sandwiches made with regular bread. A seriously sensitive celiac person could end up very sick from that. They said they did have a GF lava cake, but that was also an upcharge, as it was presumably a whole mini bundt cake type thing and not a tea sized dessert, so we would have to pay extra. That contradicts what Emma said or Emma purposely mislead saying they have GF desserts, as they did have A GF lava cake but our email specifically asked about tea and therefore we were inquiring about items that would be served with tea, not purchased separately. Different sandwiches was an upcharge, salad instead of scone was an upcharge, GF dessert, upcharge. I would never return here just for feeling so nickel and dimed, we were entirely frustrated just from ordering (which is the first thing you do in the store). In addition, once we ordered, it took over 30 minutes after we ordered to even get the tea. It took a while longer for the food to arrive and the but the salad didn't come. We waited and waited until I finally had to go and ask for it and even then, it still took a bit. Two of us were finished with the food on the tea stand and the salad wasn't even out yet. If you pay full price, perhaps you're treated like the Queen of England, but with a coupon, you're just a peasant and the food, the upcharges, and the service...

Welp, I had high Hope's because I perused the menu before my visit, knew what I wanted and...there was only one guest ahead of me. Unfortunately that euphoria slowly dissipated, the second another 'tea party of 5 arrived w/youth 10 and under. It wasn't the kids that diminished my high...it was the front end staff! The adult guest was navigating cost and quantity, the cashier was not knowledgeable of the menu, cost, if one could share a mini or a high tea, etc. Soooo, the food preparer decided to chime in to assist them...mind you I placed my to go order at 1:24. In the interim, I had the displeasure watching the remaining party of the adult at the cashier window, play musical chairs-because Grandma(not an older GM) didn't want to sit at their assigned table. She made the kids scoot to another table without inquiring w/mgmt. When that didn't work because that table was reserved, they hoped to another- now...not only is that section unsanitary, so is the one they left, and the other they tried out before settling back into their initial reserved table. Me: still waiting for my 'to go' order-it's now 1:45 and they(the adult, cashier and meal prep person) have yet to decide. Finally, at 2:05, the meal preparer- unknown to me all of this time-starts prepping my order-which I realized she had just started. Unsure why all of this time, I didn't request a refund and departed. Guess, I was entertained by the musical chairs performance. By the time I did get my order - that the meal preparer asked someone else to pack up as she prepped the High tea/mini tea tiers- it was 2:14; oh..with no apology for the wait...what so ever. Now that did it for me; my extremely hot 'to go' tea was no more and my appetite went south. Hold up...this isn't the end. I proceed to my vehicle and thought...hmmmm, these bags are light (not that I expected an extra slice of quiche because of the long wait or a scone perhaps) but, I had ordered the soup, salad, etc.,.. whu when I opened the boxes I didn't see soup! After schlepping those bags to the car in the rear parking area, I had to get out and proceed on foot, back to the establishment for my soup! By then, another line had formed. I was done!!!! ,To my relief ( because it would not have been a good look) the proprietor took a much needed day off . Sadly, the team she left to manage did not use good judgement with regard to me and my order. The meal prepper should have intervened only to tell the cashier to ask them to have a seat and someone would take their order and answer any question at their table, while she proceeded with the order(s) at hand. At that point...every order after mine was backed up. At least they were seated. I was excited to learn they were opening in my community, supported Emma's grand opening, visited periodically to purchase the variety of loose tea, recommended them, etc. a. I support our local vendors. Guess I will have resume travel to PA's Tea Trolley for High Tea...

Very selective on big spenders as it’s pay and get served entity. If you are big group with big bill you may get served properly . We were there to celebrate our friend’s birthday ( group of 5 ) Invoice : north of 100 dollars plus .

Worst experience ever .

Awful setup was forgiven for the place being busy but ignorant service wasn’t.

We Didn’t get stuff that was paid for .

Our waitress came to inform that they were out of our soup . We told her the second option available was ok . It never arrived. When we went to ask for it ;without even a hint of apology , the girl said she already served us . We had to ask them to come to our table and check the bowls. Then she realized she hadn’t actually given our soup that we paid for already.

The service was really below par. My three year old niece is more attentive on what’s going on around than anyone working on Saturday 28th.

It also Seems like owner just doesn’t care. I read her reply on other reviews , She just blames it on being short staffed.

If it is short staff and if your business is struggling with your name on it , it’s about time you get your hands dirty , get back to help them . Not stay home and reply to negative reviews.

I really had high hope for this place. Really really disappointed.

POST OWNERS COMMENT:

If you read my review carefully I am trying to point out that your place was being biased towards big and small spenders. I am not trying to get refunds or future discounts.

It is really sad to see someone chitchatting “BIG “table and explaining ingredients while a table of 5 is waiting for their cutlery and food that they paid before them. I went up to ask for cutlery. Was brought up 4 sets for table of 5.

We ordered tea and scones to give girls ample time for preparation of our sandwiches. We were just trying to have good time without rushing anyone.

When asked about our pastries much later,we were told it will come with food.

It came after the sandwiches.

All this ,while they checked on the bigger table couple of times.

We totally understand the running of small cafe and particularly British tea culture (2 of us from the group spent 6 years in UK/ Ireland ) I really support small businesses especially during/after Covid . Often times most have messed up by being late, messing up orders , wrong food but it’s the attitude how they deal with. A simple fixing, a simple apology can turn around things much quicker than expected.

If you have one person working their butt off to make the sandwiches while three of the others are not even attempting to help then it’s not short staffing that’s the problem.

I really hope to see you do better as small cafes/ restaurants is all that we have left here to give that “small community living”vibe. Unfortunately I won’t be bringing my business to you ever again but...