Garden View Tea Room — Restaurant in Bay Lake

Enjoyed a lovely Sunday afternoon high tea! Lately my friend and I have been really into going to high tea. We have been to several high tea type experiences all around Orlando and I have to say if you are looking for a relaxing and luxurious afternoon, the Garden View Tea Room at the Grand Floridian is a great choice! We both ordered the most basic level "package" which is called The Bedfordshire Tea. It comes with a pot of tea, small plate of assorted finger sandwiches, a scone with accompaniments and jam tartlet, and a choice of dessert. We both opted for the pastry plate dessert option which ended up being a super solid choice. Each order of the pastry dessert came with one cream puff swan, two macarons, and a chocolate covered strawberry.

A couple of things to keep in mind when you go are, yes it is Disney pricing which means it is not cheap, every person must order their own tea "package", and it's not necessarily meant to replace a meal. The price for this high tea is definitely expensive but it didn't really bother us since we were expecting that to be the case at Disney. There was plenty of food but most of the items were sweet so I would recommend at least eating a good breakfast before you go. The tea sandwiches were absolutely delicious and our favorite part of experience. I would definitely recommend that each person get a different kind of tea so you can share with the people at your table and try different options. Each person gets a whole pot (which is a lot of tea) so you will be able to have several cups over the course of the afternoon. When we went we tried the Fig & Rose White Tea and the Perfect Afternoon which is a black tea. Both were very good. We also saw a table with french press coffees instead of tea pots so if you prefer coffee to tea that would be worth asking about.

There were a few things about the experience that we think could be improved. The first thing is the tea pot jackets. The idea behind giving everyone a cover for their tea pot to keep it warm is definitely awesome and they worked for sure, however the covers we had were honestly pretty dirty and stained. It really grossed me out at times and took away from the experience feeling more high end. We also both thought that the jam for the scone and the tartlet tasted very artificial, neither were very appetizing (the lemon curd on the other hand was amazing!). We also thought the selection of teas was a little bit limited and it would have been nice to see a few more caffeine free options. I would also highly recommend bringing a jacket when you go, the temperature inside the Garden View Tea Room was verrrryyy chilly when we were there. I run hot most of the time and by the end I was ready to get out in the sun for a few minutes to warm up.

Overall though it really was such a nice experience. Our server was great, super professional and helpful. If you have allergies or food aversions let them know, they seemed very willing to make substations and adjustments. I think the afternoon tea provides a must needed peaceful and relaxing retreat from the craziness of Disney and I definitely would recommend...

We head to the Garden View Tea Room at least twice a year as part of high tea experience and we make a whole day of it. Being annual pass holders helps us do this as we head to one of the parks after we've had our tea. This tea experience is fantastic. From the large selection of gourmet teas to choose from, we usually go with a group of us and each select a different tea for the group to sample from. Since we've had the chance to sample so many of them, I can say that they are all enjoyable. There are a few different types of tea service to choose from with some including cheeses and other food options. During our most recent visit, we got the standard tea which comes with some sandwiches and deserts to enjoy with your tea. Overall, with the atmosphere of the Grand Floridian, and the execution of this as a high tea experience, you can't go wrong with a tea time at Garden...

The food is by far delicious. However, they didn't have the item I wanted to order originally, even though it was on the menu. This would have been fine, except that it took 20 minutes after I placed the order for them realize that they didn't have it and then come ask me what I wanted instead. Then we had to wait another lengthy period of time before actually getting our food. The waitress was nice, but clearly not attentive to us and often forgot to fill one person's glass with water. She said that it was just very busy that night, but honestly, it wasn't like the place was over flowing. It was a full house at Disney, they should have a well oiled process. I have a feeling that it was isolated to the one waitress. The food served here is identical to the restaurant onsite, but cheaper, which is why we opted here instead. I'd be willing to give it another go, for the sake...