McHugh Tea Room & Gifts — Restaurant in Bellaire

The atmosphere was really nice, very relaxed and I love the big windows and no direct sun. The decor is fantastic, everything has so much thought put into it. I mean, even the hanging lights above the tables have teacups! The gift shop portion is really neat, if you have a tea geek, or are one yourself, you could definitely find something. Everything was super clean too, the bathrooms were well-kept and each table was neatly taken care of. The staff is great, they know their menus and teas very well and are super chill. Our waitress was very patient and nice, she was totally willing to start up mini conversations about tea cups or give you more information about tea. I even had a long, in-depth coversation with the manager (i wish i could remember his name) just about tea and the buissness, I really enjoyed it too. He could tell you the history of the store and some of thier decorations. You guys should really check out their website, it has the full menu and a whole bunch of other resources like donating old tea sets or purchasing more teas. The teas were awesome, the asortment and blends that they have are amazing. If you like a particular tea, you can buy a bag of it, the pricing of the tea is fair when you consider that a professional tea blender (not kidding, that dude actually took a class and everything) made that flavor. There is a wall in the entry that has a whole bunch of tea blends that you can smell, i didn't get a picture of it unfortunately, but its super cool. I got the Masala Chai (a lovely spice tea that tasted amazing and is probably my favorite), the Blood Orange (a citrus tea that didnt quite strike my fancy), and the black currant (an amazing floral black tea with a slight berry flavor and very rich in tone). Keep in mind that certain teas are sold seasonally, I really liked the Hojicha tea but they were going to stop making it because it didn't go over well with some people, so i bought a bag of it and it'll last me ages. One thing I really liked was the varietyin thier tea cups, each one is different in look, style, and era. It's a lot of fun to discuss eachothers cup and learn a bit about that time. The food was great, tasty and very filling. I got the chicken salad and it was good and little spicy, which I liked. I didn't try any of their sweets this time around but I'll leave another review when I do :) The pricing, to my cheapskate mind, is pretty big but it is fair when you think about all the effort and time it takes to make that experience really memorable and enjoyable. If you're looking for a place to just pick up tea, the teas are phenomenal so no shame there, you can but please give this place you're time. All I'll say is that it is a different experience. Thank you for reading! I hope that...

Disappointed and bamboozled -

This review is specific to the specialty Christmas tea offering.

We went this morning with young ones in tow for our first experience at McHugh’s. We left feeling disappointed and bamboozled.

Be aware the listed price of “begins at $45” will actually set you back $55 per person for essentially a kids menu. Both the food quantity as well as quality was absolutely not up to par for that price.

As the manager stated in a previous review response - that $55 price IS listed online, but you have to click three different places to find it. Tucking it away like that is not transparent advertising.

AND despite what is stated on their website, no one confirmed this new price of $55 when we booked our reservation. It felt like a bait and switch to us.

The service, while friendly, was slow despite the restaurant being less than half full. We were never offered waters but saw other tables readily receiving them.

The “freshly baked scones” were falling apart and were not served with the advertised clotted cream and jam. Not even butter was offered.

The desserts, as you can see below are meager: Halved strawberries with icing piped on top. For $55?

We both felt bamboozled.

There is a reason no one else in the restaurant ordered the Christmas special.

It is noticeably meager compared to the regular tea and yet costs more money..?

When the quality and quantity of the food was brought to the attention of the manager she took an argumentative tone, stating everything was accurately listed on their website. The insinuation was that it was somehow our fault that we didn’t realize we were getting a kids menu for $55 pp. Her tone and response were really inappropriate.

Buyer beware.

We will...

A hidden and remarkable gem tucked away near Chinatown! Ever since having high tea at Balmoral in Edinburgh, our expectations for high tea have been elevated. McHugh Tea did not disappoint and we are excited to have something like this in Houston!

We went for afternoon high tea on a Saturday for our anniversary. I called the day before to make reservations over the phone and it was super easy. Parking was plentiful in front of the shop (they have a large parking lot).

My husband is vegetarian so we requested that the high tea have vegetarian sandwiches. There were three types - cucumber/cream cheese, savory cheese and a vegetarian salad sandwich instead of chicken salad. The sandwiches were all yummy and the savory cheese was as authentic as it comes. It also came with two scones (a bit bigger than macarons) that were cranberry/orange and matcha. They came with clotted cream, strawberry jam and lemon curd. The scones were very light and fluffy and served warm. While I’ve had clotted cream and strawberry jam frequently, I have never had lemon curd and it was a pleasant combination! The small desserts were a good addition to the teas.

I’m terms of the teas, they had a great selection of white, black, oolong and green teas. We picked the Silver needle (white tea), Honeysuckle Fig (oolong) and Pu-erh teas. Our waitress guided us on the order to drink the tea and it was very helpful because we enjoyed the flavors more. The Honeysuckle Fig was unanimously our favorite as it had a natural sweetener.

Overall, we had a great time and plan on...