The Vintage Tea and Cake Company Belmont — Restaurant in Belmont

TLDR: I won't be returning to this location. The tea was decent. The food mediocre.

Longer version: I am a practiced afternoon tea person. It's a been regular part of my life since 2016 and also is very culturally syntonic for me. So read this review with that context in mind.

In late 2024, I tried to schedule with this place but their interface was slightly different at the time. I was told there was no availability at the Belmont tea room so I asked if there was anything at their Lexington tea room and I received no response. At the time, I thought, business must be great if you can afford not to follow-up with customers. I decided to give it another try mid February because my regular tea room is now priced even beyond what the best afternoon tea in New York City costs and I have continued to find it challenging to justify the cost for the fare.

At $30pp + tax and gratuity, I thought it was worth a try and I was happy to see there was a new scheduling interface in place. To be honest I don't understand the numbered tables and still never received an explanation about which table was what number after arriving so booking the "any staff" option was fine for me.

Atmosphere: It's a very cute spot, small and intimate with teacups along the walls. I loved the look of the place and there was French music I recognized playing the background. The servers were lovely and friendly and seated my friend a few minutes before I arrived.

Tea: The tea was good. I have no complaints and they had a nice selection. I do wish the tea pots had cozy's or a different way to keep the tea hot. My personal preference is to not have additional hot water added to a batch because it waters it down.

Food: Here is where I was pretty disappointed. The scones made no sense. They were all dry, there was something weird and sugary on one of them that was beyond a basic glaze and they were not warm. The sandwiches were "fine," and the desserts, were "okay." I also do not think it makes sense to post a menu if it does not match. Only the GF menu had a note that substitutions may occur. I won't go ahead and say too much more, it's easy to get the point across that it was very okay. I saw some reviews that said it was not worth the price but I will say, it's probably the cheapest afternoon tea you will get around here. My concern is that they are trying to turn around so much service at this cost that the quality is suffering or at least is inconsistent as I saw some reviews that were similar in opinion to mine and some that were glowing. Also need to account for the fact that some people are not as selective in their preferences/palettes.

I am hoping to try the Lexington Tea Room to see if there is a difference in quality. It...

A smaller tea room with some nice decor. We were a group of 3 that shared one order of tea and the standard finger sandwiches. Our tab was $90 before tax and tip. The bill was outrageous for the service. The food was okay. For context, I recently went to Jolie tea company in Salem (last weekend) and the Boston public library tea room (Jan 2022). Both of these experiences were worth the price for service, tact, and quality of offerings.

I probably won’t come back, but would if there was a revamp to the service and a small refresh to the food!

Service:

If they cut back the number of seats to improve the service I think this may have been a 4 star review. We attended the 10am seating on a Sunday and all tables were full. There was only one waiter helping all of the guests. I would estimate there were about 15 guests the waiter was tending to. We waited 20 minutes before we were asked what we’d like to have to drink. We felt rushed to make decisions and the service was missing some tact considering how much we paid to have the experience.

Food & Tea: The tea was delicious! We ordered the Buckingham Palace tea. We ordered the standard offerings for fingerling sandwiches. The sandwiches were okay but the desserts had options for those with a sweet tooth and those without. The cucumber sandwich had the thinnest layer of cream cheese, the prosciutto sandwich had what tasted to me like apple sauce? Again, for the price I’d expect some kind of jam, not applesauce. I was anticipating unique flavor combinations from the finger sandwiches for the price. The dessert came with 3 of each of the following: blueberry scone, a lemon curd filled pastry, mini raspberry muffin?, salted caramel chocolate tart, and a macaron.

Ambiance: The music was lovely! Light string instrumentals of pop hits. It was light and bright and the tea settings...

We joined the Vintage Tea and Cake Co. for a 12pm reservation and were very underwhelmed.

We sat for a -solid half hour- without so much as a menu - watching the waitress, who was kind, do one task at a time and disappear into the back. My husband had to go up to the front to double check that we were going to get menus. My husband also noted gluten free requirements on the email and also the reservation itself, but the staff at the front stated they had to check if they would be able to accommodate. What??

They eventually, several minutes later, said they could and finally took our tea order.

I really, honestly, TRULY do not like to knock another small business because I am one. So take it to mean something that my review is two stars.

The food was mediocre at most. The madeleines were very clearly packaged from Trader Joe’s (!!), the brownie chunks cold and strongly suggesting having just being thawed. Little sandwiches were acceptable with sparse filling. Scones were quite good. For $60 there was not a lot of food at all. Like, I feel really cheated.

I don’t want to be a dick, but I don’t know that I see the rest of the five-star reviews. I don’t get it at all. The decor is cute initially, but shabby if you spend more than two seconds looking at it. Tape on the ceiling, half wallpapered wall, dusty teapots. There was a subtle musty odor subliminally permeating the air the entire time.

The waitress was very nice, and I do think they’re trying, but the model clearly overwhelms the present staff and doesn’t suffice to accommodate customers properly. For how long we waited before eating (over an hour), something should have been done to appease. Absolutely wouldn’t return, especially...