Leland Tea Company - Burlingame — Restaurant in Burlingame

I'm surprised by the glowing reviews. My review is for tea service and I was left disappointed by bizarre charges, mediocre food, and ungracious service. For some context, I adore afternoon tea. I'll start with the good: the staff was friendly (but see below); the tea was lovely, with some really interesting blends (I had the fig black tea and enjoyed it); the scones were pretty good, although not as flavorful as I would have liked (I tried both kinds); the jam was really nice.

But I was disappointed with the small things that added up and made me feel like I was at the Spirit Airlines of tea houses. I've never been to afternoon tea where I'm charged for milk. They didn't even have dairy, so we were left with almond milk. It was laughable how little milk they brought out for one pot of tea. We didn't find out about the up-charge until we paid.

We were asked if we wanted to add lemon curd and clotted cream for a charge. We received literally a spoonful of each. The spoonful of curd was $3 and clotted cream a whopping $5. The lemon curd wasn't good. I love homemade lemon curd, so this was a bummer. Turns out it's thickened with corn starch, which is what made it taste off.

The last straw was having to pay the 3.5% credit card fee. I'm actually going to reach out to Visa about this one.

Half an hour before closing, the server brought out to-go cups for our tea and cleared the table because they needed to do the dishes. What?! If you want to go home earlier, change your hours. If I wanted tea in a to-go cup, I would've saved $50 and gone to Peet's.

Leland Tea has some odd ways of approaching tea service that certainly didn't feel like the gracious experiences I've had both locally and all over the world. I will not recommend Leland Tea to friends looking for delightful afternoon tea, but it seems fine for...

It’s hard to believe what happened at our tea service today. After arriving on time for our 2:30 reservation, we stood around awkwardly while servers ignored us. Eventually, we were seated and spoken to a couple of times but without any service. Finally after 40 minutes, we were given waters, but only after we requested them. Next came a plate of sweets—strangely before any sandwiches or real food—but which we ate hungrily, without any tea. We were finally served tea 10 minutes after that, after asking again. Then came another extended wait—for the sandwiches, salad, scones, etc. When they finally came out and we saw the bed of greens and no frills sandwiches, it made no sense why these items would take so long to serve. The whole experience felt like a slap in the face. Not to mention it was Mother’s Day and I was there to celebrate with my two small children, husband, and mother. The lack of transparency, planning and bare minimum level of execution on such a well-known busy holiday within the restaurant industry was simply shameful. In the end, after 2 hours of awkwardness and disappointment, a staff member, I’m guessing a management figure, came around to hobnob and when I tried to express my disappointment, he completely avoided any discussion of it. We left not only without any compensation for the extreme delay, but also without any accountability taken at all. We always try to be kind and understanding, but this went beyond understanding. The most bitter, disastrous tea/service I’ve ever...

I like the place and the atmosphere.

Less than enamored by the service/dining experience unfortunately. They ran out of clotted cream, which sucks but I guess is understandable, but neither did I receive butter or jelly/jam, which is a bit off putting. They also ran out of pesto so no tomatoes and cucumber sandwich. No big deal there, maybe just a bit disappointing; so I ordered the chicken salad and turkey and cheese. I received tuna salad instead. The food was tasty regardless so I didn't complain but simple service was a bit of a let down. Also dry scones are not fun.

That aside. I definitely recommend going. The atmosphere is very pleasant (for the most part). The tea selection is robust and varied and the afternoon tea I imagine in most cases is quite nice.

The tea house itself is great and I'll update this when I get around to trying the tea that I purchased from the store. It is a much needed spot here in the US so definitely kudos to them for...