Tuck Box — Restaurant in Carmel-by-the-Sea

Absolutely atrocious place if you came to eat, drink, or be merry. None of the above will happen here at Tuck Box. Carmel by the Sea really needs to be alerted to this hazard of a restaurant if you can call it that. Do not be beguiled by the lovely, fairytale exterior, for inside you will find an experience fit for a Brothers Grimm story akin to Hansel and Gretel.,Never in all my years have I had worse service. Truly Unbelievable. From the cash only, which should have been a red flag and was, (you should always listen to your gut instinct!) , to the minimum of $7.00 per person order. Huh? What are we living in communist China? Really? We are customers paying for service. Hello! The place was run down, dingy and old. The tables were not clean and too high. The music was loud and way off point for the tea room theme….. The waitress looked like she just came back from a grueling set of hot yoga, wearing black tight leggings and t shirt and had a demeanor of someone with a bad case of pms or had severe menopausal issues. Really awful attitude, rude and embarrassing to say the least. Her little sidekick was equally as rude, prancing around banging dishes and things in the area where people were trying to eat. So unprofessional and off putting. They proceeded to talk so obnoxiously loud to each other on personal issues right in front of customers? Using slang language to boot. It was really unfathomable. Then an unsavory male from the back kitchen area decided to make an obviously contrived appearance. Looking very suspicious…. Carrying in tea pots to the side shelf all the while side eyeing my daughters? Outrageous! Then another unsavory male proceeded to lurk around the hall way corner whilst peeking at us as we ate, which was very disturbing behavior! The tea was nothing special it was on a plate wrapped in cling wrap, the unbecoming server tossed on the table for us to pick from …. We also had to order something to reach their criteria of $7.00 minimum to which she begrudgingly allowed us to share a plate of scones, which were not scones at all but some kind of dry cake fried crispy on the outside. Not scones! Atrocious from beginning to end. I could not wait to get out of there. We literally made a run for it and I am not joking…. This place honestly is a disgrace to the good name of Carmel by the Sea. Do yourself a favor and save your cash for literally anything else. This is place is not fit for a troll under the bridge. Disgrace of a place. Don’t do it. Vile place. Foul service! It should aptly be renamed HANSEL and GRETEL’s HOUSE OF HORRORS TEA HOUSE. WHERE YOU TUCK and RUN. You think she got a tip? Not on...

we went to tuck box because the outside building seemed so inviting and cute. we had high expectations but were massively let down by the service and actually everything else. we were hoping to sit down and have some unique mid afternoon tea, but there was just regular store bought tea you can find at any store? the waitress we got was not only unprofessional but extremely rude and short toward us. we just wanted to order some tea but were rudely told that we needed to order food… i ordered one scone with our tea and the waitress said “yeah that’s fine i guess”… im not sure what the big issue was or why we had to order food? she set things down on our table roughly and seemed mad. there was also a minimum of $7 per person and cash only. odd. we were charged $25 dollars for 3 people to have one! bag of tea, some marmalade and one! scone (that wasn’t even a scone?). the waitresses and other staff were heard gossiping around the corner, using curse words, and talking loudly. the waitress was unbelievably unfriendly and every other word from here was an “mhm”. it seemed she was very upset that we only wanted to order one scone. to top this off, there were also 2 men from the kitchen staff peeking around from the back area at us every few minutes, not sure why but they were and it was off putting. i would not recommend anyone to dine here or if you’re just wanting afternoon tea, don’t even think about going in unless you want to be treated like a dog. we were treated like absolute burdens and not paying customers. we are so disappointed and sad that this place was such a let down. very unfortunate, with new staff or ownership it could...

I talked this place up for months to my family and was extremely disappointed. I went to the tuck box for the first time a few years ago and had a fantastic experience, so when my family was out for vacation I added it to the list of must do's. We were however treated very aggressively and rudely by the female owner upon arriving. The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived and I asked for a table for 7, they said they could only accommodate the request inside since the patio was filled, I said ok no problem. In the meantime one of guests didn't feel comfortable having a baby inside (due to covid), so I requested if we could split the group between a table outside and one inside. I didnt think this was a odd request since the place was almost empty and they had one empty table outside. The owner then became irate, saying I got this table ready inside for seven (which was actually a table for 5, with two extra chairs jamed in). She became very combative and said the party couldn't be split and argued for at least 5-10 minutes makes a huge scene. The whole restaurant was watching her at this point. Finally she agreed that we could get two tables. The poor waitress stood there looking embarrassed and apologized once the owner left. The food was fantastic but the encounter with the owner ruined the whole experience. She tried to made up for it later by being overly friendly and fake, but she never apologized for her actions. I'll never come back. it was so bad we are still talking about this encounter days later, be warned she will ruin your day like she did ours. I've never been treated so rudely and regret stay and giving...