The Empress Tea Room & Divine Menu Catering — Restaurant in Citrus Park

I would love to give this tea house five stars but much has changed since the last reviews. The location is different than the one addressed online. It is now in a hall like setting geared more towards weddings, baby showers, engagement parties, etc. With that being said, you do not get that cozy and comforting atmosphere feeling. Nor do you get the individualized catered feeling you get at a different location.

I walked into the building to what I can only describe as chaos. All the way in the back was a baby shower. To the left looked like a wedding or engagement party. To my right was a group of Red Hat ladies. Right in front of me seemed like a gathering or reunion. Then in the middle spread randomly throughout it seemed were the individual parties. I stood there for a good 15 or more minutes waiting to be greeted. Finally, a lady came who also appeared to be in charge. She sat us at the first table for two in the very front. We had a great view of the harp player on stage. Yes, a harp player. I was impressed with that, too. It was very loud due to all the various conversations being had and the lack of separate rooms for the parties. My guest and I had problems hearing each other so we just sat and ate. The waitress came over and asked us what kind of tea did we want. We were surprised to find out there were only two options. I wanted one option and my guest wanted the other. The waitress told us they only bring one pot out with one flavor to share at a time. This was odd to me as every other tea house gives everyone their own pot. What if one doesn't want that flavor at all the other person wanted? Do they have to wait for the other to finish in order to drink what they want? She agreed to bringing both after I made that point. The teas were pleasant. After tea, she brought out a two tier spread. I have only experienced the three tier spreads and prefer it that way. I felt the items on the second tier were being squished together to fit. The fruit or scones could be on a separate tier or plate from the rest. On the bottom tier were the scones and spread as well as the finger sandwiches. The chicken salad one is usually my second favorite but this time it was not. I think the chicken may have expired or turned. I was disappointed. My favorite sandwich is the cucumber sandwich. This one though had too much bread and not enough spread or cucumber. I recommend removing the top bread piece and putting a longer, thicker cucumber slice. The last two sandwiches neither my guest nor I liked. One was another spread. Not sure what kind but the spread was put on so lightly that you tasted mostly bread. The last sandwich was a pear sandwich. This was interesting and I thought had potential to be the best.. however, my pear was a little hard or stale. On the top tier were chocolate covered strawberries, fruit, etc. I just remembered things being on top of each other and not as nicely presented. When we were done, we had to wait for the lady who greeted us at the entrance to come over to our table to ring us up using her cell phone and a credit card charger adapter. One by one I watched her ring up the Red Hat ladies. There has to be a better less time consuming way to ring out guest. Maybe have them prepay online or over the phone during booking. Maybe set up a register. After we were rung up, we got an emailed receipt. When we left, we walked to my car. The parking was limited. People were parked on the grass as the lot is not big. They may have to make a bigger lot. I will not be returning to this venue until the group parties are separate from the private...

Went to this tea room with a women's club of about 20 with a friend. We were separated into two round tables where we stuffed 10 people. The atmosphere of the new events venue since covid looks very fancy, but the service and organization was underwhelming. Having large round tables for guests was very awkward, considering we had to stand up and bend far over to reach anything (you don't want to have to reach far when wearing nice dresses), and we only had one tea pot that couldn't fill every cup and had to get it refilled on the first round. There should have at least been two pots for each side to make it less awkward to serve ourselves and pass around the hot and fragile pot. Our server(s) also didn't seem very into it that day and were very forgetful (didn't tell us what kind of tea we were having until we asked, forgot to give us back our tea pot once the food tier finally came) and were a bit awkward working around us (tried to move in between us without warning to grab plates and move things around clumsily and spilled an overfilled pot of tea onto the table when attempting to pour into a cup for my friend lol Also why weren't we all served the same and had our cups filled at least for the first round instead of doing it ourselves? Idk just a peeve.) The tomato basil soup ran out before everyone could have a serving and one of our group had to choose the salad instead (but she was given a nice extra drink to make up for it at least). But the soup when delivered was room temperature at best and I couldn't even finish it as it was too weird eating cold soup. They didn't explain what the sides were on the table with the tea so all of us were asking each other what we had and were confused. Lol It was just a bit of a clumsy and awkward experience with less than enthused staff and service. You just expect a bit more when going to a nice tea experience since that's the bulk of what you're paying to be there for. The tea itself tasted like something you just grabbed off the shelf at a grocery store and wasn't anything special. As well as some of the snacks on the two tier. I won't be returning. But you might have a better experience having a party of two to have it be more intimate and try something new. But as someone who's done a couple other tea rooms, this was probably my...

Wow! Would have loved to have taken my 5 year old daughter to high tea at Empress Tea Room, but unfortunately it will not be happening. I bought a travelzoo deal to join friends of my daughter and mine for a high tea experience. When I called to book, she informed me about the one coupon per table rule. It says nothing about only one deal per table in the ad or description, not to mention that we aren't related, just friends. I said okay, but I already bought it. At that point, I was hoping that we could at least sit fairly close to each other. I was even considering using my coupon on another occasion with my daughter. But before I could make a decision in my head, she informed me that she would purposefully sit us as far away from each other as possible if I tried to use my coupon on the same day. I was so taken aback. I actually tried to reason with her and tell her politely how I felt that this was very bad for business. And she argued with me that it clearly states one coupon per table on the ad. I disagreed and she proceeded to say that she is holding a hard copy in her hand. I told her that hard copy did me no good when the website I have in front of me does not say that. I read the entire offer to her. I even offered to send her a picture. She refused. She then said she has been doing this for 5 years and has never had any trouble. Anyway, isn't the point of the coupon to get me in the door and wow me? SO I will come back and pay full price and tell others? No, according to her. She would be out of business if she let everyone with a coupon sit together. I politely told her that this has completely turned me off to her and her business and I will request a refund from travelzoo. The end point for me, though, is not even that she would only allow one coupon per table. I can partially get on board with that. But when she told me she would, on PURPOSE, sit us at opposite ends of the room, that was it for me. That is just bad business and unfortunately I will never give her business and will spread the word about how unkind she is. Might have been good, but we...