Tea List — Restaurant in Davis

Went here for a friend’s birthday. We made a reservation for three people in advance. We arrived on time for our reservation but they gave our table to another party of three who had a reservation for an earlier time but they were 45 minutes late for their reservation time. We felt this was unfair, considering they were significantly late for their reservation but we were on time. Isn’t that the point of a reservation? Anyway, the staff accommodated us by seating us at an alternate seating area that they share with a restaurant next door. This was nice because we actually had more privacy. The staff were attentive throughout our time there, checking on us quite frequently which we appreciated. They even provided us with a free pot of tea for the inconvenience. We each ordered the Queen’s tea. The tea servings were generous and there was quite a selection of teas to choose from. This included a charcuterie. The cheeses were delicious, although I was disappointed that the crackers included were merely saltine crackers. The tower was filled with small sandwiches and desserts. I felt the food was average, simple breads and pastries that I could have easily purchased at a grocery store. The cucumber sandwiches had a thin spread of cream cheese and one thinly sliced cucumber in each sandwich. The same could be said for the other sandwiches, a thin spread of cheese and a thin slice of salmon, etc. Our reservation was at 2 and at about 3:45 one of the servers came with our check and some boxes even though we were clearly not finished with our food or tea. They told us that the restaurant will be opening at 4:15 and we could certainly stay but we would have to move to an open table in the tea house, which they now had available for us or we could leave if we were finished. We stated that we would be done before 4:15. Overall, the food and service was average. The servers were definitely kind and apologetic for what occurred. If they had a stricter reservation policy perhaps this inconvenience could have been avoided. The decor was beautiful, which made up for this experience. I gave this place three stars because the staff were kind, but honestly if I was just rating the quality of food and tea service I would give it a two. These are things I could have easily made at home and possibly made better by shopping at a specialty grocery store. I believe the pricing is based on the experience because the tea house and decor was actually...

$40 for a fistful of food.

From what I'm reading of these reviews, my experience seems to be an exception. Let's hope so.

On our visit to tea list, my fiance and I ordered an afternoon tea to share.

We spent a total of 1 1/2 hours while at tea list, most of which was spent waiting - wondering where our food, and waitress, was. I'm not sure if it's because there was a large party inside (causing us to sit outside) but we were completely forgotten by the wait staff. It took nearly 30 minutes for the first (and only) scone to arrive, and by that time we had finished off our teas. There was no inquiry as to wether we wanted more tea and when we asked for water, that took 15 minutes to arrive. The refill (and we did specifically ask for it) never came.

You might be thinking "but you just said there was a large party inside, surely they had their hands full!" Well, yes, hypothetical stranger, that was the case. But their entire customer base consisted of the large party (who had been served) and two tables of two. The entire time we waited, neither of the other two tables were being attended either.

About an hour into the visit we were both tempted to leave the amount it would cost for two teas and a scone and leave. However, we decided to give the place the benefit of the doubt and sit around a while longer. The local stray seemed more attentive to us than our waitress.

Finally we were served our entree. Each sandwich was more bread than anything else (in fact on first glance I was sure we had just been served cute little hunks of baguette), and while we were miffed that the sandwiches were ant-sized, the food tasted alright and we figured that for 19.99 it was okay - but not great. If the service had been better we could have at least chalked it up to the fact that we were paying for the experience - but as that wasn't the case we were both feeling a bit aggravated.

I think the cherry on top was the fact that (because we were sharing) the bill somehow skyrocketed to 40$. 40$ for a fist full of food and a horrible experience. Hindsight, we should've left while paying for what little we had gotten in the hot we spent waiting.

We've both decided to never go back. I hope your experience (if you do decide to...

Very friendly and attentive staff, excellent at accommodating food allergies. Im rating 3 stars because of portion size for tea service comparing to cost. Sandwiches were really small and thin, not very much filling in the middle. Most sandwiches were on the white bread and tasted like it had been sitting a while because it had a crunch when bitting into them. Didn't care for salmon or chicken salad sandwiches, don't eat seafood and flavor and texture to chicken salad sandwiches were grainy and gross. The other 3 sandwiches, veggie, cucumber mint, and turkey were good but filling was scarce. Fruit was disappointing as well, most were sour and very thin slices. The desserts were very petite and sweet, reminded me of eating a spoonful of sugar when I was a kid. The scone was good, could have gone for two of those instead of dessert. We ended up doing the high tea instead of the afternoon tea because we wanted to try a variety of teas and our favorite ice tea was the mango black tea. We also enjoyed the hot peach black tea. For two it came out to $75 before tip and when we left, we were still hungry. Overall, it was a nice experience but I wouldn't return. Also, I read a prior review about celebrating their birthday there and the staff gave them an extra dessert and wished them a happy birthday; sad to say I didn't receive the same treatment, even though when reserving they ask if there was an occasion which I did specify it was for...