Lily's & Elise Tea House — Restaurant in Detroit

The Perfect Place for a Bridgerton Birthday Brunch!😊 I reached out to Lily’s and Elise when I was planning my 24th birthday brunch. I was looking for a brunch spot with good food (especially sweets), cute photo ops (preferably pink), and peanut / tree nut accommodations. Lily’s and Elise checked all the boxes. They were very kind from the first phone call. I made a reservation on their website, but didn’t receive a link to make a deposit to hold the reservation, so I emailed them, and they sent over the payment link. I think Open Table has been having some glitches with reservations, so I just recommend reaching out via email to Lily’s and Elise if you don’t receive a payment link to make your deposit and secure your spot. They offer different kinds of tea services such as afternoon tea, high tea, and petite tea. These include things like specific sandwiches, soups, salads, desserts, and pots of tea. The sandwiches and desserts are served on a cute tower. I didn’t know if everyone I was inviting would like the specific sandwiches in the tea service though (egg salad or turkey), so I asked Lily’s and Elise ahead of time if we could order from the a la cart menu where you can pick out what breakfast or lunch food you would like as well as a cup of tea or coffee. I asked if I could also have a tower with just desserts on it (normally towers are only included in a tea service) and they made an exception and simply charged me a fee for the desserts. They answered all of my questions so kindly as we emailed back and forth. Everyone loved the cheddar broccoli potato soup, Lily’s garden salad, and Michigan Apple Salad. We all thought the sandwiches were okay. Not great but not bad. Most of us ordered Lunch Combo #2 which included a soup, salad, and mini sandwich so that we could try a little bit of everything. I loved the candy rose latte and all the girls loved their cups of tea. The dessert tower had really tasty éclair puffs and little cups of the best pudding I’ve ever tasted, plus macarons, cheesecake bites, and mini cannolis. The eclairs and cheesecake bites had a little cute pink and gold edible glitter on them and the whole tower had some yellow and orange edible petals on it. Everything is made fresh in house so it can take a little bit of time for food to come out but it is worth it and gives you more time to talk and catch up. The plates were pink flowers and there were fresh carnations in vases on the table. The teacups were all beautiful and they even folded the pink napkins into hearts for my special day. I told them how much I loved Bridgerton beforehand, and they put on a Bridgerton playlist while we ate! I seriously appreciated these cute thoughtful little details. They even made a mini dessert tower for my two friends with nut allergies to ensure that they could safely enjoy their sweets. We ate, exchanged gifts, and then took cute photos with the gorgeous pink tree and floral photobooth. They have a gold butterfly and cute fireplace too. Even their bathroom was gorgeous with flower wallpaper and a golden goose sink. I ended up paying $337 total with a 25% tip automatically included. I think this price is decent for 7 girls to eat a meal, have a cup of tea, and the dessert tower which gave everyone 3 desserts. You need to put down a $25 deposit for each person to secure your reservation. The deposit goes towards the final bill. The bottom line is that the food and tea is very tasty, you can take a lot of cute photos, and there are very cute, thoughtful details in every piece of the place. I would recommend planning a birthday brunch, breakfast, or lunch with Lily’s and Elise and reaching out to them via email to ask questions and confirm things! They are a tiny bit understaffed at the moment so it can take a second to receive a response. If this happens, just reach back out and they will respond. I will definitely be coming back to Lily’s and Elise! I think I want to bring my mom and try a...

Today was my very first, and only, visit to Lily’s and Elise tea room. The reservations process is cumbersome, misleading, and rigid. My initial call to rsvp, I was told I would need to leave a $50 deposit, and that I’d receive a text with payment link. I did not. When I called back a few days later to report I’d never gotten the link I was told no problem, they’d send it again. They did, only it was for the full price of the 2 person meal. I called back and was told I could NOT leave a $50 deposit as I had chosen my tea level High Tea at $65 ( plus taxes, fees and gratuities ). When I stated I only wanted to pay for my own and not both I was told @ you’ll have to figure it out between myself & my friend. If this hadn’t have been for a special occasion, my friend’s birthday, I would have told the young ( unhelpful ) lady “ actually, I have figured it out-I’ll go somewhere else & spend my hard earned money there. So I cancelled the High Tea reservation, and made a “undecided “ one. I was able to leave a $50 deposit that way.

When we arrived, we were made to wait at least 8 minutes to be seated. There were only 6 other patrons in the whole place. We were seated, and after we asked some questions about the menu, we were made to wait 15-20? minutes before the waitress? came to take our tea order. After some back and forth over the unexplainable reasoning why “the table” could only order 3 teas ( not each individual ) , and much attitude from both the waitress AND the manager, we each ordered a tea. My friend ordered a blooming tea. When she received it, it had already bloomed. When she commented about this to the manager, she was rudely told “ it’s still blooming “. No, no it wasn’t. My tea was no where to be found. Salads were brought out, I still had no tea, and we had no silverware to eat our salads with 😡 My friend went up to the counter and was told “just a minute” we’ll bring you some silverware. It was more than a minute. The salad was delicious. Soups were served ( mine was lukewarm ), delicious but VERY spicy, a warning about that would have been nice.

We were not allowed to choose differing sandwiches, but given the choice 3 of 8? ones to choose from. Seriously…..w.t.f. The rigid and convoluted rules for a VERY expensive High Tea are absolutely ridiculous. We could have gone to The Whitney for that price and would have gotten Mimosas with our Tea for that price point.

At every contract point with staff it was slow, unconcerned, and with the waitress, don’t give a shit attitude. It was made VERY clear to us that we were NOT valued as customers. The price charged for our meal was inflated, not because it wasn’t tasty ( it was ! ), but because of the abysmal service and attitude we encountered. The decor is cute. But the setting is in an uninteresting strip mall, certainly nothing special.

The check out process is cumbersome and, rigid. They refused to give us separate checks . Seriously, WHAT is the issue with this ??? We had to ask for our check. We had to ask the waitress to clear the dirty dishes from the table. I am flabbergasted about the lack of service we received, or appreciation for the $ we spent. In these tough economic times, the money I paid to be treated so poorly is VERY disappointing.

My friend and I have traveled all over Michigan, Ohio and Ontario to enjoy Tea. Our experience today was THE WORST and one of the most expensive we’ve had. We would have walked out if it weren’t for the fact that I made a deposit.

Pro’s, very tasty food. Large selection of tea. Cute decor. Roomy and clean bathroom.

Con’s, see above.

I’ll not be back ( and I’m sure they don’t care ), and I certainly will never recommend this Tea...

My friends and I were looking forward to dressing up and enjoying a high tea experience. Prior to making the reservation and while making the reservation, we inquired about the gluten free options for my friend. We were told that they could make any of the sandwiches on gluten free bread. My friend also called three days before our reservation to confirm that they would be able to accommodate her gluten allergy and she was told yes. We arrived for our 12 pm reservation and were seated. We had pre-paid for the afternoon tea experience so we ordered our teas and sandwiches. At around 1:15 pm our waitress came over to our table to tell my friend that they ran out of gluten free bread and offered her a soup or salad instead of the sandwiches. This was very upsetting considering our inquiry about gluten free options. If the kitchen knew they were out of gluten free bread and did not get their delivery on time they should have told the staff and either called us to reschedule or ran out and bought some gluten free bread. My friend did not pay $65 for a soup or salad and a few pastries. We asked to speak to the manager. The manager apologized and told my friend she would take care of her meal. She returned a few minutes later and said they got the gluten free bread and would be making the sandwiches. Finally at 2 pm when our tea was all gone we got our sandwiches and pastries. At 2:15 pm, one of the waitresses came over to our table and said we had 10 minutes to vacate the table as the next reservation was coming in. She said there was a 90 minute time limit per seating. We were in shock! We waited two hours for our food then once we got our food we were given to go boxes and rushed out. What terrible customer service! We went up to the counter to talk to the manager again. We told the manager what happened and she apologized stating it was a misunderstanding as she saw what time our tower came out. The staff need to be trained on good customer service. I have never in my life been rushed out of a restaurant especially when it’s the restaurants fault that I had to wait so long.

The place is nicely decorated, the tea and food were good but the customer service is severely lacking. We paid a lot of money to be treated poorly and have our experience ruined by poor planning in the kitchen and poorly trained staff. I will never return to Lily’s and Elise and do not recommend this establishment to anyone. Go spend your hard earned money...