Pinecone Cottage Tea House — Restaurant in Downers Grove

Buyer beware!!!! Not only was the price of 35 dollars for the high tea absolutely outrageous for the food you got, but the food was underwhelming is an understatement! I went there today with my aunt, and could not believe the ridiculous pricing! Not to mention, most McDonald's are more sanitary! My first complaint is that the tables are preset and you have no idea what could have touched your dishes before you walked in.

Secondly, I asked for a straw, they don't offer them, which would have been nice of them to say up front. I asked instead for an extra coffee cup for my water (for a health reason I'm very leary of drinking out of glasses made of glass), apparently that was not an option either, so no water for me.

Thirdly, the cucumber soup was mediocre at best, and no alternatives are given. The sandwiches were awful. They gave you four different TINY sandwiches. Two of which had mayonnaise in them, another one was a bread pudding ish thing. No spices used at all. The mango one was tasty.

A clean plate was never given to us for such sandwiches, so had to use the unsanitary plate that had been sitting there for who knows how long. The baked goods were ok, but not 35 dollars ok.

Fourth, DISGUSTING bathrooms with mouse traps in there, which is telling me there are probably rodents in the kitchen as well.

Then we get to the check, which made me the most agitated. I politely asked them to split the check, the waitress was extremely rude and insisted to charge us an extra 3 dollars to split the check, trying to say that in order to run cards, it costs too much otherwise. Ok, whatever, 3 dollars is better than having to pay the whole check, ( my elderly aunt paying the whole thing would've been the other option) So I told her specifically to put the 3 dollara on mine, and she dosent. She makes a big stink about having to recalculate the bill.

In conclusion this small business is not only lazy but truly does not care about its patrons. It is unsanitary, expensive, and all...

Fair to abysmal.

First off, we waited at least 10 minutes to see a server. It took a further 20 to get a pot of tea and a hot chocolate. We finally got the first part of our afternoon tea nearly one hour after walking in there. This is in a restaurant with 8 tables, one of which seems to be used as an office.

The tea started with soup. A cauliflower soup, which to my mind was too salty. But I recognize that may well be personal taste. Next came the savory part of the tea; with a gingerbread scone and pumpkin devon cream - more dessert than savory. A curried apricot/ginger/pineapple sandwich was a confusing mix; too sweet to be savory (although the bread was truly delicious). The final course was the ‘dessert’ course and if you weren’t too keen on spice based flavors, you would be out of luck.

My observations were these; service - two speeds, dead slow and stop. People being turned away because of being “fully” booked. While no one likes to be hurried through their meal, had things been handled more efficiently, tables could have been turned more regularly. Also in a restaurant of 8 tables, using one of those as office space means losing about 12% of turnover.

Also, why oh why, when so many people LOVE chocolate, were there no chocolate dessert options?

In short; a quaint place with molasses speed service, zero warmth (literally and figuratively, I saw people putting jackets and coats on and the only friendly comments were on leaving)with a seriously confused afternoon tea menu. If this place is struggling financially, it really wouldn’t surprise me. I am sad. I hoped we would find an afternoon tea gem and instead it was somewhere we’ll laugh about never...

Disappointed. SERVICE: For such a small charming space, I expected more personal service. How is there no one around to greet us when we walk in? We have to wander toward the back to find someone to tell us where our seat is? And then we got lucky because it happened to be right next to the work table. Despite being essentially right next to the work table/pick up counter/kitchen door we still weren’t greeted with a welcome or introduction for 10 minutes. Please find some help for the server. We watched a woman wait 10 minutes for someone take her credit card so she could pay and leave. Also, on the subject of that…why are those wooden boxes charming? Nothing fits in them…not a card or a pen or anything.

Food: Tea is my only drink option? Really? Might you be able to pick up a case of Sprite at Jewel maybe for the men who might be there at the behest of a partner? The cauliflower soup was nice (a bit salty) and the rosemary biscuits were tasty. On the “savory” course…what was the cheddar-bacon thing? That “bread” was truly awful. I couldn’t even bite through it. The topping was great when I scraped in onto some of that Monte Cristo bread (which was a nice “adult grilled cheese” The scone belonged on the final course and not with the savory items…the pumpkin cream was a delicious topping for the gingerbread. Disappointed to not find any chocolate in the...