The Grand Tea Room — Restaurant in Escondido

I really, really wanted to love this quaint little tea room in downtown Escondido. It has so much potential. There were several good parts, but unfortunately also several issues with our experience there today. If I could give 2.5 stars, I would. Based on my experience, I do not recommend it, HOWEVER... I would give them another try in the future to see if today's poor experience was an unfortunate fluke.

Ok... let's start with some objective details about the tea room. On weekends they only serve the traditional afternoon teas, one option with soup, the other without. I highly recommend reservations... there was no way we could have walked in today and be seated. The afternoon teas start with a fruit dish with clotted cream and come with tea sandwiches, a "savory" (which is a small portion of your choice of 4 savory dishes), a scone, 3 small desserts, and unlimited tea, two pots at a time per table of 4. The tea is limited to 2 hours. They have a seating at 11am and 1:30pm. The tea list has a nice variety of teas available to suit everyone. There is a cute little gift shop with tea themed goods out front.

Now, onto the good: the reservation process was very easy. The woman I spoke to on the phone to make the reservation was super nice and helpful. They called to confirm the reservation the day before as well. The website is also very helpful! I had 2 vegetarians (not vegan) with me and they had no problem providing vegetarian options. I had informed them of my party's dietary restrictions when I made the reservation, so they were ready. Our server also knew off the top of her head that the tomato basil soup was not vegetarian (made with chicken broth), which was appreciated. One member of our party was caught in traffic coming from 2 hours away, so she was pretty late... no problem! We just ordered for her, and the staff was good about recommending we do so to stay within the time limit. Most of the food was good. I especially liked the egg sandwiches, the fruit bowl, and the scone with the toppings on the side - strawberry jam, clotted cream, and lemon curd. Everything was presented very nicely.

The not-so-good: the service at our table was really, really bad. I mean, REALLY BAD. The ladies who helped us were very nice... IF they came over. My mom (whose birthday we were celebrating) observed the staff go to every table except ours multiple times. She had to wave her hand multiple times before anyone noticed and came to help. In all fairness, it felt like maybe they were down a person. We are all avid tea drinkers and were excited to sample multiple teas, but unfortunately we sat for more than a half hour with empty teapots while my mom was trying to wave down someone to acknowledge our existence. We ended up trying 4 teas in total (one of which wasn't drinkable). The first tea they brought us was a jasmine green tea, which is a personal favorite of mine. They oversteeped the tea to the point that it was very bitter. They likely steeped it in water that was too hot for green tea as well and burned it. Had they checked on us within 5 minutes of dropping it off, which is pretty standard in restaurants, we'd have asked them to fix it or selected a different tea. But again... we got next to no service. I ordered the mac & cheese as my savory and it was not good. The pasta was broken bits and there was an overwhelming amount of black pepper in it. My mom's friend got the salad and enjoyed it. So maybe I just picked the wrong item. The "paper towels" in the bathroom were paper napkins, which was comical to try to dry my hands with. Maybe a supply shipment was delayed? We also had to ask for water multiple times before we got any, and same with refills.

So you can see... parts of my experience were great, and parts were really, really bad. I'm disappointed that I gave my mom a birthday experience that ended up being so subpar. I'm hoping they were just down a person today. I would be willing to give them another try sometime in the future to give them the benefit...

I really don't know how this place is getting the reviews it's getting. I found their food, with the exception of the scone, indifferent at best and the service was lousy. After waiting a not insignificant amount of time my friend ordered the Cream Tea at $16.95 and I ordered the Light Lunch Tea at $28. My tea came with assorted sandwiches, a scone, soup and fruit salad. The soup tasted like they took a jar of Progresso pasta sauce, and added some cream and way too much sugar and sprinkle of basil. Not delicious. The "sandwiches" consisted of an open faced half a slice of white bread with some cream cheese and two slices of cucumber, half a not very fresh mini croisant with chicken salad, and a third of a sandwich with dry egg salad. The fruit salad consisted to 80% of grapes served with whipped cream out of a spray can. The saving grace was the scone that came with lemon curd, clotted cream and strawberry jam and the actual tea itself. However $28 is a bit much for tea and a scone. The service was non existent; it took forever to place the order, once everything was delivered, the server never came back to check on us until we were basically done eating and then disappeared never to be seen again. We were seated outside and finally went inside in search of someone so we could pay. No one was to be found, several potential customers walked in and out of the place while we waited for someone to come to the register and finally my friend went to the back to locate what appeared to be the proprietor and informed her that we were trying to pay and had been waiting for quite a while for someone. Her excuse was that she thought her niece was taking care of things and then when her niece finally showed up while we were settling the bill told her that we had complained about her service!? Neither one of them seemed in any way fazed. Noted. We...

My girlfriend & I recently visited the Grand tea room for her birthday, hoping to enjoy a lovely afternoon tea service. The tea room has a charming, cozy atmosphere that makes you feel like you're stepping back in time. However, I was quite disappointed with the service, or lack thereof, that I experienced. Upon arrival, we waited over 15 minutes with a few staff walking by and acknowledging us being there. The tea room did not appear to be unusually busy, so I'm not sure what caused the delay in service. After waiting so long, we decided it was best to leave and take our business elsewhere. I really wanted to like this place, as I had heard good things. And the ambiance is undoubtedly delightful. But the poor service left a sour taste and ruined what was meant to be a special outing. I hope this was just an "off" day and not the norm, as I believe this tea room has a lot of potential. I did get a phone call from the business apologizing for what happened which was nice, but what I had in mind was more of a free or half off session for us to go back there when wasn't the case.

My suggestion to the owners would be to ensure the front of house is well-staffed and that all guests are greeted and served in a timely manner. Even if there is a short wait, simply acknowledging guests and setting expectations can make all the difference. With some focus on improving the service, I'm sure this could be a real gem...