The Duchess Tea Room — Restaurant in Fort Collins

The tea room is lovely with an atmosphere reminiscent of British tea rooms. I've been to afternoon tea at Harrod's and Fortnum and Mason's in London and at the Balmoral in Edinburgh. I had a fairly good idea of what to expect.

We went as a family group - 3 adults and 1 child. I reserved a table before the St. Patrick's Day menu was announced, I think.

Pros: The waitstaff was friendly. The teaware was very pretty. The bathroom was clean. The selection of teas was excellent; the ones we tried were really delicious. We even bought some packets to bring home. Included with the Afternoon Tea service were unlimited pots of tea.

About the food: The food was served on a 3-tiered stand (traditional tea service). The curried chicken and cucumber-cream cheese sandwiches were really delicious. The turkey-arugula sandwich and the egg salad sandwich were also very good, and I'm not a fan of egg salad. The scones were passable, although they were more textured like a gravy biscuit (flaky layers) than a scone (crumbly). There was one variety of traditional scone on offer, not a savory or currant one. The clotted cream and strawberry jam were very nice.

The desserts were terrible and mostly green (St. Patrick's Day?): matcha panna cotta with raspberry coulis (the coulis was delicious, the custard tasted like grass), minty shortbread (Why minty?? It's a crime against shortbread.), pistachio-iced mini cupcakes (stale).

Cons: The cost. It was pricey. The child in our group had the Princess Tea. $35 for 2 triangles of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, one triangle of egg salad sandwich, a scone, the desserts listed above, and a child's lemonade instead of a pot of tea. Afternoon tea for the adults was $55, pricey but not unexpected. I was surprised that a limited sandwich refill was not offered.

Location: We were there in the mid-afternoon, and there were many homeless men gathering on the pavement waiting for the Rescue Mission across the street to open. They stood in front of the tea shop swinging splintered posts and 2x4s at each other. I'm not sure this is something I want to see when I'm paying $300 for lunch. Nor is it the gauntlet I want to run when leaving.

It was a pleasant experience, one I think everyone should have - once, regardless of the venue. We even had the "which goes first cream or jam?" conversation at our table.

Summation: It's nice for a treat but not something I can see myself doing often (and I love going to tea). In Fort Collins, there are better, more affordable options for lunch. This is a "special occasion"...

We went for high tea at this place, and the price was $60 per person. We chose it because of the great reviews, but honestly, it was not worth the price.

The experience started with soup, which was served at room temperature. That alone was a red flag—it showed there wasn’t much attention to quality control or making sure food was served properly.

Service overall was disappointing. Our server only checked on us a couple of times, didn’t offer to refill our water glasses, and never asked if we wanted clean cups after finishing our first pot of tea. They also didn’t provide an extra plate to place the used tea basket after steeping, so we were left to figure it out ourselves. These small but important details were completely overlooked.

The food came on a traditional three-tier stand. The sandwiches on the bottom tier were the best part—fresh and flavorful. The scone tier was underwhelming: only one type of scone and one kind of jam. It tasted okay, but for the price, we expected variety and more thoughtful pairings. The dessert tier was the most disappointing. The desserts looked good for pictures, but the taste didn’t match—they lacked flavor and felt mass-produced.

The only things we genuinely enjoyed were the wide variety of teas and the cozy, charming atmosphere. But even those couldn’t make up for the lack of quality and attention to detail.

For $60 per person and the glowing reviews, we expected much more. Definitely not...

The tea selection is vast and the most impressive part of our Afternoon tea experience. I had the Lady Grey and the Huckleberry teas, I absolutely love the unlimited tea that is included and will be going back just to try more flavors. As far as the food goes, I thoroughly enjoyed the egg and chicken curry finger sandwiches, but the dessert portion of the spread leaves something to be desired. I could tell that our server was new and she was really nice; however, spending $55 per person for afternoon tea- I do expect a certain level of attentiveness and consistency that just was not there. I believe we were there for two hours and our server interacted with us maybe 4 times excluding the delivery of the check. Overall, the atmosphere is so feminine, it is really refreshing to have a safe space in old town to just be girls. I’m not sure for what you get that the $55 afternoon tea is necessarily worth it; however, I look forward to the business getting a more solid footing and smoothing out their procedures in the future, and I will be back for...