Secret Garden Tea Room — Restaurant in Fort Worth

I came for the high tea service for my birthday with my partner. Was immediately disappointed with the somewhat rude server we had. My partner is vegetarian and upon asking for any options he immediately dismissed her saying that they were already made and that we should’ve mentioned it when she made reservations.

The tea we were served was great however the Kraft honey packets didn’t seem very much like “High Tea” to us. We were immediately disappointed when our tower was brought out. Chicken salad sandwiches were good however the other ones did not meet our expectations. The scones and lemon loafs were cold and looked store bought, and our fruit was simply piled on top and again tasted store bought.

Upon receiving our check my partner informed the server politely that she didn’t feel comfortable paying the full price due to dietary restrictions not being met, the food not meeting expectations, and our service being subpar at best. The server began to bicker and claimed that my partner knew about the menu when she called for the reservations (none of it was mentioned in the phone call) and that we shouldn’t compare it to other High Tea services. Our server eventually discussed with the manager and we didn’t pay full price however they were dismissive and rude when bringing our check, purposely took around 10 minutes to come get it while we actively saw him helping other tables right next to us, and when bringing card back, quite literally threw it on the table without looking at us or saying anything.

We love the antique mall here and I was excited to try the tea service for my birthday however was very disappointed in the food, and more so the extremely rude and dismissive...

I wish I could say that we had a nice time. truth be told, we have been coming here for years and have had no issues. Today, however, the issue was about as big as it could be, and we will not be returning.

After ordering lunch, we followed it with our favorite menu item, the scone, and clotted cream. It came to my attention, after a bite or two, that it had pecans/walnuts, this time around. It is worth noting that the menu has nothing about any nuts in the scones, and we have enjoyed nut-free scones at this tea room for years.

Now, I hate pecans and walnuts, but the real issue is that if someone is allergic to these ingredients (tree nut allergies are quite common), it could be very serious if not potentially fatal. When I brought this to our server's attention, and that the menu should reflect the possibility of such ingredients. Firstly, our server, Jude, had the perfect response of "what do you need me to do?" (thinking that I might be one of the allergic). Well done, Jude.

Mike, however, and I assume he has a managerial function, chose to blame the customer (me and anyone else who might order a scone), saying that, "lots of scones have nuts" (no, 'lots' do not), and, "it's up to the customer to ask if something has nuts". This attitude is inexcusable. Mike, continued with, "I don't make the menu...", in a passive-aggressive attempt to shift responsibility even further from himself.

This level of disregard toward your patrons is appalling. Thank you, Mike, for being the primary reason for us never setting so much as a toe in The Secret...

This is a wonderful place. My family loves having high tea here. I called to ask if they did a small catering or togo orders. The gentleman on the phone had an attitude from the beginning. The phone line was extremely fuzzy and it was not on my end. When I said, “I’m sorry, it’s fuzzy.” His attitude elevated. I was told no to the small catering and that they were too busy to do a togo like that. I asked what was the largest size togo they were capable of doing and that I was thinking of about 10. “No no no.” Ok. I repeated the question. He said 4. I said “Ok, so we can just do 4 different togo orders then? His attitude elevated AGAIN. I was told no again. I said “well you said you can do togo for 4 people?” HE IMMEDIATELY HUNG UP ON ME! Now I said “hello, good afternoon and I have a couple of questions for you sir.” Very politely. I know what it’s like to be on the other side of that phone. I was appalled by the amount of bad customer service reviews I read while trying to find the answer to my questions before calling. Understood. This is awful because this is the best scone I have ever had and I never liked tomato soup until I...