Front Porch Tea Room and Gathering Place — Restaurant in Hallam

Extremely Disappointing Experience — Not Worth the Time or Money

We visited the Front Porch Tea Room and Gathering Place today at 11 AM for high tea, hoping for a charming and satisfying experience. Unfortunately, what we received was far from it — and nowhere near worth the $40 per person price tag.

The meal began with a very small starter salad that was just “okay” — nothing memorable. Things quickly went downhill from there. We were served two scones: a Mexican scone and an apricot scone. The Mexican scone was absolutely awful — dry, packed with oversized pieces of corn, and completely unappetizing. The apricot scone, served with clotted cream, was passable but nothing special.

Next was the soup course, with a choice of cold strawberry soup or a hot chicken and vegetable soup. We opted for the chicken — a decision we regretted. It was so salty and off-putting it was nearly inedible.

The sandwiches were, frankly, laughable. We were served a soggy 0.35-inch slice of a Mexican pinwheel topped with Doritos (yes, Doritos). Then came a paper-thin slice of bread with the faintest smear of cream cheese and an ultra-thin slice of cucumber — hardly a sandwich. Finally, we were given a single Tostitos scoop chip with a tiny dollop of chicken salad, which tasted powdery and artificial.

Dessert didn’t save the meal either. We chose the coconut cream pie jar and the chocolate peanut butter cake. The coconut dessert was curdled and completely inedible, and the chocolate cake was bone dry and just as unpleasant.

To make matters worse, the service was extremely slow, with 20 minutes (or more) between courses. We tried five different teas, all of which were unremarkable or outright bad. When we voiced our concerns to the waitress, she showed no interest or concern about our poor experience.

This establishment is under new management as of a month ago, and if you’ve been here before like I have — let me warn you: it is NOT the same place. The quality has completely fallen off a cliff. We left hungry, frustrated, and disappointed.

Save your money and skip this place. It’s not worth your time...

A colleague of mines attended this tea room and enjoyed herself with her family on Mother’s Day. She went on about how good the service was! Therefore, I proceeded to book a party of eight on my birthday to try something new. I was disappointed with the service from the manger from the beginning but still proceeded to go through with the party. We were shortly greeted and her energy was rude from the beginning.

We showed up to the establishment well dressed and ready to enjoy our time, but it was obvious that we weren’t wanted there. When I called in to book the table of 8, the manger never informed me that there was a maximum amount of teas that we could try. She was extremely rude and refused to serve us anymore tea until we finished the pots we had on the table. Anytime someone from my party or I asked a question or asked for something her respond back was always impolite and dismissive.

I asked for the check without finishing all of courses because at that time I could no longer tolerate her attitude and disrespect. Her quick response was “ so your going to leave without paying” after I just asked her for the check. She wanted a response out of 7 women of color so she could have have a reason to tell us to never attend her establishment again. She proceeded on to tell me that my name and number will be added on to her list of people who can not return. Why would I ever returned to her establishment knowing that I’m not wanted there? My experience was horrible and if I could rate zero...

People of color you are not welcome the host/ owner was the rudest person there. She was rude from the time we got out our cars. We tired to overlook the fact she was being mean. We came ready for a tea party for our friends birthday (trying something different). Her severs sat us and begun to serve us , they must’ve been new because they wasn’t following instructions which was okay until the owner came out saying they was doing things wrong and stated she was going to get with them.

We weren’t aware that we had to drink the whole pot a tea ,so there were teas we didn’t like so we would exchange for a different type. As the staff changed tea the boss says I’m not changing your tea demanding us to finish the pot. We could pay for every pot we didn’t drink or ordered. That wasn’t a issue, once we was aware it wasn’t a tea testing place.

She asked us to leave and we said okay we will pay for what we used. She stated “50% is fine or nothing and never come back) .

My friend said I’ll pay I don’t do business like that , Thank you and God bless

Owner “My...