Tea at 1024 — Restaurant in Honolulu

I've been here twice now, and both times were great. I'll compare the experience to A Cup of Tea in Kailua.

Parking: 1024 has it over CoT in spades. There's a parking garage across the street, and they validate.

Tea: CoT has more variety of tea, but as far as quality, I'd say they're comparable. I prefer CoT's setup a little more--where they brew in the back and bring your pot to the table. At 1024, they fill up your pot with leaves and hot water, and you pour through a strainer into your cup. When you get a refill, all they have to do is pour more hot water into your pot. I find this less preferable because, while I'm all for reusing tea leaves, I'm not so much for letting leaves continue to steep in water. I don't drink the pot fast enough to keep it from getting tannin-y and blerck.

Food: CoT will give you free sammy refills if, for example, you come in with a hungry brood of boys who lurve sammies and lurve tea. At 1024, you get what you order. There are no seconds, but you do get a choice. Whereas CoT's menu is whatever the owner decided to make that day, 1024 has a set menu of options for sandwiches. Overall, I'd say both are comparable in food. It mostly evens out, and either way, you're going to leave feeling stuffed to the gills if you even try to finish everything you're offered.

Price: 1024 has lower prices across the board unless you have a Groupon for CoT. Also, you can "share" lunch if you don't want that much food--for about half the price of the full tea, you'll share enough sandwiches, scones, and desserts to feed you both, and you'll each get your separate tea. It's a fantastic deal!

Service: While CoT's servers can be INCREDIBLY friendly and sweet, and they get to know you when you come in a few times, 1024's servers seem to have a nicer boss. You know how you can tell by the way they interact with each other and customers how nasty or encouraging the boss is? Yeah, that.

Reservations: 1024's reservation system is online!!! You don't have to talk to people on a phone. This is the best thing ever.

I feel more relaxed at 1024 and really enjoy the hats, boas, and choice of tea cup you get there. And sitting in the window is awesome. I really prefer to come here because I think the owner is more interested in giving the customer a fun experience than in indulging a love for all things fancy. When friends come to O'ahu, I will bring...

I’m disappointed at the customer service and poor communication by Tea at 1024. I booked for a group of people and let them Know I needed the gluten free option ($28.95 instead of the normal $24.95 on their website). We arrived and their written menu said $32.95 for gluten free which was unfortunate as I would have thought twice about booking with a $8 surcharge for GF. But we were all there so I accepted it. The bill came and they had charged me $38.95! Which seemed outrageous and I questioned it. They said the manager had upped the price but hadn’t got around to the website or paper menus. I asked them to check, I was happy to pay the paper menu but not the unannounced price upgrade at bill. They said that ‘prices were subject to change without notice’ which doesn’t seem right legally but I didn’t want to argue any further when we were there for a nice group event so I paid. However, this seems against normal restaurant standards and I am incredibly disappointed at both the outrageous surcharge and the poor communication. They provided GF scones, sandwiches and cut the crust off a dessert. Everything else was the same as the main group. The scones were served in the same container as the normal so not appropriate...

STARTED GREAT......ENDED HORRIBLY

I recently organized a baby shower at Tea 1024. The space was cute, the food was good, and the tea was delicious. Our first waitress was absolutely adorable!

Unfortunately, after a shift change we had a horribly rude waitress.She had the grumpiest face and would leave for long periods of time. At the end she shoved a $300 bill in my face and said they only take one credit card.

I had previously spoken wih the owner and first waitress. I was told there was absolutely no problem splitting the bill. ( I checked upon booking, confirmation, and day of so there would be a smooth/appropriate ending.)

The second waitress made a scene in front of everyone at the table. I had to pull her aside to resolve the issue. This incident was so upsetting that I will not ever return to Tea 1024. I am so disappointed that she spoiled such a...