Pamela's Tea Room — Restaurant in Huntington Beach

We asked our server if they happened to have a selection of white teas and were met with a blank stare. Yes, it is odd that a person working in a tea shop doesn’t know what white tea is, but that isn’t the reason for this one star review. Our server seemed to take the fact that she had just been confronted with the mere existence of white tea personally, and instead of simply stating, “I apologize, we do not carry any white teas,” she instead attempted to convince us white tea isn’t a thing in Britain…. I really wish I could say I was making this up.

That should have been the moment we got up and left. But we didn’t. Perhaps it was a certain morbid curiosity that kept me in my place, because it isn’t often I find myself in the presence of a person petty enough to try and convince an entire table of first generation British immigrants that none of the British isles, in all their centuries of plundering northeast India for spices, had ever come across white tea before.

Not more than a few minutes later, we asked for a few ice cubes for our kids (aged 3 and 6), since they prefer cold beverages, and, once again, instead of simply stating “I apologize, we don’t have an ice maker,” our server chose to take this simple request as a personal insult, and tried to convince us that in a country full of 67 million tea drinkers, not a single one of them has ever tried it with ice.

It was after this moment that our server inexplicably refused to interact with us for the rest of the afternoon, going far out of her way to avoid eye contact with us while serving other customers, all the while very loudly asking her Irish coworker whether white tea or ice in tea were things in Britain, a childishly obvious ploy to seek affirmation and cover for the fact that she simply just didn’t know what white tea was.

But if our server ends up reading this review, allow me to educate you further on what aren’t things in Britain: 1) the British don’t serve bags of black Lipton tea still sitting in the pot long after it has sufficiently steeped, 2) the British don’t use cool whip in cucumber sandwiches, 3) the British don’t use Oroweat brand bread on one half of their tea sandwiches with wonder brand white bread on the other half, with little corners of crust cut into the sandwich, 4) the British don’t try to pass Smucker’s strawberry jelly off as jam, and they don’t try to pass butter off as cream, and 5) when British tea houses charge you 140 American dollars to enjoy a light lunch and afternoon tea, you’re typically paying for fresh leaves and baked goods, not five dollars worth of ingredients you scraped together from walmart.

I’m something of a connoisseur when it comes to bad filmmaking. I love participating in schadenfreude, laughing at the perfect blend of cluelessness and incompetence, paired with the bewildering defensiveness these certain creators have toward their hilariously sub-standard products. If there is an equivalent type of restaurant-goer comprable to this kind of movie-goer, then Pamela’s Tea House is your Plan 9 From Outer Space. 5/5, superbly...

My daughter in law and I love an afternoon tea together and find a place in the area we are visiting. In February 2024 that happened to be the Los Angeles area. We took an afternoon off from Disneyland to relax and had high hopes upon coming to Pamela’s Tea Room. It was an expensive disaster from the very beginning. I’ve included a photo of what generally comprises an afternoon tea. Upon asking for white tea, it became a whole fiasco as Pamela and staff clearly did not know of the existence of white tea. Okay, it wasn’t on the menu, just a question as it always is on the menu of everywhere else we’ve gone. We then asked for ice for my granddaughter’s tea and were given a false cultural lesson on how the British do not like ice and therefore there was none in the building. Strange, but again, okay and by the way, my grandparents are British and they weren’t anti ice. It wasn’t their preference for tea, but they weren’t anti ice, and it certainly makes sense to add it for a 5 year old who is just beginning to enjoy the whole tea experience. Next the “cream” for the scones was flat out butter. The preserves were at best Smucker’s Strawberry Jelly. The sandwiches were clearly made from Oroweat Brand bread bought at the local grocery store and the most ridiculous part was that there was one side of the sandwich with wheat while you flip it over and the other side was Sunbeam Brand white bread, with a lazy attempt to “cut off” the crusts that were still on the tiny triangle sandwich. The soup was from a can. If you go to the restroom you can see the quiche in the fridge in individually wrapped packages from a grocery store. Wasn’t even a Costco brand so you at least were served a decent prepackaged quiche but some off brand gross prepackaged quiche. Oh, and chips, not even Lays brand but some greasy awful chip. The most unprofessional part of the whole experience was that I could hear our waitress and Pamela talking in their behind the wall but yet open kitchen, about me particular, almost the whole time we were there. Almost nonstop. I finally had to say, “I can hear everything your complaining about” out loud, which still didn’t stop them. So, again, for educational purposes, below is a general photo of an afternoon tea. If this is what you’re expecting as a customer, you will absolutely...

Went there for my mother in laws birthday lunch and immediately was disappointed. The room is extremely outdated but not in a good way, in a way that screams someone died in here. The first lady was nice enough and was explaining she wasn't really prepared for us even though we had a reservation because of a party she had the night before. We understood enough and sat down. Prices were similar to other tea houses we tried before, still overpriced though. Food was... okay at best. Then when we ran out of sugar and asked for more because we had multiple people with us and one tiny bowl, the new server who was older acted disgusted with us and said it was unhealthy for more. ???? She reluctantly gave us more but at that point I was ready to leave. After we finished, my mother in law wanted to buy things from their inside store and when she asked for a bag, the same woman slammed the box of chocolates on the table and annoyingly gave her a bag for them after my mother in law insisted on one when the lady said "no other stores have these." Mind you, this wasn't like we had been there very long and we were actually one of the first few groups in there. We had caused no issues other than asking for more sugar. I would say just save your money and go to an actual restaurant. This doesn't have good vibes and barely passes for 1/2 people having decent enough customer service and someone insulting us basically and treating us like we...