Steeped Tea Cafe — Restaurant in Manchester

I took my daughter to the Steeped Tea cafe for the first time today for a daddy/daughter tea party. From the outside the restaurant looks unassuming and similar to the houses surrounding it. Upon stepping inside, you step into a quaint and cutely decorated tea parlor. There are 4 small tables in the front room, several more in the back room, and 2 small outdoor cafe tables on the side of the building. The place is decorated with vintage and colorful teapots and older style decor. It was exactly what you expect walking into a teashop, with tables set in a fanciful manner for high tea. The food selection is a little limited, with one soup, two salads, 3 scones, and 4 sandwiches. There were about a dozen different teas however. The servers were sweet, though one was still training so I will excuse any minor issue I had with her service. The food, though limited, was fresh. Portions are what you expect for a tea party: the half sandwiches were dainty, basically finger sandwiches, the salad was also a small, "lighter fare". The scones, while smaller than you would get at Starbucks or other coffee shops were warm and appeared to be freshly baked. Understandably, when visiting this kind of establishment, you are also paying for the experience, which was a positive, though pricey experience. For parents of small kids, there is a kids menu, though it's still pricey. I got the "high tea" experience, which was a soup or salad (I got a salad), a scone, 3 half sandwiches, a small assortment of sweets and a pot of tea. My daughter (who is 6) got a kids high tea experience, which was a fruit cup or salad, scone, 2 half sandwiches, an assortment of sweets, and a pot of tea. All together, with tip, we paid about $70. All in all, it was a...

This was the 12th rea room my wife and I have been to. There were several things we liked and some things we didn't care for. They change their menu frequently, and this review was done during their Irish menu.

Our likes: The food was creative and delicious! When ordering high tea, you could choose your sandwich and scones. Most tea rooms decide this for you. Tea is basically bottomless. Like many tea rooms we have visited, they steep the tea for you and bring it out, ready to go. Everyone in our party found at least one tea that they liked. My favorite was hazelnut. They accommodate kids with a delicious menu that my daughter loved. They presented the check in a fun way.

Our dislikes: The kitchen is open and noisy. This may not be as big of an issue if you get a table in the front room. The tea selection is limited with only a few teas to choose from. The tea pots are small. This would not be that big of a deal, but only one tea service is bottomless to begin with. The others become bottomless after a $2 refill, but there is a charge to change flavors. One thing we like to do in a tea room is to try new teas. This was difficult with the limited selection and charges for flavor changes. (They did waive this fee for us on this visit, which we appreciated.) All of the herbal teas were rooibos, according to our server. I am not a fan of rooibos tea personally.

We enjoyed our time together with family. This tea room was a little more expensive than others we have been to in MD, but we felt the value was good since they served more food for that price. We will definitely be back to try them again in the future and hope to find an expanded tea selection to compliment and enhance...

I give the food 5 stars! The individual rooms are warm and inviting with the decor and ambiance. We were surprised though with the length of time we waited between getting our tea and waiting for our scones. My teapot was cool by the time my scone was served. No Devonshire cream, jam or lemon curd were offered. Then our soup came out, it was amazing! waited another 15-20 minutes before the tiered serving plates arrived with the rest of our food. Wait staff was polite but very timid, never asked if we wanted anymore tea even though we all paid the extra for a "bottomless" pot of tea. I know that having "Tea" is a leisurely event, I worked at and was manager of a Tea Room 20 years ago and I know that each Tea Room has their own way of presenting it, we were just surprised as we have been to many tea rooms and this one was the first that was so different from other experiences. That being said, I would go again now that I know how to plan out the rest of the day...