Infusion Tea — Restaurant in Orlando

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE AT ALL! Not completely disclosing the price when speaking to the representative over the phone is the reason I'm giving this a 1-star review. They quoted "$38/person and a minimum of 10 people" over the phone but then charged her almost $80/person!!! Here's what happened.

A close friend's daughter wanted to have a small, 10 person gathering for close friends to celebrate her 3rd child on the way. She's a wonderful young mom whom I treasure and I was invited. When she called Infusion Tea about the pricing, she was told that the cost was $38/person.

When she got the contract, she didn't read it carefully enough since all their other fees, including a gratuity on the room rental(!), were hidden there. She signed the contract not thinking anything would be different than what she was quoted but instead of being charged $380 plus tax and gratuity, she was charged just shy of $800!!!

The charges worked out like this: the $38/per person she was quoted was apparently JUST for tea for 10. Hidden in the contract was the room rental and gratuities - including a 20% gratuity on the room rental! How crazy is that?! Whoever heard of charging a gratuity for a room rental?! It's not food delivery. The cost for cleaning, etc, is already in the room rental. That's why you pay it. Charging a gratuity for it is just greed. When the mom, my friend, saw the total cost with its hidden charges totally almost $800, she had a cow (understandable). They ended up reducing the gratuity on the room rental to $25 but even that's ridiculous. Just make it part of the room rental cost and be done with it! Why pretend it's not part of the room rental when you require it?

This young mom, thinking she would be paying somewhere around $400, ended up paying just shy of $800! At $80 per person, we could've gone to a really nice restaurant, reserved a table for 10 (or 2 tables of 5), ordered the most expensive items on the menu and had champagne included. I will never darken their door again if I can help it and will warn others to BEWARE of hidden costs in the contract.

**Response to the owner's allegations: First of all, I did not talk to anyone about anything. I was simply one of the invited guests. Since I stated this above, it seems your review of the complaint I took the time to write is as thorough as your price disclosure. I'm sure you're referring to the mother when she was shocked at all the additional costs that were not disclosed over the phone, esp, the gratuity on the room rental. Anyone would be upset. Until then, there were no issues at all and everyone was happy.

It's easy for a business to claim the customer was rude and make any other allegations in an attempt to make the customer seem 'bad'. But there is no excuse for not disclosing the entire price upfront over the phone. Instead of saying "$38 per person" and leaving the rest to the contract to disclose, saying "The minimum cost will be around $800, including gratuity, to have a tea on Sunday" would've been honest. You can argue all you want but the issue was caused - created in its entirety - by saying the cost was "$38 per person" over the phone and hiding the other charges in the contract. Leaving the contract to disclose them is dishonest. No one likes that. That would not be my business practice; not if I wanted to stay in business....

So this place is pretty good. We just tried it this past weekend. I ordered 2 quiches. Which are pretty expensive at 25 each. One was to be for an Easter gift basket for my boss and her family. The other was supposed to be for my son and I for Easter day. The one for my boss was to be tomato basil. They really like tomatoes and such, so I thought it would be perfect. For my son and I, I ordered the 4 cheese. I don't like basil or cut tomatoes. 😝. Each box was labeled. One was labeled 4 cheese and one tomato basil. Well, somehow, the people who put the food together put each Quiche in the wrong box. When I opened the boxes to look at them, they each had a burnt layer of cheese on the top. Which I don't think the top should be burnt, but because of that, you couldn't see what was below that crusty layer. So, I didn't know the servers made an error until Easter Sunday, when we went to have it for our lunch. I cut into it and was so disappointed to see they put the wrong Quiche in the box they labeled. We had to pick all through the quiche to pick out the tomatoes and basil, but I didn't want to waste it, so we had to eat it. Then I was disheartened to realize my boss and family didn't get what I had thought was in their box, what I had actually ordered for them. I know it could have been worse of a deal, but we were expecting what I had actually ordered, and having to pick through it like that was disappointing. Plus, they are expensive. We live pretty far, too. Before I knew the mistake that was made, we went back Saturday to eat lunch. The food was okay. The coffee, a latte, was pretty sweet. My son liked the crunch wrap he ordered. My sandwich was good, a little too much cheese though, almost choking. So, I ended up spending over a 100 in 2 days; it was pretty expensive. Even the things you can buy there are really expensive. Very over priced on the items, which is probably why there is so much sitting on the shelves. And it is a tea place. They really should think of taking some of the specialty items to flavor your drink with and set it out in a certain area where you can add it to your tea. For instance, they have special sugars you would never think of, like lavender sugar, which sounded really cool, but they are a little pricey and you don't want to waste money not knowing if it is actually good. So, having a little flavor center with some of those items would be great. That way you can try it, to make sure you want to really buy it. They would probably sell more of those flavor items that way. Anyway, I called today, Monday, to share the disappointment about the Quiche, and the girl was just like, oh okay, sorry. Which great, thanks for the apology, but I feel like from a customer service standpoint, they could have offered to replaced that item, to do the right thing, but they were not at all interested in doing that, and it is really expensive food. So, it's not a really great experience. It's not worth the long drive or expensive prices. I am sure you can find many places just as good, if not better. I know there are worse things in life. This is just a simple thing of having your oder messed up or a little overdone, but this was just very disappointing, and things are getting more and more expensive these days, so where we spend our money counts, and you don't want to feel like you have wasted any...

It's apparently hit or miss with this place now. We were with a group who had notified them in advance that we were coming. They had one cashier & one cook, who I was told was new, in the kitchen. I chose my iced rooibos by price ($7 is better than the $13 one I really wanted). And, not knowing what they excelled in, I ordered a fruit & cheese "platter" for $10. Over an hour later, after watching lush salads appear, I asked the cashier if I could get the order to go. I also remarked that people who had arrived after us were already served. Several people. She said she thought she'd noticed that, but apparently it wasn't enough for her to be proactive about. I was starving, and opened my container to grab a piece of cheese. I was blown away!! The fruit was served in condiment containers, not even a quarter cup total!!! There were 2 cheeses there, the Irish cheddar (which I love) must have been left in Killarney. And 5 or 6 tiny crostini, which, pieced together, would maybe have equalled an average slice of bread. All I could think was, how do you screw up a fruit & cheese platter? And what took so long?

I'm sorry I tipped at the counter when I placed my order. All the cashier did was bring the order, and that was only after I ran her down. Yes, they were busy, but that was due to their own mismanagement.

My hunch is that you have to be a regular to know what's worth ordering. Certainly my meal wasn't. The smoky gouda was nice, and so was the fruit, but it was not enough fruit to qualify a mention on the menu. I was disappointed, to say the least. The tea was nice, but I could have gotten the same elsewhere for half the price. But they do use paper straws. Yay for that.

I was not alone in my feelings. Another person in our group, who only wanted tea, looked at the menu & decided to order nothing. Again, the prices.

I do love a good tea place. But for me,...