Tailored Tea — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

02/22/2025 - My sisters and my mom and I went to The Tailored Tea for the first time yesterday- a Saturday. We made a reservation without a problem. We were immediately greeted by a server who was very pleasant. We ordered three of the Hudsons, which are basically an assortment of tea sandwiches, a pot of tea, and an assortment of desserts. We came here after looking at their website and decided it looked like something we would all enjoy. There is so much potential at this place, but the entire experience is poorly executed.

We sat at our table which had been poorly wiped (or not all?). The table was sticky in spots, the teacups and teapots and their warmers were really very dirty. We had sat at a table for six, and so switched out our dirty teacups for the cleanest we could find at the table. The whole place was dusty and dirty though. This is a tea room! It should be especially prim and proper - which means CLEAN. Menus are printed on nothing more than 8x10 copy paper - stained with food and tea from previous customers. (Maybe think about sliding that paper into a sheet protector so you can wipe them down between customers?)

Our tea sandwiches came and they were nothing special. The bread was dried on the outside as though these had been made the day before. Most of the sandwiches were made on white bread, not the pumpernickel, banana, or multi-grain breads that the menu said they came on. “Egg salad and olives on banana bread”: came as egg salad (egg & mayo only) on WHITE bread; no olives. “Smoked salmon & cream cheese with scallions on pumpernickel”: Came as smoked salmon and cream cheese on a light wheat bread- no scallions, no pumpernickel. “Roast beef with basil mayo on farmer’s bread”: came as roast beef (tough) on white bread and maybe some plain mayo. “Turkey with cranberry mayo on multi grain”: came as turkey with plain mayo on white bread.

I have seen that they make some really lucious scones, but the only ones available were chocolate chip, carrot ginger, and plain - which all would have been my last choices of all the ones I know they make. The carrot ginger scone had shredded carrots in it…but we couldn’t detect much of any ginger. The “clotted cream” that came with the scones was more like tasteless whipped cream.

We wanted apple cinnamon spice tea from the menu, but the server said they didn’t have any. Also, before ordering the tea sandwiches, we had thought we’d order soup - but the server said they had no soup. After our food had arrived- we were informed that there was now chicken noodle soup if we wanted it. Ugh.

The dessert assortment included two tarts one blueberry (think blueberry pie filling from a can) and what seemed to be a pear tart, and then a bunch of different heavy breads - heavy like Christmas fruitcake, all with a coarse texture, lots of clove and nutmeg spices, and really not at all satisfying as a dessert. We all loved the pie crust that was used for the tarts though.

Next time I try this place - and I will give them another try, just in case this was a bad day for them - I will order a hot dish from the breakfast or brunch menu and skip the dessert. Oh - and I will go in the spring when their parking lot is not a sheet of ice (the weather is not their fault), but if I was going to open when my lot was shiny, slippery ice, I’d sand the heck out of it.

Disappointing visit. I wanted this to be a neato place to go for a warm cup of tea and a nice sandwich in a pleasant (clean) atmosphere. I hope the owner sees this - one of several reviews that mentions the lack of cleanliness of the dish-ware, floors, furniture, etc. - and hires a cleaning crew to...

Here's the deal: The food here is excellent. If it just ended there, I'd give the place almost 5 stars. But it's not that simple. My wife had been dying to go to this place, since the whole tea house and country-like charm thing appealed to her. I wasn't that interested, but finally, we went. Ate there on a Sunday afternoon about 1:30 p.m. My wife was in the restaurant business for 25 years. So, besides the food itself, she's big on service, presentation and setting. Like I said, the food was excellent. Had the hot turkey sandwich with mash potatoes and a tomato bisque soup. The meal had a real homemade taste to it. It was excellent. I'd give the food 4 to 4.5 stars. Presentaton? Big deal to my wife, but I don't care, so skip that. The setting? Not my type of place. Kind of girly in a bed & breakfast type way. But, given that this is the kind of feel they were probably going for, they succeeded. So again, I'd say 4 out of 5 stars here.... So far so good — that is until the service. The wait staff just ruined this place for me. After walking in and standing there for a short while (which was no big deal) we were 'greeted' by a host with a giant puss on her face. She grabbed some menus and sighed (literally sighed) "follow me." I was willing to give her a break. Maybe she was having a bad day. But then our waitress came. Not only did she seem incapable of smiling, she seemed distracted too, making little eye contact with us and continually looking around the room as we were speaking to her. Kind of weird. And, she never brought my wife the drink she ordered — even after being reminded. Still, none of this was catastrophic and the food was good, so we went about our business and ate. Then, upon leaving, we had to walk through a room where all the servers and hosts were sitting — some of whom were on their cell phones. As we passed by, we said goodbye and thanked them. Not a single one of them responded. Totally bizarre.... Once we got in our car, my wife asked what I thought of the place. "Food excellent; Setting, not my kind of thing but they nailed the vibe they were going for; but I dunno, man, what was up with the staff? They acted bothered that we were there. They were miserable." My wife started laughing, "I agree completely. We don't ever need to go back there," she said. "I'm totally over that place." ..... Note to the Tailored Tea: Long after you digest your food, you will still be able to taste the way you...

Beware: if you are redeeming a Groupon, be prepared to be charged an extra $14.80 on top of the Groupon you purchased. I bought my partner a Groupon for the Historic Hills High Tea, which we presented when we arrived. At the end of the meal, we were given a bill for $14.80; they did the same to another table. "We raised our prices recently" they said, refusing to honor the Groupon (which was not expired) for what it said (the tea). This additional charge is about half of what I spent on the Groupon - this smells like a scam. I've contacted Groupon hoping that they'll make this right, but they just shrugged it off and seem to be okay with this business scamming people.

We made a reservation and when we arrived and let them know we were there, we stood there for over five minutes while the wait staff argued about who would have to deal with us. Honestly, without the Groupon I would have walked right out then and there. It was kind of like family arguing over who was going to bite the bullet and deal with driving you to the airport at 4 am; I felt unwelcome and like I was disturbing them.

Food was average and tasted more or less like I could have prepared everything at home. The salads were good (just make sure you love beets if you order the salad with beets; it's more a beet with some spinach leaves stuck in between). Sandwiches were okay; the roast beef was very low quality and tough, but I did enjoy the turkey. The scones were warm and were served with jam and clotted cream, so those were pretty good, but, again, nothing special I couldn't have made myself. We weren't told what any of the desserts on top were, but we were also so full by then that most of them went into a box to bring home.

This is not a restaurant I will return to. If a restaurant wants to attract new customers with a special or Groupon, that's great. What's unacceptable, though, is slamming people with a bill at the end for another 50% instead of honoring the Groupon. Even had the food been better, I'd never return. Please consider this before you spend your money on their Groupon. Even though Short and Stout doesn't offer this kind of tea service, which I was eager to try, they have always been good to us and I'd give them my business any day of the week. That's where you'll find us, not...