DOJA Tea Lounge — Restaurant in Tualatin

We had been waiting to come to Doja for a while. We finally were able to make a reservation for a friend's birthday. It was a Friday afternoon and around noon. It was extremely quiet.

When we entered Doja we were about 10 minutes early and stunned by the appearance of the lobby with bare shelves. Nothing in an empty food case that was dark and dingy. There were tables in the lobby area where two people were sitted trying to eat as we stood there looking at each other with no were to stand or sit except right in front of them. A worker was walking back and forth without acknowledging us.

I finally caught her attention, gave her my name and let her know we had a reservation. She curtly asked if all of our party was here and that she couldn't sit us until everyone got here. I let her know she was just parking. Another awkward five minutes go by staring at the young couple seated in the lobby and I finally get the attention of a second person who is working there.

I kindly ask I we could be seated our other guest is parking. She was completely opposite of the first worker and immediately sat us down. I was taken back from the wrinkled table linens to the most uncomfortable bench with dirty cushions. The chairs were also very cheap and uncomfortable.

They finally took our drink order after a solid 10 minutes of sitting there. We had ordered the full tea service and I can tell you the food was terrible. The combination of tea sandwiches and sweets lacked origination, taste, and presentation. We were never asked if we wanted an additional drink and it was literally about 15 minutes before our time was up before they asked if we wanted any additional hot water for our teas.

To say this was a huge disappointment starting with a front of house worker with an attitude to the disheveled and unkempt look of the main sitting area to the most disappointing food ending would be an understatement.

I was excited to try Doja because it's so close to we I live, however, there are so many exceptional tea houses in the Portland Metro area that I would be more than happy to travel to than ever...

Extremely disappointed. I looked forward to trying all of the delicious looking beverages and treats. My sister and I took out mom here for mother's day and was fine sparing no expense to make it wonderful and her leave feeling like a princess. Unfortunately this did not happen and instead we all left feeling ripped off and confused. The back room seating area had cases to hold food that were basically empty which really took away from the aesthetic, the walls and floors hadn't been dusted/ wiped down and felt very cramped. We were seated for probably 20 minutes before we had a server come to us asking if we wanted something to drink and she came without water... we had many questions on the tea selections. We ended up ordering 6 different kinds. We thought she would take our orders, go put them in and quickly come back with waters and mimosas we asked for. Nope- nothing came till the tea came out🤷‍♀️ So it's been about 40 minutes now since we've had anything and now were drinking tea and mimosa together? We put in our food orders. We each ordered our own individual so we could try everything. That didn't take as long to come out. Two stars because the food was awesome. Also the guy working there was very sweet and funny. We were there for about 2 hours, server only came over the three times. I had to get up a few times to get our tables waters and napkins since none were coming. We made reservations in advance so I'm not sure why this was a issue. Other tables near us experienced the same thing. Our bill was very high which we had anticipated, BUT we also expected it for the experience they seem to advertise which we most definitely did not get. We felt we were the ones that shouldve been tipped or possibly put on the next payroll. Lol. Final straw was when we asked to take the remaining tea home. We ordered a lot so there was a lot of leftovers. The girl handed us paper cups and had us poor it all on our own. (Tisk tisk tisk) not accommodating at all. Will not be going back. Wish it would've met the expectations and curiosities we wanted and had been...

My wife and I have been to a few other tea places (namely Clockwork and Skywater), and the experience here was not comparable.

Attempt at keeping it short for brevity. Points are:

Food was good, but the portions per person was about 60-70% of what you normally get. I'm normally unable to finish my portions. I finished them here (silver lining -- no to-go box needed?)

You only get one tea selection, and the tea pot is small. I was really surprised by the unwillingness to just do another tablespoon of a separate looseleaf. Hot water adds only (for a very small amount of tea).

The service was very lacking. I hate guilt-tipping, because I really did not feel like the person there deserved it. She came by twice -- once for asking for hot water refill, and another for me requesting the check. She seemed new, but there was no attempt made to check in and provide service. It was just kind of awkward overall.

Service was SLOW. Food is prepared at these places the previous nights/in the morning (since they have a list of the reservations booked for the day), and are generally ready to go for customers within ten minutes of them sitting down. It took about a half hour for us to get food. The empty tables next to us had their leftover trays sitting out our entire stay.

Vibe is not what I expect from high tea. Location is great, but inside has a mix of nature + storage room feel. Depends on where you sit. The view is nice, however.

As others have echoed, parking was hard to find. Not necessarily a fault of the location. But a pain.

All in all, there are so many other good high tea places that I don't think this is one we'll be coming back to. It was good for the experience and validation that we go to good places already. This provided nothing new, and surprisingly took away from the experience...