Olympia Tea Room — Restaurant in Westerly

Recently ate at Olympia Tea Room with my husband during a recent weekend trip to RI. The restaurant is located in downtown Watch Hill, but unless you have a window seat or you’re sitting outside, you don’t really get much of a view of the water, if that’s something you’re looking for.

The interior of the restaurant is very cool. Dark wood, very old New England. There is history in this restaurant, which we appreciated.

We arrived early on a Saturday and were starving after a long day of mansion tours in Newport. We were seated promptly and got lucky with a window seat. The service, like the food, was “fine.” Not amazing, not horrible. My husband got the pizza appetizer and said it was good…we are from the NYC area, so we are pizza snobs. I had the avocado carpaccio, which was refreshing and satisfying. We both had a burger as our entree, and they were, again, fine. The bun was dry and the burger was well done when I had requested medium, but it wasn’t horrible.

All this to say, the prices for food that is just “fine” are absolutely outrageous. My husband and I live right outside the culinary capital of the country, and the prices at Olympia Tea Room match those of NYC, but the quality is lacking. I understand that it’s Watch Hill, and I don’t mind paying extra for great food and service, but I’ve eaten at many excellent restaurants in wealthy parts of the Jersey shore that, while not inexpensive, deliver in both food and service and justify their prices. I feel like there is such a huge opportunity to make this an absolute knock-your-socks-off restaurant, and it’s really just missing the mark. Our table wasn’t entirely clean upon arrival, my fork was dirty, and while I know it isn’t supposed to be a “fancy” restaurant, the details are important when charging the prices that they charge.

Something that rubbed me the wrong way was that there were two guests that were leaving while we were eating. One was an elderly guest with mobility issues. One of the staff members (hostess, manager, not sure…she wasn’t a server) moved out of their way, but did not take the extra step to open the door for the guest with mobility issues (they had a walker). The woman just looked at them as they left. Not a huge deal, but it doesn’t matter what type of restaurant it is…if you see an older guest (or any guest) who has trouble walking, you should hold the door open for them instead of standing near them and watching them leave.

Olympia Tea Room has a lot of potential, but unfortunately, this is a one and...

I'm doing this review for this summer season('25) that we were visiting Watch Hill/ Napatree. I continued to hope for a better experience each time(4 visits) we dined The Tea Room but it consistently stayed the same, unfortunately. This has been the BEST part of our summers for the past 20 years w/ our son. This year it was busy as expected and they do not take reservations so we are not surprised for a 45 min- 1 hour wait. We get a drink at the bar while we wait, sometimes a seat opens at bar, others wise we hang out to wait on our table. Each time we had a wait and each time no one wanted to serve us a drink at the bar. No greeting, no eye contact and it seemed like we were bothering them. Our last visit, the young man with his 4 friends sitting at the bar turned to me to ask if I wanted him to order a drink for my husband & I since it wasn't crazy busy but noticed the lack of service and acknowledgement of us.I said no to see if the bartenders were going to even bother to ask since they were standing around. Finally after patiently waiting we were asked what we wanted but not with hospitality. This was consistently the treatment EACH time we were there this season. If they don't want people standing to get a drink at the bar they need to tell hostesses to make customers aware of that. Then they need to take reservations! Another situation... a group of 5 of us went to put our name in for the wait and we were told we could not put our name in because they did not have room for 5people, not even given the option to wait. Shocking!! Another situation... my son's girlfriend & I were standing at bar waiting to order 3 pear martinis & a beer. We waited and waited to not only get service but JUST to be acknoweded. The man bartending WAS busy but was also chatting for awhile w/ bar customers until it took me to jump in to FINALLY get service. I was so embarrassed since I bragged how great the pear martinis were there. When we got our cocktails, no fresh pairs in any of ours as I watched other customers get a garnish. We have no problems that bar tab totaled $75.00 but for that kinda of service & the lack of. We shoulda just not gone back... So the 2 is for consistency. We get the crispy chicken over greens, pear martinis and swan. Its good, not AMAZING, always the same but not worth the treatment as if we are a bother and not wanted there. We'll get an Uber to Misquamicut next time to spend 20.00...

The service brings Olympia Tea Room to 3 stars. The food was delicious, the hostess and runner/attendant were attentive, but the server was dismissive and unhelpful. To the point that my friend hesitated to change her order and when she did, the server refused.

By the end of the meal, after requesting a split check, the server brought us a single check. When we asked her to split it, she refused. I went to the front to speak with a manager who sincerely seemed disappointed which is why I almost feel bad writing this review.

However, when the server returned to our table, (1) she returned with a nasty attitude asking us to tell her the orders again by couple. (2) When she misheard/forgot about an ice tea, she returned to the table again with the bad attitude to remind us that someone ordered an ice tea. (3) She still applied an automatic 18% gratuity for our 6-top which I find inappropriate to leave after what I reported to the manager. She should have left us the option to tip and we probably would have all given 20-22% out of habit, but leaving the automatic 18% left a bad taste in the mouth.

My advice to management is that when the service gets to a point when customers have to speak with you, own the mistake. At this point, the server is probably frustrated and the customer doesn't have confidence in the server. The server is now in a compromised position and neither side is in a position to leave on a good note. As the manager--even if you asked the server to fix the receipt--you could have come to ask us about the break out of items by couple, thanked us for coming, and asked us to come again in the future rather than throwing the server back into action. This gives the server a chance to cool down and the customer a chance to have a positive interaction with management...