Michele
User's reviews
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The Royal Tea Room & Restaurant
My experience at the Royal Tea Room was less than pleasant. Myself and two other guests entered the tearoom and gave the host the reservation name. At this time we informed them that one person from our party (of 4) was unable to attend. The host then proceeded to loudly scold us for not calling ahead to inform them of the change. With this the host took off into the kitchen and started barking commands and yelling that our party was 3 instead of 4. I was quiet unsettled by this overreaction. While we were waiting to be seated a waitress came out to the waiting area carrying clean silverware, which she then placed on the checkout counter next to the cash register. This is a surface where money is exchanged and items (mostly antiques) are purchased. A table was then set with this silverware. The poor service continued once we were seated. We received our pot of tea and no cream. We had to ask several times before we received cream. The first course of soup arrived which the waitress almost spilled on me. After soup we anxiously awaited the sandwiches and deserts. However they did not arrive and when we asked, our waitress said that we did not order them. We then had to get a menu and show the waitress that we did order the afternoon tea that included sandwiches and dessert. At this point our teapot was empty and we asked for a second pot, thirty minutes later we received our second pot of tea. Overall I found the service to be less than acceptable for a tearoom.
Tearoom response:
I'm sorry that your experience wasn't enjoyable. Your comments were brought to the attention of all staff members, and no such incident will re-occur. For the benefit of yourself and future customers I would like to explain the process. The formal tea services with the exception of the Cream Tea require preperation time that would exceed the tolerance level of most people. This is why we require reservations for booking them. This allows us to prepare in advance and serve our guests promptly upon their arrival. When we have a late cancellation such as this case we are forced to discard a large portion of the unused service. Our margins as an afternoon only dining venue are very thin. We have not raised prices in the three years we have been in operation, there are significant inflationary pressures to do so. Customer notification of a problem such as this will help us to maintain our current price structure. Again, you have our sincere apology for your experience.