Sherry Smith
User's reviews
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The English Rose Tea Room and Gifts
The atmosphere, food, and tea were wonderful at this tearoom. However, two customer-unfriendly policies are prompting me to write this review. When we called to make our reservation, we were told that parties of 6 or more had to guarantee the required number of guests. So if any guests failed to show up, the others would be responsible. When we polled our group of busy moms, we realized only 4 or 5 might be able to attend. So we made a reservation for 5. Only 4 of us made it. We were told that we were responsible for paying for the 5th person. We were not too upset as we would be able to take home the food of the 5th person. We felt relaxed and unconcerned as we waited an hour for food to arrive (40 minutes after our last guest arrived). However, at 12:45 (we had arrived at 11 am), we were told that we had to vacate our table by 1 pm. A suggestion of sitting at a garden table was made but servers frantically began taking the tea tray and cups out of our hands. So fast that I could barely grab any of the extra food to take home-- that we had to pay for due to the no-show. Perhaps if they had let us know at 11 am that we had to go by 1 pm, it would have been less jarring? It just seems that I have never been under these kinds of pressures (guaranteeing a party number of having to leave by a certain time) at other tearooms or restaurants.