Charleston Place Hotel (Lobby Lounge)

Recent reviews

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  A Friend in Tea

   Jul 15, 2009

  Charleston Place Hotel is a gem in the historic district! We were very impressed with our tea service and when I let the chef know that I had food allergies, he prepared a tea tray especially for me without any prior notice. I appreciate the first class treatment that gave us and we look forward to many happy returns to this beautiful hotel. The live music is a special touch! I highly recommend it on your next trip!

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  Lori

   Jul 01, 2009

  While it's probably the most beautiful place that I've had tea, (the lobby chandelier is gorgeous)the tea itself was a little disappointing. My biggest complaint was that my tea leaves were left in the pot and I was given a strainer for my cup. I believe you are to strain the tea into another pot after the appropriate brewing time. Black tea starts to bitter after about 5 minutes of brewing and I simply can't drink a whole pot within 5 minutes. I also thought the price of $32 was a bit high for what you actually received. Gorgeous place however, and they had piano player which added to the ambience.

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  Jessica

   Jan 31, 2007

  Since they changed to the Thoroughbred, I find their tea quite inferior to other places, such as This Whole House.

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  Ann

   Oct 22, 2006

  My husband & I recently visited Charleston to celebrate our anniversary. We made reservations for tea at 1:00 p.m. Upon arriving early we were greeted very cordially by Brittany and offered our choice of any table for two. She happened to be the waitress for the table we chose & was a wonderful, delightful waitress. She explained everything to us, brought the food in a timely manner & was very gracious in her service to us. The tea was wonderful. We each chose a different variety of tea & a different tea service so we could have a chance to experience the two options for tea. Everything was so delicious, and so well presented. A wonderful experience and well worth the time spent in such a leisurely manner. We highly recommend this tearoom and can't wait until we can go again on another visit to Charleston. The highlight of our trip.

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  Christine

   Oct 08, 2006

  I live in Maryland and was in Charleston on a visit with a friend. We walked into the tearoom without a reservations and were treated like royalty. When my friend mentioned that she had a peanut allergy, the staff could not have been more attentive to her needs. The food was absolutely delicious. The tea sandwiches were much more upscale than the tearooms in Maryland, and included fresh shrimp, smoked salmon, and duck. The pastries were to die for. I highly recommend this tearoom, but please call for reservations first, as it is very popular.

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  Donna

   Jun 07, 2006

  I enjoy going to tearooms in cities I visit and I was looking forward to the afternoon tea at the Charleston Place Hotel. I was very disappointed - the sandwiches were bland and had minimal toppings and patrons were seated too closely together (hard to have a conversation with your tablemates).

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  Diana

   Oct 01, 2005

  We are tea salon owners and always look forward to having tea while visiting other areas. We checked in at Charleston Place and immediately made reservations for afternoon tea.Our tea was quite lovely. We enjoyed the tea sandwiches and the desserts were very good. I did not think they were typical of what one finds in the local grocery store. I am very knowledgeable of fine food and they passed with an A+The tea presentation was presented in courses, but many fine establishments do that.My only complaint, tea is held in the lounge where cocktail hour begins early.We look forward to returning.

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  Mr. and Mrs. Patrick J. Keane

   Sep 16, 2005

  Our first trip to the Charleston Place Hotel for afternoon tea was in December 2001. The whole tea experience, in our opinion, was quite lovely and done very traditionally. The tea selection was good and the savories, scones, and desserts were well presented on a three tiered serving piece and very tasty. We so enjoyed them that we again visited the tea room in May 2005. We had quite a different experience and were very disappointed. The tea service had been altered from its traditional form to serving the tea items in 'courses'. The sandwich fillings were so sparse that it seemed as if there was just enough of each to give the bread a bit of flavor. The scones, which had been the size of regular dinner biscuits on our first visit, were small, hard, dry 'things' that had no flavor to them. The desserts were the best part of this tea experience, but we have had better. Conversation was just about impossible because the piano player, sitting no more than 20 feet from us, was playing to the non-existent second balcony and was hardly the background music it should have been. Though there were few other diners in the tea room during our visit, we had to shout to try and converse! Our May 2005 visit was so disappointing that we will not re-visit the tea room during future visits to Charleston.

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  Heather

   Sep 01, 2005

  I've attended to tea at Charleston Place several times now. It's a great location but busily and rushed. My favourite time is of course to enjoy Tea during the holidays when the pianist is playing his festive tunes in the Main Lobby. The atomsphere is fantastic and the lobby is decorated lavishly.

  I was however discouraged about the knowledge of the servers persenting Tea. Having lived in North Yorkshire, England during my teens and becoming very familiar with a Proper Tea, I am very particular about pronunciation as well as the history of tea, etc. I find this a very important factor in the Tea World experience, especially when Charleston Tourists are often not exposed to this special event, while at the same time I treasure it so dearly!