Andi
User's reviews
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Harmony Tea Room
I visited the tea house yesterday with my Mother. I was dissappointed. The atmosphere is bland. The walls are plain with just a few framed pictures, the tables with plain white linens and was extremely small. The dropped ceiling was water stained and very unappealing to look at. So small that there we 6 two seater tables and 1 table that would seat up to 4. I can't imagine how they would ever have the live music. If you require the restroom, many other customers will have to move in order for you to get to the door. The bathroom was nicely decorated. The guests even get to use a thick washcloth size towel to dry their hands, then place the used towel into a hat box. The tea itself was great tasting. No sugar on our table or even offered. The tea we chose was recommened to be drunk with sugar for a better taste, so this I thought was strange. The tea was weak so did not require sugar anyhow. The soup, Tomato with lemon rosemary was fantastic, as was the Harmony salad with a cranberry goat cheese. The sandwiches and deserts were disappointing. If you don't like mayo or cream cheese you will not like any of them. The deserts even come with a chocolate, choc chip cookie, not what I imagined. The most disappointing part of the meal was the scones, which being English, we looked forward to the most. Not a traditional scone by any means! Tasty but not what you would expect in England. First off they were flavored and not plain, strange as they were accompanied by a raspberry jelly, not a jam, and a strange looking lemon curd. It is hard to imagine a cinnammon pecan scone, or an oatmeal raison scone with fruit jelly and Devonshire cream. The cream was the worst. It was a serving meant for two, but would have easily fit on a tiny teaspoon. The jelly and curd was served in a tiny portion as well. The service was not the best either. We were asked to seat ourselves, even though we had a reservation. We were then handed paper menu's with the same informtion on it as their website, harmonytearoom.com. We were not yet told about the soup of the day or salad of the day, and we had to ask what was on the sandwiches etc... We waited several minutes before we were approached and asked if we wanted to know what the soup and salad was. In conclusion I feel the tea house was a boring, sterile environment with good food, but definately not in a traditional teahouse expectation. I would offer this advice to the tearoom: create a more warm, feminine atmosphere, and if you cannot afford a decent size portion of imported cream make you own whipped cream with heavy cream, also you must serve jam preserves not a tiny portion of jelly. For the price we expected a much better traditional experience.
Tearoom response:
Andi,
Sorry you didn't enjoy your visit and I'd like to address your comments. As for the decor there are a few additions coming and I've been waiting for a new roof but it seems to rain the days I'm closed so the tiles will be changed and I agree they are not pretty. We did have an extra table in th room to accommodate our Mother's Day weekend visitors. We have 2 scones on the menu one oatmeal raisin which is our 'plain' for the day and the flavored. We are always happy to provide more accoutrements to the scones. Funny I wasn't giving the lemon curd which we make ourselves with the cinn. pecan scone and then someone asked for it so we gave it to all. The menu changes often so I do not go into detail in printed form. I like to use tea in cooking so the cookies are a chocolate chai cookie. My servers usually give menus and later tell the soups and salads of the day and when the tier is served they explain what is on them. My tea room isn't a stuffy traditional tea room but it is a reflction of my vision of the atmosphere I'd like to create. If all tea rooms we full of lace and knick knacks wouldn't that be boring? Thanks for your comments.
Mary Ann