Recently, Lily and I went to the Secret Garden Tea Company for their Autumn high tea. We have been to Secret Garden before and our first review can be found here.
COVID 19
Obviously, things are somewhat different this visit due to COVID 19. When you book your appointment for tea you also must pay for the entire meal up front with a credit card. Gratuity is automatically added to the purchase and you cannot change the amount of it. The afternoon tea is $45 a person. In total, we paid $112.00 for two people. That is not an insignificant expenditure and we were hoping for a good experience.
I would recommend you not arrive very early for your seating. We arrived 10 minutes early and had to wait in a very small area, where others were also present and not everyone was masked.
Service
The servers were cheerful and kind, but they came to the table infrequently after the high tea was brought to the table. We would have liked to have had the hot water topped up sooner. The server we had was good, but had many tables to look after.
Experience
Secret Garden has a lovely homey feel. The mantlepiece is beautiful and housed a gorgeous bouquet. Some of the china has seen better days and we noticed that the seat coverings were quite stained and worn looking. New seat covers would do wonders for improving the overall look of the table. We thought that the squirrel napkin rings were a cute autumnal touch, but they got in the way after we took them off. In order to celebrate their 25 years in business, Secret Garden is handing out a small packet of their teas to take home. This was a nice touch.
Tea
Secret Garden has a wide variety of original tea blends and all of the ones that we have tried have been pleasant. The pots of tea are quite small and the hot water is not refreshed often, so we suggest removing the tea bag after a few minutes to stop the tea from steeping excessively.
Food
The highlights of the savoury section were the Demitasse of Apple Butternut Squash Soup and Shrimp Salad on Mini Croissant. The soup was served warm, which is enjoyable on a cold day and the croissants were nice and fresh. We did not love the BBQ chicken, Cheddar and Coleslaw on Cornbread Muffin. There was too much BBQ sauce and the flavours just didn’t fit with the rest of the afternoon tea.
The mini apple and cinnamon scones were well executed. I really enjoyed the cinnamon scone and they both tasted great with the cream and preserves.
We were underwhelmed by the sweets. The majority of them were very simple and unexceptional. The best of the batch were the lemon tarts and the Chocolate Ganache Cake with Blueberries.
We preferred the offerings at our last visit much more, which was a summer high tea.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we had a very pleasant time. It truly is a gift to go out for tea, especially in the midst of the stress and isolation of COVID-19. It is a moment of peace and normalcy that cannot be overvalued during this heavy time. We were a bit disappointed with the food, as nothing was that exciting or new and some of the traditional elements fell flat. However, our server was warm and happy to help us, and the tea itself was delicious.
