Top Tea House

4 Below Average

Food  3      Ambience  5      Service  4      Value  4     

Very disappointing experience. The service was friendly, but the waitress was rushed off her feet. Food not of high quality, tea weak. Will not return.

May 30, 2012 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  10      Service  10      Value  9     

My daughter bought me a high tea voucher from groupon. It was bit daunting after reading the review but I already made the booking couple weeks ago for this Saturday.

I was in fact pleasantly surprised the ambience of this little elegant tea house is spot on. It has a very relaxed feel, the lighting and classic furniture make a visit something worth remembering. To my shock, the tea house had the waiter and waitress on hand to keep the cafe run like clockwork. Their service was prompt, courteous and genuinely friendly.

Their fresh baked scones, chicken pastries and patisserie, all were delightful and very reasonably priced. The tea menu for high tea was very impressive, I couldn't believe there were organic teas for us to choose. My friends and I spent nearly two hours there yesterday afternoon. It was a great way to catch up with friends on the weekend. I highly recommend this tea house to all those favouring an afternoon tea.

May 27, 2012 

2.8 Not Recommended

Food  3      Ambience  1      Service  2      Value  5     

I bought a voucher through Living Social for Top Tea House so in terms of value for money, it was relatively cheap for high tea. However, compared to other places I've been to including Victoria Room, QVB and the Observatory, I thought this place did not compare at all.

The service was a major let down. Though the waiters were friendly, water that was offered took about 10 minutes to arrive. Similarly, milk that was suggested to go with tea took about 20 minutes to arrive after the tea. A long wait between scones and the rest of the food and when we asked how long it was going to be, we were told "it takes as long as it takes."

The food itself was average. I had rung and asked for vegetarian option as the person who took my booking asked if I had any dietary requirements. Of course, this was completely forgotten about and we received the standard fare. As we had already waited a while for the food, we decided not to chase the issue.
Further, for a tea house, we were only offered two types of tea as by 11:30am they had run out of their third type of tea.

The atmosphere/ambience was as dull and unremarkable as the decor. Would I go back? No. Would I recommend it? No.

May 23, 2012 

9 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  9     

The first thing that catches your eyes when you step into Top Tea House is the nice decor and ambience. The food is fantastic and the service superb. I especially like the juicy beef burger and the freshly made cheese cake. You should try the special chocolate drink made by the skilled staff there, its awesome. What a fantastic way to sooth the nerve and reduce a day's stress by having a break at the Top Tea House in late afternoon. I cannot recommend highly enough.

May 14, 2012 

8.8 Highly Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  8      Service  9      Value  9     

Had high tea here on the Saturday for a friend's hens. I found the service to be attentive and very friendly. There was a fantastic selection of teas and a beautiful atmosphere inside. The sandwiches were very fresh and nice. Like the small cakes and sweets (especially the mini cakes). Would love to treat my mum on her birthday.

May 05, 2012 

9.5 Highly Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  9      Service  9      Value  10     

Great food, great service for good value! Tried under recommendation from a friend, very enjoyable experience. Will have no hesitation in returning again.

May 04, 2012 

5.8 Average

Food  7      Ambience  4      Service  7      Value  5     

Well - were we lucky? Compared to other reviewers. On the afternoon of Sat 14 April, we went – 3 of us to the high tea. We had an excellent afternoon with lovely fresh food, nice teas & champagne, all very tasty. The staff were attentive & the food came out nicely spaced, very fresh tasting, and lots of it. The decor & ambience is a bit ordinary, & could be improved, but we had comfortable chairs and space. The only negative - we did have to ask for the 2nd glass of champagne, that was in the offer we had taken up, but it came promptly. We will be back again!

Apr 27, 2012 

8.5 Highly Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  8      Service  10      Value  8     

After reading the terrible reviews I was rather concerned about making a booking to use my voucher. Well, all I can say, is that based on my own experience, I was very pleasantly surprised. I made a booking for a 10.30 seating and with a friend, we arrived at 10.25. We were given a choice of tables and chose one overlooking Hunter St.

We were seated and shortly after, the very cheerful English waitress asked if we would like our glass of bubbly or an alternative juice or cold drink. Choosing the bubbly, it arrived shortly after. The waitress showed us our tea menu from the High Tea list of four choices. When she returned we gave our orders, she asked if I was aware that my choice had a ginger flavour, when I replied that I was not keen on ginger (clearly I didn't read the list carefully) she said I could choose from their more extensive tea list.

I choose English Breakfast and my friend opted for a fragrant and pretty rose tea. Shortly after the arrival of our tea, two large warm delicious scones arrived with jam and cream. The waitress explained that later, the three tiered plate of high tea assortments would arrive. After an appropriate time, this did arrive. The bottom layer of savouries consisted of two types of mini quiche each, two pastizzis, two other flaky pastries.

Each of these was delicious but too filling to finish. The second layer consisted of two different sandwich quarters each and two slices of a savoury wrap each. The fillings included smoked salmon and capers, turkey and cranberry sauce. I didn't try one sandwich as I was too full. The top layer comprised sweets including brownies, mini sponge slice and a very tasty chocolate filled horseshoe pastry.

The waitress and another lady (blonde) visited our table on several occasions and asked if we needed anything or to have our teapots topped. We left at 12.10 feeling more than satisfied with the service and experience. It was a Friday morning and there were many spare tables, so, perhaps, if you are looking for more attentive service, I suggest you try to avoid the weekends (I was informed these were booked out for the next five weeks).

Considering I had recently paid $14 for a glass of French bubbly and $5.50 for a pot of tea at another city eatery, I considered the cost of $25 per head quite reasonable.

Apr 27, 2012 

2.5 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  5      Service  2      Value  1     

Visited the Top Tea House today, with a $49 voucher that was valued at $100 for 2 persons deluxe afternoon tea.

What a disappointment. I arrived about 20 minutes early but was told that I was too early and they did not have a table ready for me. Well and find except there was less than 10 people in the place. There were other empty tables but it seems that my reserved “table” was still being occupied.

We were Not offered the French bubbly. We only had 4 choices of tea and was not told that we could have other choices. We were offered scones to start with, and 20 minutes later it turned up. The scones were really nice and warm. That was the only thing we liked about the whole afternoon.

After another 20 minutes, a 3 tier of afternoon items arrived. There were 2 fingers of smoked salmon and turkey and cheese sandwiches. There were 2 pieces of spinach frittata, quiches and patizzis.

The sweets consisted of rocky road (for afternoon tea?), 2 tiny pieces of cake, 2 little biscuits and 2 crescent biscuits. None of the items were considered a deluxe afternoon tea. And definitely not worth $49.

Service was slow, and for the first time, I actually left an afternoon tea session hungry and disappointed.

Apr 17, 2012 

2.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  4      Value  2     

I went here today with a friend thought we would have a special girls day and thought this place sounded great. Do not go here! we bought a groupon deal and it was like we got shafted cause it was a voucher. I had to walk out twice cause of the heating I almost passed out cause of it, we left after being there 20 minutes after being seated didn't finish our high tea because we felt sick and was about to pass out from lack of ventilation.

The decor was nice, and the person who was hosting us was nice don't get me wrong, the poor girl was running around on her own, and the first thing we noticed was the slight smoke and it was hot, there was no ventilation so even the 2 ladies cooking all the food were sweating and looked hot, I don't know how they work in there.

Well the poor girl serving was so rushed off her feet she forgot our wine after 10 minutes of waiting after being asked if we would like a glass of champagne she didn't come back she was serving other guests, I don't blame her in the end they need another staff member to help.

The food was undercooked, and there was not half of what was said in the voucher, it was all savory on our tiers, no sweets all, no little cupcakes or anything as high tea is generally, the sandwhiches was ok, the tea was nice, we were given a sheet with 4 choices of tea only, we had to ask if there was any other choices which to our delight we could get another choice of tea, I thought since its called "top tea house", the bread was soft, we asked if we could swap our salmon sandwhiches to ham and cheese as we didn't eat salmon the server was nice and exchanged them for us.

But the rest of the food was terrible, the mini quiches were still almost raw, the fritata thing was not cooked properly and the scones were ok it was so hot in the place our cream had melted and we tried to ask the server why is it all savory and no sweet on our tier but couldn't get her attention as she was so busy having to serve other guests.

So overall, we almost passed out with lack of ventilation, no air coming in and it was hot and didn't get what we were promised on the voucher. We paid $49 for 2 people and it was a value of $100, its not worth the $100.

Mar 20, 2012