Tea Time in Vancouver… a short review

I just got back from a short vacation in Vancouver. My reason for going this time around was to celebrate my sister’s 30th birthday but of course I took the oportunity to visit some (not all, there are too many!) of my favourite eateries and to try a couple of new ones in between the celebrations. For me there is no such thing as a trip to Vancouver without trying at least one of the tea houses or tea services that the city has to offer. There is one tea house that I love called The Secret Garden Tea Company but this time I tried two other tea services, one of them was quite good and another one not so much but still worth mentioning.

Starting with the good… The Urban Tea Merchant.
This place has an excellent selection of teas. It seems like their whole theme revolves around the gobal culture of tea. The Urban Tea Merchant now has two locations in the lower mainland. One in West Vancouver and one in Downtown Vancouver which, to me anyway, makes it more convenient to get to. The store is very serene and I really enjoyed walking through it and looking at their merchandise, staff is very friendly and oh-so-knowledgeable about their teas and are very happy to give you recommendations and even give you a sample of their teas. Their afternoon tea service is great too! Reservations are recommended but not necessary. No matter what you are having, either their large afternoon tea service or just one of their decadent desserts accompanied by a cup of their lovely teas (I had their Petite Tea Service), you are not going to be disappointed. If you are in the downtown Vancouver area I totally recommend you stop by!

The Not so Good: The Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver.
The idea was good. Trying a high tea service at one of Vancouver’s high end hotels. The result, a not so pleasant experience.
Let me begin by saying that this hotel is definitely beautiful and has a very peaceful atmosfere from the moment you walk into the lobby. This review is only for the tea service.
My sister and I walked in and were told that the tea service starts at 2:30pm so we proceeded to make a reservation (it was 12:30 at that time) they told us that they were booked for 2:30 but they had openings at 3pm… so we took it! When we returned at 2:50 we were told that the table wasn’t ready (there were 5 or 6 tables free, the room has about 12 tables) but to please wait in the lobby and someone would come get us in 10 minutes or so… 20 minutes later we were still waiting so we went up again and asked if our table was ready, we were told (again) that our table wasn’t ready but if we waited in the lobby someone wold come get is in 10 minutes or so.. hmmm. I told the hostess that we’d rather wait there because we were supposed to have been seated 10 minutes ago. It took only 5 minutes to get us seated after that…. When they handed us our menus there was only 2 choices on there: The Twiddle Dee and the Twiddle Dum, being two of us we wanted to try one of each, we were then told that we could only have one choice for the table, just like that, no explanation as to why. It didn’t make sense to us but by this time we were getting a little annoyed so we agreed. Their tea selection is also dismal, only 5 types of tea including English Breakfast, Earl Grey, a Green Tea and a Rooibos. I suppose my expectations for the venue were too high but was tempted at that moment to walk 2 blocks over to where The Urban Tea Merchant was serving an array of at least 50 teas. However, we chose one of the teas and waited for our food. The table setting was very beautiful but unfortunately the food really wasn’t that great. All in all we were very disappointed from the moment they forgot to set our table. So, if you’re looking for a great tea service, please don’t choose the Shangri-La but, if you want a luxury hotel to stay in, I would definitely stay there.

Today’s Quote: Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world. ~T’ien Yiheng