The Huntington's Rose Garden Tea Room

I am so confused how people say they LOVED this experience. The food was just ok, not traditional really - and if you cannot have caffeine just know they do not offer black tea in decaffeinated. The old tea room had much more charm. Worst for me was the gender neutral bathroom, no other option unless you take a hike through the gardens - I am not sure who was more embarrassed myself or the men in there - on top of that it was not clean. Very disappointing. Of course the gardens are lovely if that is why you came other than that overpriced and average.

It was such a great time with my girlfriends! Would definitely comeback and enjoy all the delicious food and amazing tea's.

Beautiful and delicious

I waited 4 months and it was not worth it. The place is beautiful sure but the food was very disappointing. It tasted like the ingredients were low quality to. Everything was very bland. Even the people next to me said they expected just more. The tea was okay honestly it wasn't even that great I can make a better cup at home. They kicked put half my party because they didn't want to eat anything they only came for tea and I guess that's not allowed so like whatever. Honestly I just wish the food was better. It was very expensive and just again not worth it there are other tea rooms in the same price range with beautiful atmospheres and better food. I wouldn't go here again.

Food and service was pretty good. Bad form to require a reservation since it wasn’t busy. I suppose you need reservations for the weekend which it’s fine. I don’t like making reservations because I don’t when I will visit the gardens, so it would have been nice to know walk in reservations are available. So I’m annoyed because I had to open an account with Open Table. Really really bad form to pay via Apple Pay. The payment machine is not portable and stuck in the kitchen. It’s very tacky and brings down the atmosphere when I have to enter the kitchen to pay for my afternoon tea. After a major renovation and the whole modern era of technology, I would expect that Huntington Library and Gardens would have portable payment machines.

We had such a lovely time! All the food was delicious and the space was beautiful. Definitely worth the wait :)

For the price, the experience was great. The main disappointment was the service. It was a busy Sunday afternoon, so it’s understandable that the servers would be busy and stressed. Our server Efrain(?) was rather inattentive and dismissive from the beginning. His colleagues however were pretty nice and welcoming. Typically for afternoon teas the servers explain the menu and welcomes the guests, but I had to explicitly ask him to go over the menu for my mother who came for the first time. We felt more like a bother, and this overall diminished the entire experience. Out of all the teas we’ve been to, this was the most disappointing in terms of service. A refresher on customer service might be warranted.

Pros - glad to get a reservation same day. Very gracious service staff to also accommodated a larger party than expected. I though it just might be me and no one else would think it’s worth the cost. As it turned out no one wanted to be left out, including a teenager. - Surprisingly very Kid friendly, they have their own menu and a high seat. Never too early to introduce the little ladies to high tea - accommodated all ages of our party from 3yo to 70yo - it’s a beautiful ambiance in middle of an even more Botanical garden - the setting is so serene and pleasant, could spend all day there if allowed in bliss - appreciated the vegan desserts, not expecting this at all. Cons - for the price it’s always disappointing that High Tea had several potential options but you only get one choice of a tea. - the actually quality of the tea I had was bland . It was an herbal tea but I was still looking forward to more flavor profile. It was not just me, the other adults there felt their tea was not strong enough, disappointing. - May have needed another tea bag and the water was not very hot on arrival. - the sandwiches not the highest quality but most were edible. Presentation over flavor. - In hindsight I suspect the reason theEarl Grey was sold out, was that it may have been the only tea to get. Despite the cons, it’s still a must for tea lovers, just stick with the basics.