Our 4th Spot:

The English Rose Tea Room & Gifts

163 West Neal Street  Pleasanton, CA 94566

http://www.theenglishrose-pleasanton.com

We walked in just as a baby shower party was being seated.  I think the hostess thought we were with them, so we were kind of ignored + left to be standing around.  I was beginning to be perturbed, when our server caught eyes with me.  I told her we weren’t with the big party, and she took care of us right away.  There was 6 of us.  We were sat in the corner to the left of the place.  By the way, UL-TRA CUUUTE!!  It’s a tiny place, very intimate.  All the decorations were gorgeous and ‘to the T’ with respects to tea houses.  (Or ‘to the Tea!’  Hehe.)  However, I was slightly uncomfortable as we were so squished!?  I felt like both my knees were touching each of my girlfriends’ to the left + right of me.  And my boobs-  preeetty much resting on the table.  LOL.  I wasn’t sure where to put my purse.  They also have really cute pillows on each chair (that were comfortable, but more in the way in my opinion).

                   

As you sit down, your server comes and gives you some sort of sugar biscuit then offers you their feature blend of the day.  Today’s was: Victoria’s Harvest Blend.  A mix of apricot + almond.  Right off the bat, you can smell the almond.  Oh my it was delicious!!  She then explained we get UNLIMITED TEA!!?!  We were allowed 2 pots of tea per table (we had 2), and we can exchange the pot for another flavor at any time.  And boy, did they have a LOT of flavors!  I thought that was good + bad, as there are plenty to try but it does make it hard to select.  They offered close to a HUNDRED TEAS!!

At our visit, we tried:

Chocolate Mint – Smelled incredible!  A table favorite, but I thought the smell was stronger than the flavor.  Not bad though!

Pumpkin – My all time fave of the day!!  I’m a sucker for pumpkin-flavored stuff, and this tea was delectable!!  It was ultra “clovey” (word of the day: had a strong clove flavor), and made for a very interesting tea!

Strawberry Kiwi – I didn’t taste this one as I’m not much into fruity teas, but my girlfriend said it was good.  Not great, as it was rather bland.  But, not horrible either.

Passion Fruit – Didn’t try, but gf said it was lovely!

Crème Brulee – Gulped my last cup of the almond one down to make sure I tried this one!  It was nice smelling, and a perfect finishing tea.

Mango – Again, didn’t try but the table said it was good!

         

The food came out in the usual 3 tier set up.  Sandwiches on the bottom, a few savories in the middle, and scones + petit fours on top.  I went for the scone first.  Fluffy middle + crispy edges, still warm.  Plain scone, which I’m starting to really enjoy (I can appreciate the fixings more!).  The clotted cream was thick + firm.  I’m used to a looser consistency, but I liked this one.  The lemon curd was homemade!  Nice touch.  Then, they offered strawberry jam.  I can’t give a fair review on the food, because I wasn’t really feeling having too much of it.  I tried to at least take a bite out of everything, so that I can comment.  There were new flavors than the saaame ole sandwiches, but nothing that really excited me.  They offered one with sundried tomato, an egg with green onion (love me some egg salad, but I despise green onion), a chicken salad with cranberry, and of course the infamous cucumber.  The savories, I liked.  They had one with mushroom and a quiche-like one with butternut squash (…I hope I’m getting these right, because I totally forgot everything that our server explained as soon as she walked away!?).  The sweets were alright.  The highlight of that tier was this mini pumpkin cheesecake thing.  Again, I really only had BITES of stuff.  Take it for what it is.

         

Their service was impeccable.  Our server was just lovely.  Explained everything as it came, was prompt in our requests, and just a total sweetheart.  The owner came to our table, and we had a nice little chat about the tour.  The service really impressed me.  At first I was annoyed that we weren’t seated right away, but as our visit continued the service just kept getting better + better.  It was really hard to say anything negative in my testimonial, as they were just so wonderful to us.  But-  I will always be HONEST with you (my readers!  😉  ), as that’s what you deserve.  I would come back again for the teas, definitely.  Actually, I can’t wait to come back, as there were lots more on their tea menu that I really wanted to try!  I hope you all do, and please share which ones you enjoyed!?