The Grand Tea Room – A Restaurant Review

By Simran Jayasinghe

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Tea at the English Countryside (image by Jayasinghe family).

The “Grand Tea Room” located on Grand Avenue in downtown Escondido, is a unique eatery. The “Grand Tea Room” serves traditional English teas. This means that they serve many different types of teas, as well as tea sandwiches, salads, and scones in the tradition of a meal known as English tea.
When you enter “The Grand Tea Room”, you find yourself in a little gift shop that has little mini handbags, small jewelry boxes, teapots, china tea sets, tablecloths, and many different kinds of teas (43 different kinds according to their website). The seating area of the tea room is behind the gift shop. All of us admired the ambiance of the tea room. The walls had beautifully framed pictures, and one of the walls was decorated in the scene of a English countryside. Each table had a beautiful tablecloth, ours was made of white lace. The table was also set with two charming white teapots, cups and saucers with pink flowers on them. The side plates were shaped like a flower and were made of glass.
The website suggests that you dress up in appropriate attire, and you should check the website before you visit. If you want to wear a hat you can, but if you don’t have a hat of your own, you can borrow one of the hats they have. Reservations are needed.

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On our best behavior (image by the Jayasinghe family).

We ordered a pot of Ceylon tea with five orders of the “Assorted Tea Sandwiches and Savory” menu item, one for each of us in the family. In one “Assorted Tea Sandwiches and Savory” order, we were served a chicken tea sandwich, a cucumber tea sandwich, an egg tea sandwich, and a Shepherds Pie. The sandwiches were not like a usual dinner, or lunch restaurant sandwich, they were much smaller.The sandwiches and the Shepherds Pie were delicious! We also had four orders of scones to share. Each order comes with two scones, one blueberry, and one plain. The scones came with cream, preserves, and a lemon curd which was delicious! We liked the Ceylon tea so much that we ordered two more pots of tea! My sisters and I drank six cups of tea each!
We were on our best behavior, and exercising our British accents! The visit to the tea room was the highlight of our week, which I will never forget. Although the price was a little expensive, I am most definitely going there again. You must try the “Grand Tea Room”, I am sure it will be a memorable experience.

For more information visit the Grand Tea Room Website.

Extraordinary Desserts- A Restaurant Review

By Kiran Jayasinghe

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Three delectable cakes and a scrumptious cookie! (image by the Jayasinghe family).

“Extraordinary Desserts” is a restaurant that serves delicious and truly beautiful desserts. You might be thinking, “The word ‘Extraordinary’ is probably just to attract attention.” The name does attract attention, but the desserts ARE truly extraordinary! The “Extraordinary Desserts” my family visited is located in downtown San Diego, near Balboa Park. There is also a location in San Diego’s Little Italy.

We had read online that the restaurant tends to be crowded, and it certainly was very crowded when we visited. When you enter the restaurant, there is a display of assorted cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries, and other baked goods. You make your selections as you stand in line and walk along the display, then you order your food from the cashier. We ordered four slices from different cakes for all of us to share. For a party, you can order whole cakes, or a batch of cupcakes. After ordering, you take a seat inside or outside, and, after a few minutes, a server will bring your food to the table.

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So delicious! Too good to eat! (image by the Jayasinghe family).
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My sisters choice. (image by the Jayasinghe family.)

When the food was brought to our table, at first, nobody ate. We just admired the cakes and took pictures. The cakes looked so beautiful! Some of the cakes even had real flower petals adorning them. But eventually we gave in and tasted a bit of each cake. My sisters and I had milk to go with our cake. The milk toned down the richness of the cake.
One slice of cake was sitting in a pool of chocolate and raspberry syrup, with red flower petals and raspberries on top of the cake. Also on top of the cake was some sort of chocolate frosting, made to look like a flower. It was my little sister’s choice. We also tasted a cake that was sitting in a pool of red, green, and orange syrup, all cleanly separated but joined together, as if there was an invisible, thin, separator in between the three colors. It was indescribably delicious! The name of the cake was so fancy, I unfortunately don’t remember it, but the photo on this post will show you exactly how it looked. The prices are expensive, but the taste and look of whatever you order will be worth your money. “Extraordinary Desserts” is a restaurant you will likely never forget!

For more information, go to the Extraordinary Desserts website.