By Simran Jayasinghe
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.
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.