Last wekend my girlfriends and I enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea sitting at The Secret Garden Tea Company in the Kerrisdale area of Vancouver. I had heard many good reviews of this place recently and wanted to try it out for myself. Since I love my tea, anytime of day, and enjoy the company of my girlfriends, I thought why not make it a date.

I booked  a reservation ahead of time, and we had a two hour seating from 2:15pm – 4:15pm for five of us. Tea for five, and five for tea! We all arrived on time for our reservation booking and without planning for it, we were all slightly dressed up for the occassion. It just feels like something that warrants your “sunday best”. 



Everything is so quaint inside and cozy feeling.  We were seated on time for our reservatrion, and if you arrive early there is plenty to look at. There are over the counter goods and a full selection of loose leaf teas to purchase, as well as a fun selection of tea pots and gift items.





The family-owned business is run by two sisters-in-law, and their mission is to offer moments of comfort, beauty and joy in an elegant yet comfortable setting, with beautiful treats and a good cup of tea. Who can say no to that? 

I felt right at home looking around at all the different items they had in store too. Pictured above is a wall of different tea cups and pots that I thought were stunning. …I am inspired to save up for a fancy teapot to use at home (not sure what the prices were here, but I know from other shops that the pretty ones do not come cheap. You get what you pay for though!)





The table is done up so nicely, I felt like I was about to have tea with my grandma, somewhere in the English countryside.  Our plates appeared to be diffferent but our tea cups and saucers were all the same. 

Our seating began with a tea sample, mine was the little blue tea cup pictured above. They held maybe two ounces of tea, like a shot glass with class. My pinky finger was fully out as I sipped my sample of tea.

We chose the afternoon high tea menu option which is $29 per person, plus tax and gratuity. I felt like it was fairly good value because we were able to sit and enjoy our tea over the full two hours and take our time. The best and hardest part for me, was choosing a tea! With a large menue to choose from, it was hard to be decisive. I wanted to stick to my regular Earl Grey choice, knowing it would be delcious, but I wanted to try something new too. I ended up choosing Berry Vanilla Black Tea. 



Our High Tea included a pot of tea per person and they arrived in these adorable tea cozy covered pots. The order also included a selection of little sandwhiches, loaves and scones, and dessert bites. We all felt satisfied in the end. The kitchen was also very accommodating to any dietary needs of the group, vegetarian, nuts, etc. 

Here was our seelction of goodies for the table:





I loved the top two tiers most, as I am partial to my baked goods! The sandwhiches at the bottom were fresh as well and the croissants were lovely. The scones are my favourite item to enjoy with tea because it comes with this delicious cream and fruit preserves.



We all worked our way up the platters to the top dish of dessert bites. Chocolate, and lemon, and spiced cream were some of the flavours we enjoyed. I noticed that our whole table saved the lemon tarts for last,  we love our lemon!

We had such good conversation flowing that the time passed quickly, but we did not feel rushed either. I would definitely return for another experience here, and I would happily gift this experience too. If you haven’t been to the Secret Garden Tea Company yet, you must go. If you call 604-261-3070, you can make your reservation right now 😉