As hundreds before us, we had tea in the dining room to kick off our day at the gardens. It was everything we hoped for, elegant, delicious, unpretentious. We were seated in a side room with a table celebrating a birthday and another table full of young ladies. The birthday table meowed out happy birthday and the vibe from everybody in that room was warm, caring, inclusive, and it made for a great time as we joined it. We all had a great laugh, and it was so nice to be in such a beautiful place with beautiful humans.
Our service was exceptional, every item served was delicious, it was really hard to pick a favorite, but the sausage roll, to me, was definately in the top three. It tasted like my great grandpa use to make when I was a child.
All in all, we had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend!
The atmosphere here is perfect. Love all the Christmas Decorations in this restaurant. Food is fine…not really impressive. Let’s have an overview here😉
🎄Holiday High Tea in The Butchart Gardens
🧈Warm sabayon
•Fig pudding, butterscotch sabayon
💯Signature house scone
•Okanagan plum jam, whipped mascarpone
🥪Savoury sandwiches and delicacies
•North Pacific albacore tuna, caperberry, orange, pine nut
•Farm fresh egg salad, dill pickle, Dijon
•Wild B.C. salmon salad, celery, tarragon
•Cowichan Valley chicken, goat cheese, cranberry, rosemary
•Cremini mushroom quiche, Parmesan mousse, leek ash
•AAA Alberta striploin en croûte, balsamic onion, basil pesto
🧁House-made sweets
•Snowflake sugar cookie | Chocolate torte | •Vanilla bean mousse slice
•Peppermint macaron | Pecan Dulcey chocolate truffle
🍵🌹Rose Congou
•Black tea, rose petals and rose flavouring
🍵🍃Garden Peppermint
•Slow dried peppermint leaves for a superb, refreshing flavour
Bar none, the best high tea experience in Victoria. Menu is stunningly beautiful and even more delicious. We’ve tried every place for high tea in Victoria and this is our favourite. Love the season changes to the menu, and at $50 it’s expensive but not unreasonable. 6 stars!!
Highly recommend! My gluten-free tea experience was outstanding! Happened to be dining solo. Appreciated being seated at a nice quiet table indoors (I opted for indoors) overlooking the Italian garden, and a beautiful view of the dining room. The manager even came to my table to confirm my dietary restrictions prior to the food service. A lovely and generous selection of gourmet savoury and sweet tea items. Especially enjoyed the English Breakfast tea, Rose Congou tea, Butchart Gardens’ heavenly signature scone, sausage roll, wild BC salmon sandwich, and smoked albacore tuna sandwich. You do need to reserve well in advance; and advise of the gf tea/dietary requirements 24-hrs in advance. Thank you for a fabulous afternoon tea!
This place has a special place in my heart- I came here for the first time in the summer while undergoing chemotherapy to celebrate my 5 year wedding anniversary. The server was so kind and attentive and told me that she can't wait to have me back when I was finished treatment so I could enjoy the garden fully. Fast forward to December - I came back to see the garden's Christmas display- and she remembered me, gave me a big hug and it was smiles all around. Not only is the food extremely well prepared and seasoned, I made a lot of yummy noises over the verrine, the staff are professional, friendly and love their job. I can't say enough good things about this place. I have now have an a new anniversary tradition. ❤️
I ordered the well done half rack lamb the lamb was extremely tender on the inside but crunchy on the outside and the vegetables were really juicy and delicious.
Highly recommend to try the afternoon high tea if you have never done so. Great ambience, friendly staff and amazing service; the money spent is well worth it.
Pro tip: Definitely reserve a table in advance. If the website doesn't show any availability, do call them. Our hotel concierge desk assisted us with the booking just a couple of days before the visit.
Food:
For teas, we tried teaberry blend and, lemongrass and ginger. Both of them paired very well with the food. We decided to try vegan menu(shared in the image) and were not disappointed at all. Portions are generous and took some effort to finish off everything on the plate.
We enjoyed the teas so much that we ended up purchasing loose tea leaves from Seed and Gift store.
Experience:
5/5
What a lovely experience. Chose the Bachelor Button tea and you can really taste all of the notes the tea had to offer. Was so relaxing and just able to decompress. The service is top notch. They made you feel quite special. Highly recommend!
The tea selection was a bit weak, and I was surprised several of the teas had artificial flavoring in them. The food was delicious, though a couple menu items for the afternoon tea weren't were shown in the online menu. Pilar's service was amazing.
The online downside was the family with unruly young children who were seated near us. Not what I expect out of an expensive and refined dining experience.
Was somewhat disappointed in a couple of desserts, but was a lovely experience. Our server was kind. Had a beautiful view of the gardens.
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