I dusted off my wellington boots and headed for the city on a snowy November afternoon, excited at the prospect of sipping tea from mismatching china cups and devouring home made cakes at Eteaket Tea Boutique and Cafe.
Welcomed by the slogan ‘KEEP CALM AND HAVE A CUP OF TEA’ I suddenly felt a little unnerved. Heading to the table I was surprised somewhat by the interior which was brightly lit, clinical and disguised with luminous faux antique chairs. It just didn’t seem to fit with the kitsch boutique that Eteaket markets itself as.
With a neat selection of sandwiches and cakes alongside over 40 loose leaf teas ‘expertly sourced from around the world’, it took us a little while to make our choice. Decided, we gave our order to the rather disinterested staff and waited for our tea. ‘Life’s a Peach’ was a light, aromatic and peachy Ceylon blended tea, which got an approving ‘mmm... life really is peachy’ noise from my companion after every sip. Delicious. Wanting to try something adventurous but feeling that one of their hand sewn teas might be a step too far, we went for a rare blend green tea ‘Gyokuro’. Eager to try I went for a quick whiff before my official tea timer had run its course. I was met by the aroma of seaweed. Intrigued, I waited the final thirty seconds and tasted what can only be described as ‘Oysterish’ tea. There was no clue to this on the well written menu.
The food arrived in all its tiered glory as we had opted to try the afternoon tea. The sandwiches of smoked salmon and cream cheese and tuna and sweetcorn were generously filled in chunky slices of fresh olive bloomer. Enjoyable, substantial but underwhelming and sadly from here it went downhill.
I know it is chilly outside but all the more reason not to serve our scone stone cold. Soft and dry, it really was the type of scone that you could find at any motorway service station in the land. With sloppily served sweet jam and clotted cream that had been hanging around for too long, we were disappointed. The mini-cupcakes seemed to have been created at the hands of an eight year old and tasted so too, with sickly sweet icing atop a dense and lifeless sponge. As for the Viennese, it had unbelievably managed to take on the flavour of white spirit. I actually have no idea how this was achieved.
My companion still managed to enjoy the experience but readily admits she would have enjoyed almost anything served on such lovely vintage china. Amazing how a tea stand can fool the taste buds.
My companion still managed to enjoy the experience but readily admits she would have enjoyed almost anything served on such lovely vintage china. Amazing how a tea stand can fool the taste buds.
It is important to support small independent businesses and Eteaket really do have an amazing array of teas to sample. They should be commended for their enthusiasm and commitment to fine teas but seem so busy promoting the brand, website, online store, gifts and events that they’ve forgotten the importance of baking simple, fantastic patisseries and serving them with a smile.
3/10
3 comments:
I'm so glad to hear someone else shares my opinion on eteaket! The tea is fantastic, but everything else (the service, the cake, the atmosphere) just falls short. I'd like to recommend The Edinburgh Larder to you. It's has a reduced selection of eteaket teas but their service and baking is far superior.
The Edinburgh Cafe Enthusiast
@hewstone Thanks for the tip I will certainly give it a try as soon as I stop suffering from scone induced nightmares!
Hope you enjoy the blog.
I must agree with you, I have been to Eteaket many a time and whilst the tea is always perfect, the service from sour faced staff and the lack of attention to detail really irked me.
On one occasion our tea was served minus spoons and milk and they forgot my business partners scone for over twenty minutes. When reminded of the spoons it took a further ten before we got any. Whilst there are a couple of lovely people working there, many of the staff are sour faced and when I spoke to the red haired manager I found her downright rude.
The food also leaves a lot to be desired. Sadly whilst they have some gorgeous cakes and pastries, they serve horrible margarine that poses as butter and the clotted cream for the scones never fails to have a crust on it from having been left out too long.
The number of staff they have "trialling" is also worrying as it would appear they are unable to keep staff for very long, which actually says a lot about the working environment and as shown this translates into the cafe environment for the customers.
Lovely concept and fantastic tea but sadly ruined by the horrible service and poor attention to detail.
I can think of many places I'd rather have tea in Edinburgh!
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