The Quail & Thistle Tea Room

The food and charm of this place are both exceptional. We were making our way from Carmel to San Francisco and decided to stop. Worth the small detour to get here.

One of the finest places in Santa Cruz county. Great taste, great service and wonderful ambiance all around

Amazing tea house, amazing staff and delicious tea and snacks, highly recommend for relaxing day

I loved this place! So cute and full of charm. I visited with my sister and we both had a great experience.
The finger foods were more than enough to leave you feeling full, at least for me they were.
I can’t wait to go back!

tea!
I really enjoyed there olive cream cheese.

The food– okay, here we go. I ordered the California Country Tea. They offer soup (which was new for me). It was a Tomato Bisque today. Good flavor + texture, pretty chunky. I couldn’t have too much of it. The rest of it (4 tea sandwiches, 2 savories, scone with fixings + their sweets of the day)…came all on ONE PLATE!!! And you were just left to figure out what was what. If we didn’t question our server, we would’ve just never known?! I thought it was very overwhelming. No tiers. :(Let’s start with the Scone. It was a plain scone (which I now appreciate, thanks Leticia!). It came with some sort of cream (which our server described as «sour cream with sugar») + strawberry jam. Not what I’m used to, but it worked. My SIL described the cream as «frosting.» It was rather thick + chewy for a cream… Scone was good. No complaints there. I went in for the Roast Beef tea sandwich. Very plain! Bread with mayo + roast beef, nothing special there. But, the roast beef was such a thick cut the whole thing fell out when you took a bite of it?! Awkward! You’re sitting there trying to bite this piece off, and it just continues to fall out of the finger sandwich. The Chicken Salad was okay. The Cucumber with Mint Butter (sounds divine right?) was bland! And open-​faced? We didn’t even realize that was our 3^rd sandwich?! The Olive Cream Cheese (which our server raved about) was sooo salty! The kalamata was so overpowering! I couldn’t have more than one bite. I also just had one bite of the Sundried Tomato Crostini (1 of the 2 savories). The other was a Pesto Quiche-​esque thing. That was good! But so tiny. For the desserts today, they offered a Mini Cheesecake Bite, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Earl Grey Cookie, Peanut Butter Cookie, Raspberry Loaf + fruit. Here’s what I thought of those…
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I have to say– what I liked best about this spot was the service. Our server Stephen was very personable. He gave us everything we needed and was a nice guy throughout our visit. At one point it got really warm (doesn’t it always, after you’re having cup after cup of hot tea!?), and he opened the window for us. He took a few shots from [like] 4 different cameras + camera phones for us! When he had to leave, he ensured us the owner + cook in the back would take care of us and they sure did come out a few times to check if we needed anything. When it came time to pay, they broke down our bill for us + made it easy to divide. Very sweet people.

I’ve had my fair share of afternoon tea and am pretty picky with placement and my tea sandwiches.
Was intrigued by this place since it had pretty high reviews and was drawn by the photo of the cute, little pink house.
Tea sandwich selection is TINY. Only two real afternoon tea choices: vegetarian or nonvegetarian. Placement of the food looks pretty bad, imo. Everything is literally just stuck in one plate. Your desserts are touching your savories, which I REALLY don’t like. Who wants cheese on their scone? Uh, not me.
Tea selection is OK enough. Stuck with the standard earl grey. Sandwiches were nothing spectacular and again the selection was really underwhelming. There really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary in the menu that I honestly couldn’t whip up from home (if I weren’t lazy). Afternoon tea order came with a bowl of tomato bisque as the starter. Tomato bisque tasted like the Sargento Pasta Sauce… don’t know what else to say.
Also, I’m from the SJ area so the drive to get here was pretty bad. If you suffer from motion sickness at all, please do yourself a favor and take some dramamine before driving up. The roads are long and winding and it’s not a very enjoyable ride.

I was here on Father’s Day and we indulged in the special menu offered on this day. This was my first visit here and I must say that it was truly a delightful experience. The servers were very pleasant and attentive, the atmosphere was tranquil and charming, the tea was perfect and the food was simply delicious. The portions may have appeared small but in reality it was more than enough as I was left totally content. Can’t wait to go back!

I have been here on a couple of occasions with different people and the food is good each time. I tend to be filled by the end of it and have leftovers too! I have gotten both the meat and vegetarian options and they both are very delicious. I especially loved the cucumber mint sandwich. I have tried the hibiscus tea as well as a lavender earl grey tea here and both are really good and if you can’t finish you’re tea ask for a to-​go cup! The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because the second time I came here the waitress seemed somewhat off and barely paid attention to us when there were only two tables in the entire place. We literally had to wave her down and even then she was kind of spaced out. The first time I went my waitress told me about some special teas of the day but this time around none of that happened. I also think the desserts portion of the set we got was way too sweet where I barely wanted to take a bite out of each thing. The chocolate covered strawberry I think was actually probably a day or two old and was layered almost half an inch thick in chocolate. Besides that the sets were decently priced and I spent about 30 or so including tax and tip for a set for myself.

The tea room was as I expected; sm

This was another cool find in the Capitola area. We called before opening, and they answered. Asked if it was okay to have our pup sit out on the patio as we have tea. They said it was cool. They even provided water.
Upon arrival, we went to the rear entrance where the patio was located. Danny (husband of the owner) politely greeted us as we got settled. I forgot the other server’s name, but he was helpful in our choices of tea as well as the dishes they server.
We simply wanted to relax with some tea and ordered the California Country Tea: Omnivore’s Delight. This had the Soup of the Day, the tomato soup which was creamy and made just right. Finger sandwiches and deliciously made sweets. I really really loved the ginger/​molasses brownie (or cookie). I’m not sure, it was super good. As far as the tea, I had the Tiger Eye. This was a black tea with caramel. I’m a caramel fan, so I thought the server made the right choice for me! I forgot what tea the gf had, but she had a rosey type of tea. I’m not into those, but she really enjoyed it too.
Danny came out and share a little bit about the place, which was informative and nice of him. Even our pup enjoyed resting her tail here that she fell asleep. Next time I return to Capitola, I’ll make it a point to come back. It’s a nice break away from the crowd near the beach.