Glen Eyrie Castle Afternoon Tea

Came for Royal Tea on a Sunday morning with friends. I reserved 5 weeks in advance (because I know they are very busy in November-​December with teas, events, concerts and Madrigal). We were all set up when our appointed date got canceled to accomodate another larger group. We had to try to re-​figure out a new date which was logistically hard with a party of 6 with traveling husbands and a lack of babysitters. I thought that was not very nice, since we had made reservations in due time, and that’s one of the reasons why I am not giving this experience 5 stars.
The other reason was our server. She was a bit dry and did not go out of her way to be friendly. At the end of our meal, she told us (and the other remaining table) that we had to leave because they had to prepare the room for another event. I guess this was understandable, and I would have not thought much about it in another occasion, but given that our reservations had already been cancelled once to accomodate a different group, I felt this was the second concession I had to make… and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.
As far as tea is concerned. I really liked the assortments of teas we had to choose from. At the end of the meal, we drove down to the carriage house (where the bookstore has moved to) to buy some extra tea to take home. We also liked the soup a lot. We had the Fall Tea so our menu was: Carrot Coconut soup and Hearty Grain Bread with Basil Butter, our Main Entrée was: Apple, Pecans and Cranberries mixed greens salad with Rooibos Orange Crème Dressing then a Turkey, Gouda & Apple Open Faced mini Sandwich, a Potato Bread & Cranberry Crème mini Sandwich and a Savory Tomato Jam Thumbprint cookie. Desert plate was: a Brown Sugar Cherry Scone a mini Apple Pie Tartlet a St James butter cookie and a chocolate coin with a mug of Apple cider.
All the food was excellent, the portions were smaller, compared to other high teas I have had in the past in other locations across the country, but everything was excellent and meticulously presented. Overall a great experience and definitely something to do with visitors from out of town. I will definitely be back (during a different season, to enjoy a different seasonal menu) and bring more guests. Hopefully I will have more luck and won’t be rescheduled.
PS: If you get there early enough there are some fancy hats that you can borrow for the tea to make the day even more fun. :)

For it’s ability to take you back to another time this place is a solid option on a tea tour. We were there for my birthday this summer and everyone really enjoyed themselves. I’ve been to «Tea in a Castle» to several other places and Glen Eyrie gets high marks. As you can expect with an older facility, bathrooms are not easily located/​accessible and there is no stairs only elevators. The staff was politely accommodating about my bringing my infant son.

I grew up visiting Glen Eyrie and it is always a fascinating stop and i enjoy the opportunity to share it with others. The location is idyllic and the castle is stunning. It is tucked back in a canyon near the Garden of the Gods. (grew up going to summer camp up that canyon in the mtns and as campers we would make the ‘trek” down the canyon to Glen Eyrie at least once each time) The castle may initially look somewhat smaller, but when you start walking around and seeing from different viewpoints it is every bit of the 38,000 sq ft mentioned. And the attention to detail throughout the castle is simply superb: plaster inlay ceilings, intricate woodworking throughout, and the furnishings …
So, the grounds, the castle itself always steal the show from the actual tea service, but it is also quite enjoyable despite being quite pricey … but at least try for a window seat (and if going in the winter, dress appropriately for a castle) ;P … The various times I have been here for tea we have received good or great service and the food has always been good. This most recent time it seems like the food may not be all that I remembered …
I would love to give it 5 stars just based on the location and my memories, but they really do need to spend a little more on the portions and quality to be 5 stars …

The castle and staff are great. The grounds are amazing! The Queens tea was pricey but we were seated at a window with and amazing view and that made it worth wild. Nothing extraordinary about the food served but it wasn’t bad. We ended up staying the night. Standard room in one of the cabins down from the castle. Not bad for the price! No tv but hey do have wifi.

Attended a morning Royal Tea and tour today at Glen Eyrie and was very happy with the experience. The website states clearly two teas per table and we were seated with two tables so we got to choose 4.
The location of the castle is beautiful, nestled in the canyon by Garden of the Gods. The castle itself looks small when you arrive but it is 38,000 SF.
We enjoyed tea in the music room with its mint green walls. To skip mentioning the plaster ceilings, woodworking throughout and attention to details would be skipping discussing so much of the charm.
Our tea began with bay scallop ceviche and tortilla chips which was tasty with a jalapeño kick. We choose our selections of tea and waited for them to steep. Round two of our food was an herb tomato frittata with Gouda grits, fresh fruit drizzled in honey yogurt and a wedge of cheddar. Our teas were ready at this point and we enjoyed their house blend (a black tea), a bourbon vanilla, and the angel mist which was a strawberry lemon flavor. The fourth we chose was the three flower which really just tasted like hot water that had flowers sitting in it-​though it was fun to watch the flowers open in the water.
Next we served shortbread, blueberry scones, strawberry tartlet, lime cookie and Devonshire cream.
Our final treat was an individually wrapped chocolate from Patsy’s just down the road. We also had a ginger Orange splash non alcoholic mimosa like drink. They offered refills of our tea and continued filling waters and the ginger Orange drink throughout.
Our tea was 90 minutes which was plenty and the tour thereafter was also 90 minutes. Our servers, Sophie and another gal were very attentive, great with describing our items and patient.
Our tour guide Charlie was informative, friendly and fun.
Had a great time. Would recommend every try this once.

I took my husband for the tour of the castle and was so impressed that it is still an open and working castle. The gentleman who designed this would be honored that the public gets to enjoy his home. He truly was way ahead of his time. I though the tea was good and quaint but I was very surprised that my husband enjoyed it as much as he did. It was not too expensive either. I do not understand the poor reviews. We will absolutely return to this little hidden gem for a nice anniversary or a special occasion and stay overnight. What a treat!

Me and my mom went here for my birthday. We did the $ 7 (per person) tour and first and then the $ 20 (per person) afternoon tea. You have to make a reservation over the phone with a credit card and the gratuity is included. At the time of payment.
The tour was boring, with the first 15 minutes spent watching a documentary on a tv with a room full of people. Then we went outside and looked at the outside of the castle (house?) then we went inside again to look 2 bedrooms. This all took almost 2 hours and we would have been late for our tea had we stayed in the tour. The tour guide promised that the tea servers would wait for us, but we had made reservations and didn’t want to hold anything up. I felt like we totally wasted 14 dollars.
The tea itself felt very overpriced for what it was. The teacups had recently made tea stains in them and the caddy with the sugar and cream had some kind of old foodstuff stuck to it.
First course was a spinach artichoke dip. The dip itself was tasty, but the bread it was served with was very cold like it was still frozen and just now defrosting.
Then the teas came out, my mom had creamy earl grey and I had green tea, they was alright. We sampled each other’s and she thought mine tasted like wood and I thought hers tasted like soap suds… unimpressive.
The next course came out. It was a quail egg salad stuffed into a tomato. It was full of tons of onions… waaaay too many and it was advertised to come with stuffed with dill but it did not.
There was also a turkey slider which my mom said was tasty, and a sort of sandwich made with sour dough bread and orange marmalade. The taste itself was fine, but the bread was stale and hard like they had cut it into a round shape and then left it to stale.
There was also a pumpkin scone which tasted good and 2 crunchy gingerbread cookies shaped like starts that had obviously been bought bulk somewhere like walmart.
The last course which I was looking most forward to, dessert… it was 2 packaged dinner mints. one of them coated in chocolate like an m&m…no…I’m not even joking. I was expecting petit fours or a little cake or truffles… anything…not dinner mints you can buy from the dollar store.
I guess the experience of having tea was kind of cool, but way overpriced, and I was expecting a lot more. This has so much potential if they would use actual homemade baked goods for dessert and better quality ingredients and cleanliness for everything else.
Anyway, I will try tea again, just not here. Would not recommend.

I have had afternoon tea in many cities from fancy hotels in big cities to refurbished southern homes in small towns, so I have come to expect more perhaps from full afternoon tea experiences. I had heard many good things about tea at Glen Eyrie and was looking forward to having Royal Tea with my mother last weekend.
I was unfortunately disappointed in the experience; it was the worst experience I have had in 15 years of visiting tea rooms. The start of grilled artichoke Dip with Artisan bread was delicious; however, I was surprised at the menu of tea options, only 8 total. I usually see much more than that and only two of them were black teas. While I did enjoy my Cream Earl Grey, I would have preferred an Assam tea instead.
When our food arrived, it wasn’t served on a three-​tiered platter as I have seen everywhere else, but rather the main and dessert courses were all on one small platter. When it’s presented that way, it appears to be less food and not as elegant. I felt as though they misrepresented their listing of assorted chocolates, which was nothing more than a butter mint and a chocolate butter mint individually wrapped, as though it was bought in bulk and would be something I’d expect to come with a check at a nice restaurant. I expected something fancier or homemade.
Lastly, we were not encouraged to linger and enjoy conversation. Tea started at 2:30 and at 4pm everyone was told we needed to leave because it was over. That was a first in my experience.
I felt the experience wasn’t quite worth the $ 27 that I paid for. I’d rather spend a little more and get more of the traditional afternoon experience at the Brown Palace Hotel up in Denver.

While the setting for this tea is one of the prettiest I have ever seen, the scenery was the only good part of the entire experience. I have been to many tea houses both in the state and around the country, this by far was the worst. The tea selections were dismal, only two black tea offering’s and one green tea offering, everything else was basically fruit in hot water. I tried one of what they called an artisan tea, and they way it was explained was a flower was in the pot which would open up to release the tea. It was awful I had to douse the tea with sugar and milk so it was even palatable. When the food started arriving my hope was back, but very short lived. The salad was cheap gouda cheese and vinaigrette soaked lettuce stuffed into half of an avocado. The next coarse consisted of sandwiches (a little better), and a couple very dry cookies. This was the end of the meal, when on the menu it clearly stated a dessert course of cookies, scones, petit fours, and chocolate. When we asked why the food was different than the menu we were told they had a new pastry chef.
This was the worst experience I have ever encountered for an afternoon tea, it was way overpriced and I will not be going back. Save your money there are much better and cheaper tea houses in this state.

Loved this. I mean, if just for the grounds and then Castle itself the tea would have been superb. What a stunning setting.
Our family of four, including two children, one of whom has Exceptional Needs, had a lovely afternoon tea here mid-​March, 2014. The tea room is so pretty — pale mint green walls with copious plaster decorative moldings. The room is not large, and even though the tables are tucked in tight, the volume was reasonable and we never felt we had to either shout to make ourselves heard or to whisper so as to not interfere with others. Just right.
Some of the diners were dressed in their best (inc fancy hats), while others were more casual (like us), and I think it’s safe to say we all fit in and felt comfortable.
When we went there were just two young women for the whole room, and I do not know how they handled everything as calmly and expediently as they did — I was impressed. I had let them know when I made the reservation (and you pay in full, including gratuity, when you make the reservation) that we are vegetarian, but there was no record of that. They were able to make some last minute substitutions (egg salad on a petit croissant and a vegetable «wellington»), so all was fine. The teas were delicious — our table shared a creamy Early Grey and a Hawaiian Volcano (I think that was what it was called). To us (my husband and me), the food was the least successful piece — it wasn’t bad, but the scone wasn’t what I think of as a scone, and we didn’t care for the petit fours.
We did not take the tour nor did we give ourselves time to explore the castle afterward, however we did visit the bathrooms and they were fantastic! Charming with their quirky angles, vintage fixtures, etc. I had to changes a child’s diaper so went to use the library floor: there was a guest in there, reading, but I was stuck, and she was lovely about us invading her space. Honestly, I do not know if there is an accessible (ADA) bathroom there. There is an ADA entrance, which we used (our child was in his chair that day). Something to ask when making reservations if someone in your group requires an ADA bathroom.
So while this wasn’t an «authentic» British tea, this was nevertheless one of the loveliest afternoon teas we’ve ever experienced, and we’ve gone to teas literally the world over. Honestly, if just for the setting it was worth it, plus the teas were delicious, and our children really enjoyed the food. Highly recommend.

A lovely first experience of afternoon tea! We had to wait a bit, but we arrived late, so that’s too be expected :) Excellent tea and very tasty treats. Reasonably priced (reserved and paid by phone in advance), as well. The best part was that they allowed us to explore the castle on our own afterwards (we didn’t pay for a tour), which was so much fun! They were in the midst of construction (we visited in May ’13), but it was still beautiful and an experience to remember!
Note: it’s a bit tricky to spot the entrance from the main road (we drove by it 3 times), so leave yourself extra time to get there.

I think this is a wonderful activity to do at least once. The setting is beautiful and the food and tea are really good.
I went for the Christmas Tea yesterday. If you need gluten free food, you have to let them know when you’re making the reservation. (You must have reservations, the Christmas teas sell out quickly.)
They were able to accommodate my gluten-​free needs on the fly, but I suspect I may have had better options if the request had been made prior. The scone, salad, and desserts were all tasty.
My major complaint is that the tea lasted about 40 minutes. The courses came out really fast and there wasn’t really an opportunity to just savor and digest. There were only two tea options instead of the vast array offered on the website and they didn’t offer to refill the teapots or anything.
I am glad I did it at least once but I definitely think the experience could be improved.

I know Glen Eyrie has a good reputation, which is why I was surprised by my experience there, and also gave the establishment a chance to correct the situation by calling over a week ago. Even though I was promised management would get in touch, I never heard from them. If I had heard back, I am sure I would have written a far different and positive review. As it is, I cannot recommend this place.
My friends and I made reservations for the Victorian Tea several weeks in advanced for a party of 6 in honor of a beloved bride-​to-​be. Two of us showed up on time at 11:30. The other four were delayed because a car had literally exploded on I-​25. When my friend and I were seated, we were completely ignored for 10 – 15 minutes until the other people arrived. This alone I would have understood; however, once they got there, we were still ignored for another 15 minutes. The only reason we were talked to at all by the server was because she needed to open the window behind where we were sitting, so we needed to move out of the way. Finally, at 12:15 is when we were served our tea and our food. Both were decent.
We did not see our server again for forty-​five minutes. That’s when she came and told us that tea time was over and basically asked us to leave.
I’m sorry, but forty-​five minutes of time for eating and drinking tea, with only decent food, is not a good enough reason to have to pay $ 27 per person. I’m sure there are other people who have had better experiences, which is why I thought management would want to correct the situation. However, as they never got in touch with me, I can only assume they don’t care.
Sorry guys, but spend your money elsewhere.

Had afternoon tea here today. While not traditional «British» tea, it was still a nice afternoon tea.
Two types of hot tea served. The tea hostesses introduce themselves and tell you about the teas (nice).
You receive a platter of scones and assorted goodies which today included a cheese pinwheel pastry, a tiny mini-​quiche, a baby Bön-​Bell (cheese) a couple of pieces of fresh fruit, almond cookies & chocolates.
To accompany this you, of course, have clotted cream and assorted jams.
My only real complaint was with the scones. They were «cinammon chip.» The were moist, but the cinammon chip” flavor was very overpowering, nearly nauseating sweet. Add clotted cream and jam — it was just too much. A traditional plain scone would be much nicer. My mother however found the scones to be very tasty.
Overall, it was a decent afternoon tea. The castle itself was lovely and the tour of the grounds was great. We were very glad we went. Well worth the price.
I’ll return for a shot at the full afternoon tea on Sunday.