Borsari Gallery

Went to a wedding here and there are a few issues. The wedding was outside, in the hot hot sun. In the shade or a covering would have been nice. The wine cellar was nice, but there weren’t any chairs at all, so we stood around with our drinks and wine and cheese for about 45 minutes. There is only one bathroom, unisex. This place could be nice, but needs tweeking before I would recommend it for any function.

The nicest lunch on the Cape.
I brought my daughter here for a small tea party after I saw this place advertised in a local paper. We were delighted. The afternoon tea is lovely and very well priced at $ 20. It comes with a decadent freshly baked scone, a multi-​tiered tray of delicious finger sandwiches and desserts, and a pot of loose leaf or bagged tea.
I had a half sandwich and cup of soup, and both were fresh and tasty, and the serving sizes were ample. The combo also came with a very nice small garden salad. This meal was an excellent value at about $ 10.
I have experienced many restaurants on the Cape that are simply way overpriced for what they put in front of you. Even take-​out places! Borsari is a wonderful exception and we have already gone back several times. The dining room is elegant, the service is impeccable, the food is delicious, the prices are more than reasonable. And the beautiful collection of china makes the meal so much more enjoyable than it might be were it all served on plain white dishes.
Note that they are closed Saturdays and occasionally for private events on other days. Just call ahead. Sunday through Friday they serve a long lunch, from 11 to 4 (last seating at 3:30). The menu is online.
I highly recommend this place.

Of all the tea places on the cape this one is our favorite! The people are friendly and extremely accommodating. The atmosphere is wonderful with all the beautiful art covering the walls around you. The décor is top notch and the food is fantastic. The service was absolutely wonderful. We can’t say enough about this beautiful spot!!! We highly recommend the Borsari Gallery.

The Borsari Gallery and Tea Room was our final stop on the Cape before heading back across the canal, and it was a perfect ending to our vacation weekend.
The tea room is elegant without being stuffy, the menu is concise and perfectly executed, and above all, the owners and staff are warm and welcoming.
We actually discovered the Borsari Gallery the day before while out on a grocery run. Although the tea room was closed, the owners — Bob and Kathy — opened the doors and offered us a tour of the gallery (which doubles as the tea room). We immediately booked reservations for the next day.
We ordered a pot of Cape Cod Cranberry, a fragrant black tea ($ 4.50). Tea is served by the pot, which is enough for two diners to enjoy several cups each. The restaurant also offers iced tea, lemonade, and coffee.
For lunch, we both ordered the ½ sandwich and soup combination ($ 10). My mushroom soup was creamy and had excellent depth of flavor; his gazpacho was spicy and full of fresh vegetables. For my sandwich, I ordered the Wrapsody in Blue, which was filled with roast beef and a thick slice of blue cheese. He ordered the delicious and very fresh seafood salad sandwich, a daily special. Both orders came out with generous and well-​dressed garden salads.
We finished our meal with a scone ($ 3) and a selection of tea desserts ($ 6), which included a blueberry cheesecake, a cold apple crisp, an éclair, and a chocolate marzipan cake. This was the highlight of tea — each tea dessert was exquisitely composed and rich in flavor — while the scone was warm and flaky.
Although we stumbled on the Borsari Gallery by chance, we are certain that it will be a regular stop on future visits to the Cape.

These guys are AMAZING, and I am so grateful we met Bob and Kathy.
The Borsari Gallery helped us plan a memorial for my father in less than a week. Even though we weren’t certain how many people would show up, and we arrived unexpectedly early, they handled everything flawlessly and professionally. The space is beautiful, the hospitality was perfect, the food was wonderful, and they were so kind during a very difficult and stressful time. I will forever be grateful for their help and ability to pull off a beautiful event in such a short amount of time.

Stopped in here for lunch and tea after checking out the Scargo Tower in Dennis. The Borsari Gallery and Tea House is set in a beautiful restored barn from the 1800’s. I was greeted by a friendly hostess and one of the owners and we sat at a small-​top table underneath a picture of the Gray’s Beach boardwalk (very nice).
We ordered a pot of the Borsari blend, which is a nice fragrant black tea. I ordered the half-​sandwich/​soup combo (Chicken salad, clam chowder) and my husband got the Ploughman’s Lunch with cheddar and turkey. One of the best Ploughman’s lunches that my husband received this side of the Atlantic, including a nice pickle (not like a kosher dill). I had a huge cup of soup (basically a bowl size) and the sandwich and side salad were very filling. The vintage tea cups and tea set were a nice touch.
We ran into the other owner outside, who let us view the grounds and told us they had a nice wine cellar as well. We thought it would be a very nice place to hold a shower or brunch reception.
Overall, we had a great experience and will definitely be back for our next visit to the Cape.

I’ve been going to tea rooms since I was a little girl. I find the ritual of it relaxing – you know what to expect. That said, my experience with this one was definitely one of the oddest I’ve had to date. I called ahead and asked if they were busy. They weren’t, so I dragged my mother out for tea.
It’s a beautiful old converted abattoir (yep, I had tea in an abattoir). Lots of light. And the walls are filled with giclees (i.e., photos printed on canvas) by one lone member of the Borsari family. On the whole, the décor seems a bit frantic, but whatever. There is some loud banging in the background as we sit down, and the hostess apologizes, saying they are doing some construction that day. Given that a major aspect of tea is chilling out in a quiet and relaxed place, it would have been nice had she said that over the phone, 20 minutes earlier. The banging and some other construction sounds continue on and off for the rest of our time there.
I sit down at the table and start looking at the menu – they have all the classics, and just as I am going to get down to the business of a nice conversation, our waitress comes over. There is a middle-​aged man with a ladder behind her. She says I need to get up.
Apparently, a guest decided to purchase a picture that is located right above my seat, and they have to get it down. They have to get it down right now. I get up and pull out my chair, and this guy sets up a ladder right next to the table, goes up it, and the conversation between him and my mother goes like this:
Mom: *eyeing the ladder rocking back and forth from foot to foot in front of her* «Maybe I should get out of your way.»
Guy: «Of course, not. This is fine.»
Mom: «That doesn’t look terribly stable.»
Guy: «It’s stable because I have skill.»
Mom: «To me, it kind of looks unstable.»
Guy: «Well, that’s because it takes skill to see that it’s just fine.»
I swear – I resisted the temptation to kick the ladder over while he was using his mad skillz to be a print-​gophering ass (that’s my special skill – knocking things over, usually by mistake).
The hostess and waitress checked on us a lot. They were both very friendly. The tea was great; the food was pretty good. It would have been nice to have cups of water; in their defense, I kept forgetting to ask for some.
At one point, someone starts playing a pretty lively recording of a glass harmonica on top of the soft jazz background music. Those two background songs mix with the construction noise and make it pretty impossible to think, let alone talk.
I look at my mother. We haven’t caught up in forever, and I am currently struggling to think straight over the noise. (You ever hear your voice echo over your phone a split second after you speak? It’s like that.) And now, I’m getting kind of pissed off. On one hand, I have a feeling our experience is a combination of bad circumstances. On the other hand, the staff has had a lot of opportunities to make things better than they are at that moment, and they failed to do so.
For future improvement, my suggestions would be the following:
–Tell people you’re doing construction WHEN you have them on the phone, not when they arrive; you will lose customers that day – but they will return at a later date, grateful of your warning.
–Do not let the ladder-​climbing guy interact with the guests. It takes a special sort of person to host and entertain. This guy is not one of those people (trust me, I know my own).
–Decide what you’re going to be: an art gallery that serves tea or a tea room with some nice family art for sale. I think the root of the problems we experienced was that Borsari is trying to be both gallery and tea room in equal measure. If you’re going to run a tea room, tell the occasional art buyer that you can get the artwork when we’re done eating. If you’re running an art gallery, don’t sit someone right under a giclee you might have to pluck off the wall. If the Borsaris don’t choose one to focus on, they’re going lose customers who won’t return after a mediocre run for either one.

I love this place. Everytime I’m on the Cape (which is more often now that my parents live up there), I make a special effort to get tea there.
The atmosphere along is worth the trip. The updated barn is gorgeous, and the artwork on the walls is awesome. I’ve done high tea there several times, and have not been disappointed. They have a large selection of teas, and the tea sandwiches are delicious as well.
Highly recommended for anyone taking a trip to Cape Cod.

This is a very good place for tea on mid-​Cape. I have heard that they are expanding their menu options, which is good because their current options are quite limited. The staff are very pleasant and they offer catered events. That being said, their hours have been fairly unpredictable. Both times I have been home over the past year they have been closed for special events, so I would call ahead. Try the soups and the pie.
If you are looking for a place with more predictable hours and a more extensive menu (albeit slightly off-​putting service due to understaffing), I’d go to Dunbar in Sandwich.

My first tea experience was at the Lighthouse Tea Room in Bermuda in 1990. Since then I have enjoyed tea at the Browns, The Dorchester (London), various Boston venues including Bristol Lounge, Boston Harbour Hotel and the former Ritz. I have enjoyed rustic teas in Ireland and even afternoon tea at various Caribbean venues include Carisle Bay and Blue Waters both in Antigua. I love tea. Cape Cod used to have a great tea room at the former Augusta Snow in H’port. Devon Tea Room in Dennis was nice but short lived. Dunbar has a nice tea shop and the restaurant. Well, when I heard about Borsari I was intrigued. It took until today, a very impromptu visit that allowed me to experience this gem. I had a hectic busy weekend and needed to unwind. My daughter and I were headed to another spot but thought of Borsari. I called and Kathy welcomed us to come in. We arrived and walked into what truly is the most hospitable amazing setting. First and foremost, it’s breathtaking inside. The furniture, the china, the place settings. the art, the woodwork… it all melds into a charming intimate setting. What earned 5 stars? Lump sugar, real clotted cream, delicious scones, fresh jam in a little pot, mix matched bone china, amazing tea, and the art… each nook and cranny showcases the owner’s brother in law.
We chose the high tea to share. Our waitress recommended an extra scone. Thank goodness she did. it was a light flakey homemade scone. The real clotted cream and homemade jam made it amazing. We had 8 tea sandwiches, egg, cuke, ham and turkey. The 4 petit desserts were cream filled treats and a raspberry pastry. Wow…
I cannot recommend this spot more. Kathy and Bob the owners are incredible hosts. George, the tea master was delightful.
I would recommend this spot for a bridal shower, girls tea, wedding or any intimate gathering. This is a truly amazing spot in charming Dennis Village. LOVED it.