Royal Tea Room

this was not good confused staff stuffy uninviting building expensive i would not ever go back

This was a wonderful restaurant that unfortunately is now closed. So sad. Hope someone else sees the value in reopening it

We had a large party of 17 for a bridal shower. Reservations were made and we had a room to ourselves. Our ages were 4 – 70. The little girls had a party table all to their selves. They were served hot chocolate and tea (if they wanted it). Their sandwich tray was perfect for their ages, grilled cheese, pb&j were the big hits. They also received dessert goodies. The adults were served 3 preselected teas, a citrus, black vanilla and peppermint. All were very tasty. We had a choice of cream of crab or chicken noodle. I chose the chicken noodle because I’m allergic to crab. My soup was hearty and full of flavor. Everyone else got the crab. They all said the same, very tasty but could of had more crab. I will preface, we are from the area and are used to getting large lumps of crab in our soups. Next was a cinnamon raisin scone with 3 different spreads. I think we all would have liked to have picked out our own scone. Not everyone liked that flavor or would have preferred a different flavor. Our sandwich and dessert tray came out next. Everyone had one finger sandwich from each type of sandwich. We had, cucumber, egg salad, chicken salad and chocolate cream cheese on raisin bread. Our desserts were a great variety and very very yummy.
Our waitress was excellent. She knew what she was doing and served everyone promptly when refills were needed.
I loved that this is located in an old restored home. It has a lot of charm and is very quaint.
Our biggest complaint… Hot. The AC was set at 68, but the unit could not keep up with it. I looked at the temp, it was 78. Outside was close to 95. They did have the fan on, but that didn’t help much.

This was my first time at the Royal Tea Room. My friend is getting married on Saturday and decided to invite us for lunch today to spend time with her and her mother and a few of us. We made reservations and there were nine of us. I had to ask the waitress twice for water and so did another guest. She charged a couple of us for tea when we weren’t even asked what kind of tea we wanted. When we told her several flavors we were interested in she said you all were out of those… We never received any refills on water or tea and were not asked if we needed anything. She acted like she hated our table and kept shaking her head and talking about us in the back room with all the other employees. So unprofessional! I shouldn’t feel guilty asking for water! Patrons shouldn’t be gossiped about either! You all did not leave a good first impression today. The chicken salad sandwich and salad were outstanding. Unfortunately the unprofessional and unkind service overshadowed the food.

The whole experience of a tea setting here is incredible. Or, just go grab some lunch. The cream of crab soup is to die for. The sandwiches are all amazing. Scones with tea are a must. I come here for all my special occasions and I’ve never been anything but happy with the friendly staff and delicious food.

Amazing food! You can tell each meal is made to order with fresh ingredients! Cream of crab soup is my favorite here, in all of southern Maryland! Very cute quaint location. Great for lunch or a place to take your out-​of-​towners. Also a great location for showers and etc.

When I’m having a bad week this spot is a ray of sunshine. Homemade breads and croissants, mouthwatering quiche, great service, lovely and innovative tea food (sliders ARE finger sandwiches and darn good). When you need a place to go that reminds you of the special times you would sit in your grandmother’s formal dining room and use the good china… a place where you feel fancy and special yet still right at home… go here. Big tip… call ahead and reserve a spot. They quickly reach max capacity especially since this is the place for showers and birthdays AND you can’t rush a good multi course tea (which they don’t).

The food here is wonderful — carefully prepared, home cooked meals. The service is great, and the atmosphere is reminiscent of a southern mansion. This is a great place for a nice «date night» dinner or a reliable place to take visiting friends and family. I highly recommend the Royal Tea Room.

This is one of my favorite places to go with the girls, and we trek out to La Plata at least once a year to have this experience.
Here are a few things I love about this place —
— tea cups: You pick your own tea cups from a wonderful collection of porcelain china
— tea menu: Bottomless assortment of tea (order 1 – 2 pots at a time depending on how many people is in your party) accompanied by sugar cubes, crème (upon request), honey and lemon
— crème of crab soup: This alone was worth the 1.5 hour voyage for us. It is simply a cup of magic and wonders.
— three tiers of bite-​size delectables: on the top level are the sweets, second level are the savories, and the third level are mini-​sandwiches. They are all delicious and beautiful. I regret every time not taking a picture (on my to-​do list when I return).
When I first went to Royal Tea Room, I was expecting to leave still hungry, but here, we left stuffed and happy.
The service is slower, but we didn’t mind it since we were mostly talking. You may have to call in to make a reservation or check on their operating hours because it can be a bit complicated.
This is really a great place. Check it out!

This is such a cute little tea/​lunch place! I’ve lived in the area for less than 2 years and I’m so grateful to the friend who brought me here today… now when people come visit me, I’ll bring them to the Royal Tea Room. Well, I’ll bring all my girlfriends here, it’s not really a dude kinda place :-)
My friend and I got here right as they opened at 11 and were the second table seated; by the time we ate and tea’d (yeah, I said tea’d) the place was busy! The tea menu is fabulous, pretty much any tea you can think of, they offer. Once you place your tea order you go and choose your own tea cup from a large collection of tea cups on the wall… a cute touch, I thought :-) They bring you a POT of tea, which was 5 servings in my small mug. There is a handmade-​teapot-​warmer-​thingy they put over your pot so that it stays hot for a long time. Nifty. My friend and I each started our meal with a scone. She got the lemon, I got the cranberry orange; while both were good, hers was waaaaaay better! The scones can with little dishes of lemon curd, raspberry jam, and fresh whipped cream. The Lemon curd on the lemon scone was DIVINE! For my meal I ordered the chicken salad on a croissant with a side of fruit. The sandwich was good, nothing out of this world, I’d order it again. The side of fruit was a nice mixture of berries, pears, grapes, etc. It was actual fresh fruit, not the gross, previously frozen stuff some restaurants like to call «fresh» fruit.
The service was pretty slow, but this doesn’t seem like a good place to go if you’re in a hurry. My friend and I were chatting the whole time, so the slow service didn’t bother us at all.
Can’t wait to go back! I might even go back on my own with a good book just to enjoy a good cup of tea and a scone!

I had lunch at the Royal Tea Room last weekend and it was excellent. It was my first time visiting this cute little café. So many teas to choose from. I had the Cherry Rose tea with the Cordon Blue Wrap and ham & cheese quiche. The food was absolutely delicious, as well as the tea. Customer service was great. Cute place for lunch with the girls. I can’t wait to come back!

I’m actually writing this review for my mom, who told me about her experience here. We visited when I was there and they were phenomenal, their food was amazing and the tea was perfect. I remember everyone being very accommodating. This was about 4 years ago… anyways, my mom’s experience:
She recently found out she has a wheat allergy, and so that limits the food she can eat, especially when dining out. The chef came to the table to take my mom’s soup order, and she couldn’t have either option. The chef learned about her allergy, and immediately took it upon herself as a personal challenge to make something delicious that my mom could eat! She offered to make her French onion soup without the bread, and my mom said it was «decadent.» Then she had a mixed greens salad with raspberry vinaigrette which was also delicious! When the chef brought out the tea sandwiches, which are usually all little bread, cracker, or tortilla-​based, half of the sandwiches were actually served on various veggies! The chef bent over backward to ensure my mom had an excellent experience and could also enjoy lunch with her friends, without having to worry about her wheat allergy.
Overall excellent experience and made my mom feel fantastic about something that can often cause her anxiety, or even cause her to just pass on an invitation to go out for lunch completely!!!

I was blessed to have my surprise bridal shower here on June 4, 2011. Growing up tea has always been a major part of my life, as I would watch my mom drink tea every day all day like other folks would drink coffee. So I as teenager to present I drink a lot of tea. So to incorporate tea into my bridal shower was just the icing on the cake for me.
When I arrived at the shower I was shocked to see that the owner (Dee) allowed my family & friends to actually hang decorations on the actual property… which was a major WOW factor. We had close to 35 people in attendance. I now know that my BFF & sister worked with Dee to plan this wonderful event. Every one was presented with a choice of crab soup or spinach & feta soup; chicken royae salad, crab cake sandwich, monte cristo, or the shrimp wrap, with an assortment of sides. As the guest of honor, I was presented with talapia and a crab cake. Everyone just loved their food especially the crab cake sandwich, crab soup & spinach & feta soup. I have to admit I was blown away with the talapia and crab cake. We also had an assortment of teas. I am not sure if the Wedding Tea is something that is normally on their menu or if it is just offered for bridal showers and alike, but it was a special treat that is just delicious. The others guests tried other types of tea and just loved it as well. A few folks even mentioned that this event opened their eyes to various types of tea and stated that they would return on their own.
The guests were able to play games and I was presented with presents throughout the event.
Dee and her staff was extremely friendly and catered to our party. This tea house is on the top of my list. This is a top notch Tea House!

Once again, we had another wonderful experience at The Royal Tea Room. Our service, meal and the overall atmosphere couldn’t have been better. Our server was new to waiting tables but in our books he was a seasoned pro. He never missed a beat and attended to us very professionally. The owner, Dee, came over to our table and chatted with us for a bit which added to our enjoyment. My friends and I spent about two and a half hours there yesterday and just had a pleasant Sunday afternoon. If you haven’t experienced The Royal Tea Room & Gifts, you should definitely give it a try. If you don’t want to order the Royal Tea or Afternoon Tea, no problem… they have a marvelous lunch menu… Plus lovely collectibles and antiques for purchase. Trust me, you will not be disappointed in this historically quaint, picturesque restaurant.
Frank Pilato 04÷04÷11

We had my sister’s baby shower here. It was great. They worked with us to fit the party within our budget. We cut the soup/​salad course to save a some money. They gave us a discount for paying with cash/​check. We had close to 30 people in attendance. We even had a few people who hadn’t RSVP’d show up and that wasn’t an issue.
The timing of the tea works well for showers because you can play a couple games and open presents in between courses.
The staff was really helpful. They put the presents in our cars, offered to individually wrap up the cupcakes we brought for dessert because we were too full to eat them.

My mom loves high tea and so I’ve taken her out to various locations in the Washington D.C. area because she’s awesome. : —) This weekend she wanted to return the favor and took the family out to the Royal Tea Room.
When we came in the dining room was at 75% capacity and we were seated immediately. Service was slow throughout the meal and it took awhile to order tea. Rather than provide caddies of loose tea or a menu to make a selection, the server rattled off a list of various teas in no particular order. Eventually, not being able to follow the blast of information we just ordered the usual favorites. The Royal Tea Room serves communal pots with 1 pot to share amongst 2 people but offers the option to switch out flavors if it «doesn’t work out.»
With the tea ordered and poured, four courses of food followed.
1) scones with jelly, lemon curd and «devonshire cream.» The scones were meh to put it best. I love REAL devonshire cream but this stuff was simply flavored cream cheese — you can put lipstick on a pig and it’s still a pig — just say it’s cream cheese folks!
2) salad and soup… (this was a first for high tea /​shrugs) just your average handful of mixed greens and cream of crab soup
3) finger food consisting of spinach quiche another variant of the spinach quiche in phylo dough, swedish meatballs — swear to god it’s the stuff you buy from the frozen section at Costco
4) the dessert/​finger sandwich tray… uninspired tea sandwiches (egg and chicken) and store bought desserts which were left on the tray
Unless you’re in the area I wouldn’t recommend making the drive, there are much better options in Washington, D.C., next time I pick the location mom!

3.5 stars
What a fabulous high tea house! Probably shouldn’t have stuffed ourselves beforehand on the fall festival samples. We got the Royal High Tea, which is by reservation only in the weekend afternoons.
The cook was coming out and giving us extra samples, and all of the food was delicious! Little sandwiches, scones, petit fours, a very tasty salad and soup… nom! I especially liked the sandwich variety and how we got to pick out our own individualized teacups. Between five of us paying for six people, it cost us about $ 30 a person. Not bad for an elaborate meal over the span of a few hours.
They have a plethora of teapots, cups, glasses, and other accessories upstairs. I found a very pretty broach for $ 8, and my friend bought a white beaded purse for her wedding for a reasonable price. Definitely a place to go shopping for vintage teacups or little knick knacks.
Note for the owner: I know the servers were both new and weren’t expecting a full house, so we definitely got less than perfect service. One of our party even got ice water spilled all over them (this could happen to anybody though). Overall, the servers were nice, and none of us were in a rush to go anywhere so it wasn’t a big deal for us. However, servers probably shouldn’t criticize each other in front of the customers, completely forget to run our check, or ask inappropriate questions (did you guys get drunk last night?). We’re a friendly bunch and laid back, but I don’t think most people going to tea would be as forgiving.

Simple and elegant, The Royal Tea Room to which I have been on several occasions is a wonderful location to host both small parties or just a simple get together with friends. As a true-​blooded Brit myself, I also enjoy visiting these locations to get a feel for the American take on English faire. Was not disappointed. This location is one of the closest you’ll come to an authentic English tea. I highly recommended getting together with two or three other ladies and visiting here for the high-​tea. The food is delicious and the atmosphere to die for! I do believe last time I was there, they were playing some sort of 19 – 40’s soundtrack that had radio music and broadcast of the era, and it was fun and easy for my girlfriends and I to make believe we were there. (LOL) The only reason I did not give Royal Tea Room a 5 out of 5, was for the service. For some reason I always feel as if the people who run this place are always looking down their noses at you– especially if you’re male. They aren’t very talkative, and if they do converse with you– especially the owner– it’s curt and rather slapdash. However, I will most certainly continue to come here, and encourage others to do the same.

This is the best place to «get away» and just indulge in delicious tea and yummy food in a picturesque setting!
My cousin and I came here for Royal High Tea on a rainy Saturday. There could have been a hurricane outside but that wouldn’t interrupt the great time we had! We were warmly greeted by the owner or daughter of the owner and seated promptly. We were asked to chose our own teacups and they all are just darling! I found a lovely one with cherry blossoms that totally fit my personality! We had the Wedding tea and it was amazing! We also had an African tea and a Valentine tea and those were just as great! Everything was beautiful!
We first had soup and salad. I had the cream of crab and it was out of this world! The salad cleansed my palate as we had other hot appetizers. I love the Chicken Cordon Bleu Balls! We had the most delicious scone ever served with strawberry preserve and Devonshire cream. It was capped off with a tower of cutely made and tasty tea sandwiches, fruit and pastries.
There are also 4 rooms with the cutest trinkets! I really love this place and the staff is WONDERFUL!!! I can’t wait to come back!

The Royal Tea is served by reservation only from 1:30−4 pm (I think), and it is absolutely FABULOUS. You’ll be delighted by a variety of teas, a soup, salad, scone (with clotted cream, yum!), and a bunch of little finger foods (sandwiches and sweets). Everything is served at a slow pace to let you linger and chat with girlfriends and enjoy your food, and the staff is friendly and will talk you through any unfamiliar bits of the meal.
I’ve been here for lunch (which doesn’t require reservations) as well, which is good, but definitely not the main attraction.
The tea is served in the English tradition, and they are a little unfamiliar with male guests. I once took my fiancé (as he is a tea fanatic), and the staff fussed a bit about it (giving him blue glass plates and such rather than flowers). He wasn’t bothered, but it could bother some.