Marlene’s Tea & Cakes

If you want to get more for your money, better food and the opportunity to taste more than ome tea, go to Coral Tree Tea House located in Old Town’s historic Heritage County Park. Maybe we went to Marlene’s on an off day but my tea sandwich bread was hard and the selection of food was just okay. We were the only people there so it was quiet but with hard wood floors and the table close together I would think it would be noisy on when it was filled.

Afternoon tea: therapy for you soul!
So true!
Reservations only!
I love this place.

Have been here twice and I love this place! The décor is very clean and modern! Marlene takes great care in her presentation and tastes amazing! Her tea sanwich menu are very unique and of the highest quality ingredients. Some of my favorites are the beef wellington, chicken pot pie, mini marscapone quiche with carmelized onions, cranberry scones and desserts like mini crème brûlée. The tea selection is excellent as well. Loved everything that I’ve tried so far. This place is a definite must try!

Had a delightful time at this little gem tucked away in Fairbanks Ranch. We started with a soup and then came the teas and goodies. I had the Mango tea and the others had the Paris tea. They were delightful and nice and hot. There was so much to each. We started with the bottom tier of the savory foods. Worked up a tier through the fruits and scones (best ever). At the top were the miniature desserts. After eating the molten lava one, I was stuffed. We were able to take home everything we couldn’t finish. In the future, I will order ahead for scones to go. If you are vegetarian, tell them in advance so you can get taken care of.
Everything is prepared fresh and you can tell.
The service was impeccable. I can’t wait to go back. A real treat!

This little restaurant is such a unique and amazing experience! The food is delicious — the staff a delight and the ambiance makes you feel like a royal. Every dish is made fresh daily, and you can really tell the difference! It’s a full meal filled with lots of different tastes. The tea is great even if you’re not a tea lover. A cool place you can dress up or go casual. Very quiet and nice. I went here with my relatives with a party of 8, but definitely coming back here with my girl-​friends one on one! :3

Highlights:
Reservation Only
Tasty Bites
Lovely atmosphere
Friendly Service
$ 30 for Tea service. One choice, one price.
Details: It’s a lovely and cute place. I love the more modern living room/​dining room flair of this place. Unfortunately, they seem to be reservation only as they only have 1 large main table for about 8, 1 backroom for 6 (can be separated by a curtain), 3 – 4 tables of 4, and 2 tables for 2. (This is from memory so I might be off here an there). A phone call early Saturday morning could only get us a table for 2 first thing Sunday morning. No later appointments available. Anyways, I like that there’s plenty of space between tables that you don’t feel on top of each other, or worry about accidentally bumping in a delicate table and breaking delicate cups. Table linens, fresh flowers, and the beautiful tea sets decorate the tables. All a very soothing touch. and the comfy seating! (Pet peeve: sitting on a bare chair in a skirt… No problems here!)
Tea: I went for the less common Paris black tea. It was a little sweeter than I’m used to with vanilla and caramel flavors, but I loved the citrus and bergomot flavors. I enjoyed it. The boyfriend had genmaicha green tea. His favorite. I have to admit it was a nice and roasty blend.
Food was yummy! For the autumn season, we started with a bowl with butternut squash soup. My FAV autumn soup! I cleaned the bowl so quick, «Did you get a smaller soup than me?», said the boyfriend. Bite-​sized beef wellington was a nice little change from the typical tea menus. Cucumber sandwiches with mint gave the traditional sandwich a refreshing twist. Mini onion and cheese quiches were delish! I wish the were a little bigger. And I had a bigger stomach, and calories just disappear… A cranberry sandwich was perfect for a Thanksgiving twist. And the final savory tier included a mini sandwich that was warm with brie scone sandwich that reminded me of warm cornbread, YUM. For the sweets tier, there was fresh fruit (a nice break from all the other food choices), and a white chocolate glazed strawberry scone (yummy with the clotted cream but a little too sweet for me. I would prefer without the glaze personally). The dessert tier had a mini pumpkin pie (OMG I NEED 5 MORE OF THESES NOW!), a scrumptiously spiced carrot cake with cream cheese, a not too sweet but oh so deliciously smooth chocolate trifle with toffee crumble, and finally a pumpkin sugar cookie.
In summary, I enjoyed the my whole experience there and would go back for special occasions.
But… and this is a very tiny but, it’s slightly to high priced and difficult to get a table for my constant afternoon tea fixes.

The best of the best tea room in SD. Me and my friends are always in and out cuz the food is so good! The owner is super nice. He even make an exception for us even though he was not planning to take any reservations that day!

This is a special occasion event – «high tea» is served with real fancy china. Luckily, I did not break anything even though I am pretty clumsy. I even brought my baby girl too!
We each had our own choice of tea, along with mushroom soup, followed by a tower of beautiful bite size treats, to be eaten from bottom to top. We start with the warm items – quiche, beef wellington, croissant; then you go to the second layer with scones and tarts, and then the top layer with fruit tart, puffs, and other delights.
We were greeted by Marlene, the owner, who was very nice and friendly. She takes pride in her business and work. Now, it’s appointment only for high tea and she no longer serves «over the counter» unless you order in advance.
I don’t know that another place like this exists in San Diego.

I was so excited to come here from all the Unilocal reviews! I was kind of disappointed, though. It was good, but overall, I don’t know if it was worth $ 30/​person. I do want to try other tea rooms around San Diego county, though!
The place itself is super cute and in a nice part of town. Super peaceful and quiet location. Pretty neighborhood.
I think the food was just okay, and although we did really enjoy some of the items… I think my biggest hang-​up is not feeling like the food was worth it for the price that we paid. Some of the items we really didn’t like. I wish it had been a more consistent experience of really enjoying the tea service from start to finish.
My friends and I loved the Blue Cheese Mascarpone & Red Onion Confit Quiche from the savory items. The Blueberry Scone was really moist… I’m used to thinking of scones as being dry and unpleasant to eat, but this scone was more like a muffin. So good! And we all loved the Chocolate Mousse.
I didn’t think of this, but at the end of our meal, we saw another table boxing up some of their food to-​go… which I think is genius. My friends and I tried to stuff ourselves and get through all the food. The food items look small, but they’re filling.
Service was okay, but I guess I had been expecting it to be especially warm, welcoming, and enthusiastic when it was just average to me. I felt like it would have added so much to the experience for the staff to have chatted with us more.

The 1^st visit was a private party of about 50 & Marlene’s Tea & Cakes did an awesome job with great service, excellent tea selection, décor, and starts with mushroom soup (fave w/​more mushroom flavor less cream). Tier1 Savory (fave Mini-​Beef Wellington & cheesy quiche), Tier2, Fresh Fruit & Scones (fave) with clotted cream & lemon, Tier3 Sweets.
Even more fabulous the 2^nd visit with a beautiful place setting with floral arrangement and rose folded napkin awaiting my guest and I. Jay greeted us with a pleasant smile & tea introduction. We asked probably too many questions on the tea before selecting. Jay poured us water (with fruit/​cucumber) & patiently answered our questions before selecting our full pot of tea… me the Paris & my guest the Organic English Breakfast… from Hedley’s Tea.
The best part started with the savory mushroom soup… every drop consumed. Then, on to the Tiers… T1: Savories my favorite part and perfectly timed with the fave being the warm mini buttery Beef Wellington and creamy/​cheesy quiche w/​a hint of sweet caramelized onions. T2: Fruit/​Scones with a nice colorful assortment of fruit & a buttery blackberry scone w/​mango topping served w/​clotted cream (fave). T3: Sweets (5 desserts) w/​zebra cheesecake the fave.
It’s the added little touches that make Marlene’s Tea & Cakes special!

So happy to be back again and that Marlene’s has celebrated their one-​year anniversary of being open, a few months ago.
I love the carmelized onion tart and Beef wellington still, and a new favorite is the lemon chicken tarragon sandwich. For March, the have a kiwi strawberry scone — yummy. And my tastebuds really love the mini-​key lime tart.
Thank you so much for all the love that goes into it, Marlene, Jay, & company.

I’m so fancyyyyy, you already know!!!
Just had to use that line from Iggy’s song. We came here for High Tea on a lovely Saturday afternoon at 2pm. What I appreciated about this tea place is that the store closes for the tea parties. This makes it a more intimate and private experience to enjoy with your company. No one is allowed to enter the store to purchase coffee, tea or snacks.
High tea is $ 30pp and it’s so totally worth every penny. The ambiance is gorgeous and the place settings are delicate and very high class. We were provided cucumber water and a choices of tea. We ordered the Sunny Herbs (Pineapple and mango flavor) and the Organic English Breakfast (traditional tea).
We started with a tomato bisque. I’m picking with my tomato bisque, but this soup was actually pretty good for not having basil. If I had to critique it, I would add basil to give the soup a little more flavor.
Then we were offered a tower of goodies. Beautifully decorated and our tower was enough for the 4 of us. Our tower included:
–Green Goddess Cucumber Sandwiches
–Mini-​Beef Wellington
–Blue Cheese Mascarpone and Red Onion Confit Quiche
–Valentine Tomato Tart
–Strawberry & Brie Cheese Scone Sandwich
–Pink Lemonade with Raspberry Glaze Scone
–Lots of fresh fruits
–Rose décor
–Black Forrest Trifle
–Princess Cake
–Lemon-​almond Meringue Tea Cake
–Linzer Heart
We barely reached the dessert tower since we were so stuffed from the savory items on the first plate! All the foods were fresh and made to order.
This location is located in the Del Sur-​ish area in a small business/​shopping center. Lots of parking. Small business owner and we are very supportive of great businesses such as Marlene’s. I will definitely come back again and definitely for high tea!!!

So much fun and delicious treats on beautiful China. Great tea and lovely servers. Marlene was there and she was so sweet and kind. We had high tea here a year ago, and since that time, visited London and had high tea there. Marlene’s was better. Totally 5+ star!
We just had tea here again the other day. No change. My daughter and I have been here twice now and will keep coming. Put your cell phones away and treat yourself, with one or many friends! I have been to teas in: London; at the grand in SD, a place in Carlsbad, a place in Julian and a place in Old Town. All nice, but Marlene’s is my favorite. Delicious food and tea, friendly service. $ 30 per person is not so bad considering tea isn’t something you do all the time. And the care the put into the preparation also makes it worth it. Best scones ever! Beautiful China and table linens, flavor-​infused water in beautiful glasses and royal treatment and an owner who comes out to see how you are liking everything. Try Marlene’s! You won’t be sorry. They even like it when guys come along!