The Teahouse at Abkhazi Garden

I took my sister for high tea. It lived up to my very first experience. The choice of teas was very good and the sandwiches and scones were excellent. There are gluten free options as well. I really like the china cups and all the china doesn't match. Each service is different. We were seated by the window overlooking the gardens and even in the late autumn, the gardens are soothing and wonderful to look upon. The only drawback was that the music was a bit loud and interfered with my sister's hearing aids. They kindly turned it down when asked. The tearoom has limited seating so everyone can see the gardens. Reservations are recommended. This is worth the visit and then a stroll through the calming gardens.

We went for high tea yesterday for my Mom's birthday, and while the gardens are beautiful, we found many elements of the experience to be disappointing, unfortunately.

For the positives; the waitress was lovely, they gave my Mom an extra little treat with a candle which was thoughtful and sweet, and we had a nice view of the garden. The food wasn't dry, the texture of the scones was nice and the sandwich bread was soft. I appreciate that they use free range eggs in their egg sandwich, and it sounds like they potentially use some fresh produce from their gardens, if I understand correctly? The flourless chocolate cake was tiny but tasty, and the green and white layered cake with pink jelly topping (I think that might have been the napoleon?) was tasty too. The sundried tomato tart was small but nice as well.

For the negatives; they could benefit from checking over their collection of teacups and glasses, as my Mom's initial teacup had a crack, my first one was chipped, and then my Mom's water glass had a chip at the base as well. We found the flavour of the majority of the food to be a bit bland, or too sweet. The portions were also very small, given the cost of the towers. For example, the panna cotta was probably smaller than a quarter in diameter, and not very tall either. They put all three of our orders on one tower, which made it a bit confusing as to who's food was who's, especially given that we ordered both a high tea and two afternoon teas, one of which was vegetarian. I understand not wanting to serve multiple towers at one table given how small the tables are, but I do feel like there are some other ways the food could be served to make it less confusing, such as offering for each person's food to be served on an individual plate in the tower rather than sorted by type, if preferred? We also found the tea quite bland, even after extra tea was added to the pot, unfortunately and my Mom found the sausage roll disappointing and greasy as well.

Additionally, when the waitress checked in on our thoughts on the food and my Mom let her know she wasn't super happy with it, it felt like her concerns were brushed aside. Normally we like to let restaurants know directly if there's something we're disappointed with, so that they have the opportunity to remedy the situation without a mediocre review, but given the lack of response, she felt like even if she phoned to give feedback, it might not make a difference since we'd tried gently letting them know already when we were there.

Overall, all three of us felt that there were several things that could've been improved, and were quite bewildered when the tower came with how small everything was for the cost, and then disappointed when the flavour didn't make up for it either.

Lovely experience at the garden. Kylie is amazing and I’m looking forward to returning, thank you!

This place is so beautiful.
There are so many flowers.
The afternoon tea menu is very luxurious and delicious.
And the staff's response is also very good!

Delicious gluten free options and wonderful service! The scones were the best I've ever had! They do ask you to call a day in advance to guarentee gluten free options are available when you're in.

What a wonderful experience from entering the gardens with a docent explaining the history to the tea and luncheon in the house.

The service and food selection was spot on.

I highly recommend

It was excellent tea, and love the option for the lighter menu and price. Best place for tea in Victoria. Don't go looking for other fancy overpriced place. If you are in Victoria, this is the place to go for tea.

The service was good, very prompt and attentive. The food was not bad, but I struggle to say it was good, especially considering the price. I dont like to leave a less than stellar review, but feel others need to be cautiouned about their expectations. The garden is very nice, but it is not the beauty of the Butchart Garden as some other reviews have mentioned. Considering this is the highest Google rated team room in Victoria and the price, I was left wanting. Go in with lower expectations than I did and you might be pleased, but if you go in expecting world class food you will be disappointed.

Beautiful tea service.was visiting victoria and heard a lot about tea service on the island and so glad i got to try it.was debating between going to butchard or here and so glad we went to abkhazi instead.tea service in the garden was the highlight of our trip