Camellia's Tea House

My boyfriend and I just had a fabulous afternoon tea experience at Camellia's Tea House. Great atmosphere, tea and service.

There are many teas to choose from and they create and blend original teas on site. We shall be returning!
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Nicole Snyder
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, September 27, 2010

Having read the previous reviews I feel that I have to share my own experience.

My friends and I have a tea club and have enjoyed afternoon tea all over London from Claridges, The Berkley, the Hidden Tea Room, to name a few but sadly Camellia Sinensis sits way down the bottom.

A friend and I had a voucher for 2 people, which was bought and paid for online. Booking was advisable but not a requirement. Having spent a day in central London we got hungry and decided that we would see if the tearoom could fit us in. At the back of my mind I was already expecting them to say that you have to book, but we thought it was worth a try.

We came out the lift and on approach to Camellia the staff were sitting outside and they ran in when they saw us coming - inside there was a table of tea and uneaten food. There were no other customers when I approached the counter. I took the voucher out of my bag and asked if they had any tables for 2. She noticed the voucher straight away and she became very awkward. I asked if I had to book but she couldn't give me a straight answer. She was hesitating and I was beginning to feel very embarrassed. I eventually just said to her that it would help if she could give me a straight answer, yet still she shuffled uncomfortable, failing to give eye contact. I lost my patience by this point and just told her to forget it before turning on my heels and leaving.

It's a shame because I didn't get to try the food in the end - I was too embarrassed and felt humiliated by her attitude. If booking was a requirement all she had to do was say and I'd have booked for another day.

I've read nothing but excellent reviews for this place but sadly I'd never walk back through the front door ever again. Because I wasn't able to try the food, I can only give an honest review for the service and atmosphere. Hence the zero stars.

Anyone want free afternoon for tea? I’ve got a voucher in my bag!
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Linda McCann
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Camellia world teas has to be my favourite hang out in Carnaby, I just adore it, either to go on my on or with friends & family.

This sweet little tea house has plenty to offer. It has a charming decor.

Each visit I try a new tea which is always a delightful experience. More than 70 types to choose from. Cream and Afternoon tea is always presented nicely, the food is delicious. There's a great selection of healthy salads & sandwiches. The cakes are to die for.

The staff are really warm and welcoming and offer a great service.

The music selection is spot-on. The ambience is extremely cozy as if you were in your living room. A definitely "must visit" experience!

Highly recommended!!!
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Simon
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, August 23, 2009

A friend and I have made it our mission to find an excellent, reasonably priced afternoon tea in London and with less than a month until I move away time is running out. Fortunately I think we have possibly found a winner. Camellia's World Teas is located in Kingly Court, close to Oxford Street in the west of London. This is an area that I generally try to avoid at the weekend but I would happily brave the crowds on Oxford Street to get to this place any day of the week (even Saturday afternoons).

-Location- As I have said Kingly Court is close to Oxford Street and it is easy enough to get to from Oxford Circus tube station as long as you know where you're going. If I had to get myself there I would end up hopelessly lost so I recommend getting a map if you don't the area very well.

-The Tea Shop- The minute I walked into Camellia's I loved it! The combination of shop and cafe reminded me of some of the places that we used to visit in Ireland when I was a child and also a little bit of shops in Diagon Alley. I guess it was the old fashioned, quaint feel of the place that reminded me of Harry Potter, or possibly spending too much time talking about the latest film has left me with a one track mind.

There are only three tables inside, and a few more outside. The rest of the space is filled with all kinds of teas from around the world (hence the name of the shop) and various tea related things (like tea pots and those things that you use to squeeze out tea bags). We didn't buy anything and I didn't look at the prices but all of the tea pots that were on display looked great.

I only have one complaint about the shop and that is that the chairs are very uncomfortable and the table wobbled (does that count as two complaints?) We were in the tea shop for close to two hours and that was really too long to be sitting on such an uncomfortable chair. The table didn't bother me so much but did make it awkward when we were passing around the tea pot.

-Afternoon Tea- Afternoon tea at Camellia's costs £14.50 which is more expensive than Browns, the place where we have been going for tea up until now but far cheaper than the Ritz or any other big hotels that serve afternoon tea. I believe that this price is perfect because with Camellia's afternoon tea you get far more food than you do at Browns and it's not that much more expensive.

When we ordered our afternoon teas at the counter there was only one other person in front of us, which was great because the table space is very limited and we were all very hungry and wanted our food as soon as possible. The staff were very polite and helpful and ordering could not have been easier (even though we were awkward and wanted to pay some on card and some with cash).

Our tea was served after five or ten minutes and I did think that this was quite a long time considering that there was only one other person in front of us. We were able to choose our tea from the entire range that they had but we were boring and just had the English Breakfast tea. Although I have obviously had this tea many times before this was by far the best tea I have ever tasted. I can't put my finger on what exactly was different about it but it was certainly of a higher quality than the tea I am usually served.

While enjoying our tea we watched as other people (including a table that arrived after us) were served their food. After twenty minutes (that's twenty minutes after being served our tea) we began to wonder if our food would be with us soon. After half an hour we were almost out of tea (and what was left was getting cold) and we had to order another pot. At first I asked if we could just have more water in the pot we already had but she didn't seem to understand what I was asking. We then asked for another pot of tea for three and the woman seemed reluctant to give it to us because there was still enough for one more cup in the tea pot. Well, there were three of us and we wanted tea to actually go with our food so we insisted on having another pot. Finally she brought us a pot of tea for two.

Forty minutes after our first pot of tea was served our food finally arrived. By this point one of my friends was feeling sick with hunger, I had a headache setting in and we were halfway through the second pot of tea. All complaints were put aside when the waitress put a big cake stand full of food on our table. At this point I was impressed with the size of the afternoon tea. Then she put another cake stand with the same number of sandwiches, more scones and cake on the table and I began to wonder how we would get through it all!

On each cake stand there were twelve triangles of cakes and three scones. We also had a piece of cake each and were given a choice about what cake to have. The sandwiches were really nice and the variety of fillings was good. You could choose between ham, chicken, tuna, egg and cheese. There were two scones for each person, one plain and one fruit. They were warm but not crumbly which I thought was good (I hate when you try to put the cream on the scone and it crumbles). Both the fruit and plain scone were very sweet tasting. I did think they could have been more generous with the cream and jam. There wasn't enough jam and cream for all six scones but fortunately one of my friends only ate one scone so this wasn't a problem and I assume that we could have asked for more if we needed to.

Finally we ate the cake...or most of the cake at least. After eating so many sandwiches and two scones I really struggled to eat my slice of cake. I ate about half of it because it was a really big portion. What I did eat was very tasty. I had the carrot cake and would highly recommend it!

When we were ready to leave the waitress did try to charge us for the extra pot of tea. I was shocked. We had waited for 45 minutes for our food, watched people who had entered the shop after us have their food served (admittedly their orders were smaller than ours) and then she expected us to pay for the extra pot of tea that we had been forced to order because the service had been so slow. However, we pointed out that we had had to wait a long time and she reluctantly let us off.

-Conclusion- Although the service was very slow in Camellia's (and no one apologised for keeping us waiting for so long) the food was worth waiting for. Camellia's serve a really big afternoon tea with the best tea that I have ever tasted. It's certainly worth the wait (and worth sitting on uncomfortable chairs) for such a great afternoon tea. If the service and comfort was improved then this would be a five star place, but unfortunately I can only give it four stars.

Recommended.
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Sonia3 - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, August 13, 2009