Restaurant Review - Trish's Teas, 4844 New Broad Street, Baldwin Park, Orlando, FL

Yes, it's true! I took my two boys (and my mother-in-law, Grandma M) to a high tea! Hey, I can't help it if I didn't have girls! I have been craving a true tea experience and have not had time to make it over to my favorite tea place - the Grand Floridian Resort's Garden View Tea Room. So, I decided to check out a place I read about in the Windermere Lifestyle magazine -- Trish's Teas, a tea, trinket & treasure boutique in Baldwin Park Village.

We found Trish's easy enough and walked in to check it out. It is certainly a combined tea room/retail space/party room. When you walk in, there are about 5-6 small tables, all with different "Victorian" chairs and candelabras. They are to the side of the main retail space where all sorts of "tea things" are sold. There is also an ordering counter to the right where you can get a "cuppa" or some of the yummy looking chocolates and desserts. In a separate room to the left is the party room -- and there was a party going on when we arrived. It looked to be a little girl's birthday party with all the little girls dressed up and wearing big fancy hats. Later, after they left, a baby shower group showed up... so the secret must be out on having parties at Trish's Teas! As we stepped up to the ordering counter, we asked to see the menu. The young man asked if we had reservations. Whoops, we didn't, was there any space available? I looked around and saw two groups at the tables but the rest of the tables did have "Reserved" signs on them. A woman next to him said that they did have space and removed one of the signs and escorted us to a glass table. Little Boy (LB), my two-year-old ended up needing a booster seat to reach the top of the table. He then proceeded to bang all of his silverware against the glass tabletop. Shoot, why couldn't we have gotten one of the wooden tables? By distracting him with all the teapots surrounding us, we were able to secretly take away all of his silverware without further incident. Trish's has a very simple menu, with light selections such as quiche, salads, snack plates, and desserts, as well as tea combinations and tea by the pot. Grandma M decided to go with the spinach quiche and salad for $10.95. I decided to go for broke and get the full tea for $19.95 which comes with a full pot of tea (I choose Jasmine), two scones with lemon curd & clotted cream, finger sandwiches, fruit, and a sampling of small desserts. For the boys, I got them each the Teddy Bear Children's Tea (the only offering for kids) for $8.95. It said it came with a beverage, small sandwich, cookie, gummies, and Goldfish crackers. Big Boy (BB), my seven-year-old said he wanted to try the kids' tea called Bubblegum Tea. I got a chocolate milk for LB. For sandwiches, they had a choice of peanut butter & jelly, fluffernutter (marshmallow fluff & peanut butter), or one of the salads they offer - tuna or chicken. LB went for the PB&J and BB said he wanted the tuna salad.

I'm assuming Trish's is a family-run business, with just the family running it, so service was a little slow. I'm sure that's fine when you are relaxing with tea with your girlfriends, but was a little too slow for the boys. I finally took them over to the dessert case and told them they could each get a small chocolate for dessert if they ate their lunch so they perused their options. Finally, our food arrived and I really wished I had a camera! The Teddy Bear Tea presentation was adorable!! It was served on a three-tiered plate with a balloon tied to the handle at the top. On the top tier was a small teddy bear that the boys got to keep as well as the fruit gummies. On the next tier was a small chocolate chip cookie and a dish of rainbow-colored Goldfish. On the lowest tier was the sandwich, served on a round piece of bread with the crust cut off. Too cute! The boys actually got excited about it. Also, both of their beverages were served in little teapots. I poured LB's chocolate milk into his tea cup and hoped that he wouldn't break the cup. Well, he didn't break the cup... he broke the little top to his tea pot. He had picked it up to see the milk inside and accidentally dropped it - it shattered to the floor. I was horrified. However, the folks at Trish's were really nice and cleaned it up and told me not to worry about it. Whew, I thought I had just bought a little teapot. BB tried his Bubblegum Tea and declared that it was just okay and tasted kind of like grape. Looking at the ingredients now from Trish's website http://www.trishsteas.com/, I can see why it tasted fruity - it is made of hibiscus petals, rosehips chips, calendula petals, cornflower petals, dried apples pieces, and dried sweet orange peel. Grandma M said that her quiche and salad were very good. My full tea was also served on a three-tiered plate, with six finger sandwiches - two each of egg salad, cranberry chicken salad, and cucumber with dill - two blueberry scones with lemon curd and Devonshire cream, a cup of cut-up pineapple, strawberries and blueberries, and a mini-carrot cake, mini-German chocolate cake, fruit petit four, and mini-chocolate layer cake. Wow, a lot of food! BB did great and finished everything except his Goldfish. I had to keep begging LB to eat his sandwich as he was perfectly happy just eating the Goldfish and the gummies. My sandwiches were very good, with my favorite being the cranberry chicken salad. The scones were nice and soft and tasted great with the curd and cream. Surprisingly, my least favorite things were the carrot cake and German chocolate cake. They just didn't taste right. But the fruit was wonderful as well, very sweet. Since BB had finished his meal, he picked out a chocolate for himself ($1.25) and of course LB started to throw a fit. Luckily, we were now past the main lunch hour so we were the only remaining guests in the place. I was a bad mommy and gave in to the tantrum and let LB have a chocolate as well - the same exact one of course. BB acted like a proper gentleman the whole time so I am considering taking him next time I go for tea again. LB was just a little too little and I'll have to wait until he is older. But, Trish's Teas is a nice place to have tea and some food and I'm really considering maybe having MY birthday party there one day.