Eskimo Tea House & Dessert

Drinks are pretty terrible, staff is pretty rude, décor is good. Won’t be coming back.

Took advantage of a Living Social deal to try this place. $ 29 for afternoon tea for two. It included «a cube of toast cake, two pots of tea, an assortment of eight finger sandwiches, two bowls of fruit, and two salads). I don’t think it was worth that much, let alone whatever regular full price may have been. Liked the atmosphere, and the tea was amazing (I had the ginger with lemon/​honey, my friend had the green tea with fruit), but that was the extent of it.
1. We were the only ones there for a while, so there was no excuse for the surly staff. Totally unfriendly, plonked dishes down on our table and left without a word. You’d think they do these voucher promos to drum up business, and would therefore have been a little more welcoming and happy to see us. Instead we felt like our presence was an inconvenience.
2. The «salad» consisted of less than a cup of iceberg lettuce with a very sweet dressing. A piece of tomato and cucumber might have been nice to pretend it was an actual salad.
3. The fruit salad was ok.
4. The «eight finger sandwiches» was a single ham sandwich, with some melted cheese on top. Couldn’t even be considered grilled. Cut in half and plonked between us to share. I guess we were supposed to cut it into eight pieces with the single knife we were provided (at least we got two forks).
5. The cube of toast cake was weird, never saw anything like it before. Half a loaf of bread, the insides cut into cubes, and covered with ice cream and fruit. We ate some of the cubes and the fruit and ice cream.
Another couple came in for the afternoon tea as we were tackling the toast cake. We had a laugh watching their reactions with each dish that arrived, especially the «finger sandwiches».
I love Living Social, Groupon, etc. for trying new experiences and cuisines (I discovered I love Ethopian and Philipino cuisine!). But sometimes they’re total duds and I’m just glad I didn’t pay full price. This is one of those.

Being from out of town, we rely on Living Social and Groupon to find nice places to eat and drink.
Our voucher demanded a reservation prior to our arrival. After trying for two weeks to call Eskimo, we decided to show up after a night visit at the AGO.
The server took us in even without the reservation, everything good so far. She even let us do a substitution so my son could have a hot chocolate instead of tea.
Our tea was served very quickly and was delicious. It was the ginger lemon and honey tea.
The fruit bowls were fresh and tasty.
The cube of toast cake is the reason I use vouchers — to find hidden gems. It is so different, yet very delicious. I would gladly come back for this cake.
The server did a wonderful job, even though she was alone to tend the tables and prepare food and drinks. We got our food in a timely fashion.

My friend and I went here after browsing the internet for cafes. Their menus seemed interesting for us, so we went. Once we got there we were so disappointed, their place seems very ordinary with not much decorations. We sat and ordered our drinks and food. It takes a while to come where in fact we were the only customer they had. my friend and I ordered coffee jelly iced milk tea, squid balls (because they said they dont have chicken popcorns), and ice cream cubes.
When we tried our drinks, it had some type of cream on top which I don’t think is whipped cream it tasted more like all purpose cream and is very greasy. we got our squid balls after a while oh and they said they had chicken popcorns already so we ordered that too. we got our appetizers and it tasted really salty and full of MSG. Plus we have to ask for sauce because they didn’t give us any and they’re too busy chatting with each other!
I will definitely NOT come back to this store anymore!

It’s been 1 hour and a half and all we got is our tea. Will let you know what happens after
–Groupon
Okay so after an hour and 40 minutes, we left the restaurant and we had nothing but salad and tea. If you did purchase that groupon I recommend you should get your money back
If I can give this place no stars I would have.
Worst place ever now at salad king and having food in less than 20 min…

A group of friends and I stumbled here on accident and I’m very glad we did! We enjoyed some very refreshing drinks, huge desserts, and warm appetizers.
I had a watermelon lychee drink that was fantastic! I don’t think their food is the best, but for the late-​night craving, it does the trick. Also, their drinks and dessert make up for it!
I love the cute staff here– they are very welcoming and definitely worth a visit!

While the café looked nice, the drinks were unspectacular. The menu was well varied though, and the service is alright. There are board games and magazines offered to the patrons, but nothing quite helped the experience. It didn’t help that the place had Christmas music in April.

I really like the cute environment of this place, and again, they have board games and cards to chill with friends! I also like how they have a post it note telling you their wifi password so you don’t have to awkwardly ask a server for one. The drink menu seems pretty decent, but what prevented this place from getting a 4 star was the frothy milk I ordered. I’ve ordered the same thing before at Green Grotto and it was pretty awesome. Here however, there was a sever lack of froth in my falsely advertised frothy mild. They pretty much just microwaved a cup of milk for me, which boggles my mind cause I could have done that at home. Oh well, maybe I’ll just order something else next time. I also intend to try their desserts cause they look delicious and reasonably priced!

There are many practices that make a good business, this restaurant seems to ignore many of them. First of all, the service can only be explained by the word deplorable. We had to ask for the menus and then cups of water to drink on separate occasions. They got our order and didn’t tell us that they were closing early at 12, although the sign clearly said 1 am and it was 11:40. In the Men’s washroom no soap could be found.
When the food did arrive it was 11:56, so they expected us to scarf our food down in a limited amount of time. The food itself has a lot to be desired for $ 12. I could go almost anywhere else like Wanda’s and get better. The toast seem a bit stale.
The only positive from this restaurant I could find about this restaurant is that they said good night. By the way, if you close early I suggest you turn off the open sign and change the written time, so everyone understands. This business needs to learn to apply simple practices not to upset it’s patron.

I like this place as it’s one of those quite little hidden gems where you can go and have a good time with friends. I like this place mostly because of the ambiance. They also have a few board games and books here.
The tea and desserts are reasonably well but I’m not an expert in that subject — but yes, you’d get lots of variety there!

I had gone to Eskimo Tea House & Dessert with a few of my friends and to say we were disappointed would be an understatement.
We had gone because it was nearby (and it was quite warm outside) and none of us had ever been there so we decided to go and try it out.
I had ordered the chocolate Lava Cake, my friends ordered a Caramel dessert, Toast with ice cream and a Taro drink.
ALL of it was disappointing, the Lava cake though soft and warm, soon became cold and hard. It was clearly microwaved. Only the ice cream was salvageable, but how do you mess up ice cream anyways?
The Caramel dessert my friend had ordered was also inedible, rock hard. It tasted like it had been siting on a shelf for a few days. the caramel decorating the dessert was the strange chewy-​hard consistency you’ll get only after a few days.
The Toast and ice cream? We only ate the ice cream.
The Taro bubble tea was watery.
We literally all laughed about our desserts for days after we had gotten our food.
Looked delicious but tasted like whut whut. The only positive contribution about the place was the wifi. Overall severely overpriced desserts that have been sitting in the there for God only knows how long.

I stumbled upon Eskimo Tea House & Dessert in my recent venture with my SO to find an independent coffee shop that had free wi-​fi. When we walked in, we were surprised on how quaint and cozy the place was. This coffee shop is a place to hang out and chill; you can even play board games!
We were served a few minutes after seating ourselves. They have an extensive dessert menu and drinks. I got a regular Milk tea which was a descent version of the typical Hong Kong Milk tea styles. The one unique item they serve on their menu is Cube Toast! It is a cube of asian style bread toasted and cubed with ice cream and fruits as toppings. It was really yummy and comforting. I would definitely recommend trying it.
I will be back for future visits to try out other items on their menu; they even have savour snacks!
If you are in the AGO area, definitely stop by and check it out.

Eskimo Tea House & Dessert does have a nice set up as a place to hang out with friends and chit chat.
Don’t even bother with the dessert at Eskimo! We ordered this Fresh Fruit Waffle ($ 6.99) one of the worse I had! The waffles are so salty! Is i a dessert? The ice cream is the cheap artificial taste type and the fruits has this funny taste and definitely not «fresh»!
My Taro Milk Tea ($ 3.99) is not bad… but I definitely won’t be coming here because of the drinks, only if I want to chill out/​play some board games and get some work done over the internet.

My girlfriend and I just came here for some hot drinks after the Picasso exhibit. I had a pot of loose leaf Rose tea and she opted for the coffee. I have to say, some of the nicest Rose tea I’ve had. You could taste the rose flavour but it wasn’t overpowering or bitter.
The vibe here is great. We sat here for a few hours just chit chatting and never felt pressured. Also, it isn’t too loud in here and there isn’t any annoying music playing. Even though it’s a small space, the tables aren’t crammed together and I felt like there was enough personal space to move around.
There was a really pretty Asian girl who waited on our table and processed our bills. She was quiet but nice.
I’m looking forward to coming here on my next visit to the AGO.

Non-​PC name aside, this is a fun place to chill. It’s open late every night in an area where there aren’t that many places to go at night that aren’t bars. It’s a pretty standard bubble tea shop, with a slightly more extensive menu of desserts (add a mini cake to any drink for just $ 3.50). They also have a good selection of Asian fashion magazines and games to keep you entertained. Games include: Monopoly, Uno, Cranium, Clue, Puerto Rico, Taboo, Boggle, Trivial Pursuit… The space is clean and simple. Very IKEA. I liked the B&W mural on one wall and the red sofa in the middle of the room. As for the actual drinks, I had a green pineapple bubble tea. Not the best tapioca I’ve had (I prefer One Hour or Cha Time), but otherwise pretty good. DC got a tea with apple jelly, but the jelly is weirdly shaped that it’s really hard to get using the straw (you need a spoon).
They have a stamp loyalty card, so if you come often, don’t forget to ask for one.

I thought that the term «Eskimo» was on the outs, but then Chinatown isn’t exactly a hotbed of political correctness. Was that observation on racism itself racist? Perhaps I should begin this review before it devolves into a race-​related auto-​hermeneutic circle jerk. (If my philosophy profs could see me now.)
Located across from the Art Gallery of Ontario, Eskimo Tea House is a social café where you can enjoy snacks, shakes/​smoothies, bubble tea, hot tea, coffee and desserts galore. On my visit it was full of Young People enjoying themselves and making merry. It’s larger than it looks and from the casual vibe, I could tell this was a place one could just while away the afternoon chatting or playing board games with friends.
The foodstuffs are largely snack items. I shared a portion of spicy popcorn chicken and had a awesome smoothie made with fresh mint. I finished off with an enormous cube of toast stuffed with ice cream and covered with fresh fruit and slathered with condensed milk. I don’t think I could describe it any better than Joanne W: it’s diabetes on a plate. I might get it again, but only if I were being executed later that afternoon.
An excellent and original addition to the neighbourhood.
Obligatory Title Pun: Get IN-UIT.[1]
Menu Readability: Colourful. Clear photos of the nibbles.
Need to mention: Free Wi-​Fi for nerds.
What this place teaches me about myself: I’m a PC thug.
_​_​_​_​_​
[1] OR: PARK-​A yourself here for hours.

The place newly opened. It’s pretty cute, small place, with not too many people, and free wifi!
The bubble tea was pretty good — I always try the milk tea of a place first to be able to compare how good or bad the places are. However, I wasn’t very happy with the food (well, the snack’ems). We had the fries and onion rings, the fish cakes, and the brick house toast. The onion rings were a HUGE disappointment. It was REALLY salty, and the fries and onion rings were really soft. THe fish cakes were initially really good, and then it got REALLY salty. It was pretty bad.
The brick toast was good initially, and it’s something that I would suggest to share with at least 2 – 3 other people. That dessert is diabetes on a plate: a huge slab of toast, some strawberries and kiwis, butter, ice cream, and smothered with condensed milk.
So conclusIon: drinks good, food bad.

It’s good and it’s inexpensive. And so I’m happy.
Eskimo has a very OCAD vibe, from the giant hand-​drawn wall doodle to the bright-​but-​appealing colours inside. It’s a nice place to play some board games with friends, just to chat, or even to do a bit of studying if you’re okay with some conversation in the background.
The best deal here is the $ 5 all-​day breakfast special — if I remember correctly, it comes with eggs and fresh fruit and toast or a mini waffle (I think). They also have dessert foods, small cakes (e.g. mini mousse cake), and taiwanese snack-​style foods (e.g. fish balls, etc).
Their drinks are okay — typical TW teashop type and price range, with some fresh fruit drinks thrown in for good measure. The thing that I appreciate about this shop is that they actually understand the value of aroma versus taste; instead of immediately loading up on the sugar like most teashops, they usually make the drinks subtle to begin with, and you can request or add more sugar if you like (for example, I got the taro milk tea here, and they put sugar packets on the side). They also have some good oriental steeped teas here (jasmine, oolong, etc).
I will be back. And have that breakfast special, which will probably be cheaper than my drink.