Tea at The Empress

My rating is based on service and price. I would recommend you come here for the «check one off on the bucket list.» Otherwise, I have to agree with all the comments that said that the tea was overpriced. However, high tea at the top hotels are all a bit pricey. 3 things disappointment me that caused me to rate this experience a 3. The service is not what you would expect for the price of the «experience.» We asked for honey and had to wait a very long time and remind him. We couldn’t find any server around when we needed basic things, like water. Then when we asked a different server that wasn’t ours, she rolled her eyes when we asked her for somethings because we couldn’t find our server. The table was preset with sugars, but they weren’t full. The tea is loose and served in big bags in tea pots. They provide a timer so we can self monitor how dark we want our tea. Only problem is the tea bag is big and when you pull it out, it drops all over the place and they provide a small bowl for it to go into that is too small for the bag. I can’t believe that all 3 times we had to pull the tea bag out, the server never helped; then we had to ask to have the table dried off from all the water that dripped. I can’t believe I am the only one that had this problem. Not once did he offer to do it for us, nor did he seem happy when we asked the server to assist with pulling one bag out for us. Another thing that irked me was before they served the tea, they bring out a fancy display booklet that has all the choices of tea with prices listed On them. Except for their basic tea, they up charge $ 8-​$ 12 if your want a different flavor. I go to high tea a lot and I have NEVER been charged extra for other options of teas. And with the price they are charging for this tea, I felt like this was nickel and diming me.
The finger sandwiches, were very basic and not exciting quality. There was a salmon pinwheel sandwich, which was probably the best. I really can’t complain about the scone and clotted cream-​as I could eat 10 of those (although I am sure they would have charged me if I asked for another-​it was about 1 ½ «in diameter.)
If you like high tea and find yourself in Victoria, you’ve gotta do it once, but don’t expect feeling well taken care off.

The plates were beautiful. The sandwiches and pastries were delicious. It was one of those things that you do because people insist that you must try it. Would not do it again. Unfortunately didn’t read other reviews warning that they no longer give a box of empress tea, so opted for an upgrade figuring that I could try the other later on. That was a mistake. They don’t actually give you a box to take with you, which is really too bad, and part of what I would consider the charm of the experience. When we asked about it, and told the hostess that our concierge had mentioned the box of tea, instead of simply stating that they no longer did that, she also stated that she would talk to the hotel because they need to stop telling people that. Not classy, and NOT a good hospitality moment. Also, no strawberries to start, and it’s summer, the height of berry season! What?!
Service was nice, and the room was lovely, it’s just not worth the exorbitant price. The fact that they are charging more and giving less in terms of hospitality is just a no-​no in my book. If you want to do it just to say you did it, then the experience has value that way. If you hate tourist traps, then avoid this– it’s not t-​shirts and post-​cards touristy, but a very expensive slightly «upscale» trap nonetheless. Also they did not enforce dress code as we saw women in flip flops. But then again, are they really going to turn away a customer who wants to pay top dollar for the experience? Probably not.

Food was good, service was decent and nice ambience though it is not at their usual tea room because of the renovation. Surprisingly quiet with much going on at the hotel. Currently charging CA$ 75 pp for high tea is definitely overpriced. Is it worth it for once in a lifetime experience? If I can go back in time, I’ll most likely not spend so much for it.

We were there last Sunday, 5÷15÷16 for the opening of the «new» lobby tea. What’s new? A sterilized environment, reductions from the tea offering, and an increase in price.
Cost: The menu is now $ 75pp and no children’s menus were offered for our children. The restaurant gave us (and made a huge deal of giving us) $ 10pp off since the price when we booked was $ 53pp. Teas (other than the Empress Blend) are all an additional charge now, ranging from $ 6-​$ 15 per pot. Since we wanted to try four different teas rather than all have the same one, our total was $ 325CAD.
Food: The Empress Afternoon Tea has been around for a long while and we have been before, three years back. So let me offer a comparison from then (all the reviews before last Sunday) and now. The strawberries are no longer included with the menu. The coronation chicken sandwich is gone, replaced by a supermarket-​quality turkey on wheat. Finally, no longer is canister of tea given at the end of the meal. My husband asked for some extra sandwiches (since they ignored my dietary requirements, I could only eat 3 of the 5 bite-​sized savories), and the server scoffed, said there would be an extra charge for that, brought one sandwich and refused to bring us more.
Service and Atmosphere: Service was exceptionally poor on the day of our visit, possibly owing to the newness of the menu or seating software. The dining room was mostly empty as well. It appears that by removing the overstuffed furniture and antique pieces, that they can fit more guests into the room now, with its sleek purple and gray modern furnishings.
Booking: The Empress no longer books on OpenTable (if you look on OpenTable, you will see this as «permanently closed.») I’m not sure why — but the five people checking us in (bickering amongst each other for five minutes over whose section we should be seated into) kept referring to our family not by our name or even «this family» but as «the online booking.» So they seem to dislike that and have now stopped doing it.
My conclusion is sadly, that Afternoon Tea at the Empress has now become an overpriced, underwhelming event preying on tourists who can’t resist the iconic hotel and fanciful lavish tea of yesteryear, which is no more. We’ll not return again.

Afternoon Tea at the Empress makes me wish I had been born British royalty. I could have people serve me nice hot tea and delicious little finger foods every afternoon and be the happiest person in the world!
Although it’s pretty pricey, everything was delicious and my fiancé and I had a lovely time.

TIP: If you come in on the Seattle Clipper, having reservations at Noon work perfectly as it’s just a walk away from the port.
My friend and I scheduled a weekend getaway to enjoy Victoria. We made reservations for Afternoon Tea about 2 weeks in advance. I heard they book up quickly so making sure reservations are made before going is definitely recommended.
Service: The service was absolutely fantastic. They make you feel prim & proper, at home, and very welcomed. Our waitress filled our tea regularly and took the best care of us (answering all our questions and being attentive).
Tea: Absolutely divine! So delicious. TIP: They give you a box of the Empress Tea when you pay, so definitely take the opportunity to order something different while you are there. I ordered the Borengajuli Assam. It was so delicious and so velvety — just like in the description.
Food: Started with a Fresh Ginger Winter Melon with Empress Cream. It was absolutely delicious! Then we received our 3 tier tray of delicious savory & sweet items. I could go into detail for each, but I feel like I’d be spilling secrets. All you need to know is — you probably won’t be able to finish the meal and the leftovers make an excellent snack later.
I highly recommend making this part of your Victoria trip.

First visit to Victoria and my wife and I were celebrating our anniversary. I knew she would love this, so we booked a reservation. To my surprised I really enjoyed the experience and we had a great time. The food was delicious and the tea was amazing. Looking forward to coming back and making more memories. Thank You

My 14 year old daughter wanted to experience this because of it’s history, tradition and coolness and we loved it.
The sounds, the tastes, the wonderful aromas, the character of the room fantastic.
The finger sandwiches worked for me just fine.
Not for curmudgeons.
You have to want to experience something like «high tea.»
Not just wing it and hope you like it.
Outstanding service.
Make a reservation.
Class act.

We had a wonderful experience for afternoon tea. First, our waiter wAs excellent. We are vegan and he carefully explained the menu and how they’d modified it for us. When we made our reservation we noted we were vegan and they acknowledged that as we were seated. They exchanged our milk for almond milk, although soy milk was also an option. Our waiter explained the teas and we made our selection. Then our food arrived. The finger sandwiches were delicious. Our favorite was the curried eggplant. The bread was so soft! Then the biscuits. They look funny, but tasted perfect. The desserts were our favorite. Especially the chocolate brownie. We enjoyed the experience and we’re happy we could still participate given our dietary restrictions! Thank you to the Hotel for accommodating us. I highly recommend the experience. The atmosphere is fun and unique and well worth the price.

Had to do Afternoon Tea at the Empress of course.
Service was excellent. Tea was amazing. Food was great. The china they used was beautiful and the patterns were nice to admire.
I’m just not huge into tea service so didn’t find the experience that amazing. And this is despite having a huge interest in English culture and history.
I’d still recommend doing this if you haven’t and are in the area.

A must try for high tea — even just to the sake of the Nobel vibe and the view of the harbor. Loved the empress blend and the pineapple orange fruit tea. Our waitress was not very engaged but I guess I would be bored too if I am serving the same set menu repeatedly.
Many reviews commented on how pricy it is to have high tea in Empress — here is my take: if you only plan to high tea once, and have never have high teas before, Empress tea room is the way to go. If you are planning for a second (or more) tea visit like we did, I recommend trying out Venus Sophia and/​or Murchie’s to get a more casual/​modern vibe.

Afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress was one of the best I’ve had!
I made a reservation months ahead of time as I knew that this would be the ONE thing I had to do in Victoria! Looooved the service here — they treat you like royalty. The 3 tiers were all great and I wanted more sandwiches! I love the strawberries & cream they start you off with. They also gave us tea to go at the end.
We got a table next to the windows, which was fantastic as I love to people-​watch. The tea room is just gorgeous!

From the start, this was one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a while. We entered the noisy sitting room and made our way to host stand. We were seated in a timely fashion and instantly noticed how uncomfortably warm the room was. The staff were slamming plates, tea cups and silverware down, adding to the already loud cacophony. The noise was constant and drowned out the piano. Coming to a service like this, one expects to pay a premium for exceptional service; and pay we did. Long wait times, a server who we hardly saw, a glass of water that took 3 requests to receive, and did I mention the noise? All in all, an absolutely disappointing and manufactured experience — the furthest thing from a relaxing cup of tea. As an added bonus, on or way out, I noticed a table with countless towers of tea sandwiches wrapped in plastic.

This is my 4^th time here for afternoon tea. My first in 2000 or 2001 and then subsequent visits. Each time didn’t disappoint. I went to The Roof afternoon tea at the Hotel Vancouver and was very disappointed. The food was lack luster and the view was abysmal and you had to serve your own tea. I sound like a snob but half the reason people go to places like the Fairmonts for tea is for the service.
— the strawberries and cream was nice and a great way to start.
— Loved the sandwiches. My favorites were the smoked salmon and the ham ones. I was very disappointed with the cucumber ones — they were so bland. My scone was delicious. It was fluffy and delicious and went beautifully with the jam.
— everyone seemed to love the sweets on the top tier. I don’t really like sweet things so I skipped those.
— the Empress tea was delicious but a bit weak this time. I’m used to it being darker. They didn’t steep it as long.
My complaint was how loud the piano was. I don’t remember the piano playing on my previous visits. I really liked how quiet it was before. This time felt much louder and irritatingly so. It wasn’t so loud I had to yell but did have to raise my voice more than usual. I also didn’t enjoy that this area wasn’t marked off because I actually saw people seating themselves thinking that’s how it was done. They were escorted to the front and asked to wait to see if there were seats that were’t reserved.
I read some comments about attire and I somewhat agree. I’m not expecting a snoody afternoon tea with big hats like at the Kentucky Derby or white gloves and laughing like «oh har har har», but Old Navy tshirts with writing on it? Come on! At least have some ounce of respect for the experience. I dressed in beige shorts (kind you can wear to work or a country club) and a dress shirt. But some of the people there were dressed so casually it felt like you could be anywhere.
I’d come back again. I would have loved just an entire three tiers of salmon sandwiches and ham sandwiches. Heaven: D

Such a wonderful high tea experience!
The tea room was gorgeous. The tea was delicious (Fairmont Earl Grey was my choice of tea). The sandwiches were delectable. The desserts were scrumptious. The view was breathtaking.
No doubt the fanciest tea time I’ve experienced but also the most expensive.

Wowza. Our first «high tea» experience, and I’m glad that we did it here at the Empress. When we checked in to the hotel, we immediately asked about the tea service and were told there was only one table left. Score!
We arrived a bit early, but were quite surprised to see that there were many other folks lining up. I guess this is the place to be seen! Once our appointed time rolled around, we were quickly seated (by the window, yay!) by our server. If you get there early, you’ll have your choice of seats in the house.
Our server explained the set up to us. We could g with the $ 60 option or ball out and get some wine and cheese at the end too. Of course, we went for the ball-​so-​hard option.
We chose our tea and our giant tower of sammiches and sweets came shortly thereafter. Yum-​o. Everything from ham, to smoked salmon, biscuits with jam, curried chicken salad, chocolate cups, and more. Okay, so the food was a little lackluster… Definitely not worth the sticker price, but it was a great experience. Maybe just go for the standard tea option and call it a day.
Our server was extremely friendly and she even gave us a few boxes of tea to take home and brought me a chocolate sign that said «Congratulations» for our recent engagement. She was a sweetheart and made the experience truly memorable. Getting to watch other folks act fancy with their tea and sammiches was pretty fun, too.
#ProTip: If you can’t finish your sammies, they’ll pack up the leftovers for you.
A+ for experience & service
C– for food quality
D for value

I’m a tea fan so traveling to Victoria definitely needed to include Afternoon Tea at the Empress and I made sure to work my itinerary around fitting this in. My overall feel for this experience was good but definitely not great which is why an A-​OK 3 star comes into play.
The dining room is large and elegant with high cathedral ceilings and an ornate victorian type style. It doesn’t however feel as special as it should. Afternoon Tea at the Empress is touristy– and you’re welcome to join in shorts and flip-​flops which in my opinion cheapens the experience. Service is good as expected and a pianist also dressed very casually and in sandals will play for your enjoyment.
I am usually a huge fan of the finger sandwiches– but these were bland. The bread seemed stale and the substantial part of the mini was lacking luster. I was pretty disappointed to say the least when the cucumber was sliced so thin on one side I thought they’d forgotten to add it in.
The scone was also not the best I’ve had. Ironically I had been to a tea house a few days before in Vancouver so I had something recent to compare it to and I was not impressed. Scone did not seem fresh. Desserts are cute, they’re sweet and they’re good– but for the price of Afternoon Tea here I am expecting more than just cute and dainty sweet things. I was expecting a better experience, a feel– and I did not get that here.
I did however receive a box of the Empress Tea (12 bags) included which was a surprise but again the overall experience was not as impressive as I’d assume given all its hype.

My nieces and I decided to go to Victoria and check off one of my bucket list items: have tea at the Empress. Over all, a great experience. The sandwiches were fresh and delicious. The girls enjoyed the egg sandwich and the supremely buttery baby croissant. My personal fave was the ham sandwich. My minor complaint were the scones — — served disappointingly cold. Otherwise, it was a great experience especially for my niece’s first afternoon tea.

In 2012 I took my daughter on a mother/​daughter trip to Victoria. We stayed at the Fairmont Empress mainly because we planned to go to afternoon tea there. The building itself was lovely. The tea room was a little on the dark side but we were seated next to a picture window with a great view of the bay. From the moment we were seated for tea, our service was perfect. I wished I could remember the name of our server because she was so great. She was extremely descriptive when she told us about the teas, the sandwiches and the desserts.
After we ordered our teas, we were served a bowl of fresh blueberries and cream. Next came a three-​tiered server, which included:
— Two scones with Empress Cream and jam
— Delicious variety of sandwiches that included:
o smoked salmon pinwheel with dill cream cheese
o roasted honey ham with tarragon dijonnaise
o free range egg salad croissant
o Moroccan spiced coronation chicken on marble rye
— Beautiful assortment of mini desserts
Since that day in 2012, I have measured all high tea experiences against the special afternoon with my daughter at the Fairmont Empress!

Went to Victoria for a day trip and had to take my wife to the Empress Hotel Tea Time.
So glad we stopped by… it’s about $ 50 – 55 USD a person. We tried the Empress Blend and Earl Grey, loved both!
Love how they start you with fresh strawberries and cream. The finger sandwiches were quite delicious, my favs were the egg salad croissant and the smoked salmon. Scone was great. The sweets are always super sweet!
Highly recommend you come here if time permits… be sure to make a reservation it fills up quick.