The Tea Rose Cafe

The Tea Rose Café is a really lovely place to eat. The food is delicious, great value and the service is fantastic.

How many teenage wannabe hipsters can you fit in the closed-​off upstairs dining area of a teeny village tea house?
Three?
Five?
Ten?
How about fifteen. No joke.
We just wanted a bite to eat in the late afternoon, so we headed into this cute-​looking tea house because the menu and signage outside was inviting. Not a single person under the age of 20 occupied this building excepting ourselves. I ordered tea and toast with preserves. I got my tea after about seven minutes But did my toast and preserves come? No. After the husband’s tuna sandwich (on toasted bread) came and I waited another five minutes, I flagged down the braces-​wearing youngin’ to ask about the toast. I never saw him again. The teenage ‘manager’ brought me the toast about seven minutes later without preserves. I asked about the preserves and she got snippy with me, telling me she didn’t take my order initially and didn’t know what I wanted. How about some preserves to go with my ‘toast and preserves’?
Did I mention the place was bereft of actual customers?
While I finished my toast and listened to the asinine conversation between three girls in the back room (‘no, like, I’m turning eighteen in two months! Two months! Really! How old do you think I look? Two months! Innit.’), the parade of teenage hipsters began down the stairs.
one. two. three. four. five. six. seven. eight. nine. ten. eleven…
The ‘manager’ began closing rituals, bringing in outside signage to store on the dining room floor, while we sat waiting for a bill so we could just pay our money and leave. After several minutes, I was up out of my seat and on my way to the back room with a tenner when she met me half way with our ticket. Here’s my tenner, kthx bye.
Pass.

The tea rose café is in a nice central location in the middle of town, and is in an old victorian house. The building itself is nice, but too many tables have been cramped inside the two floors so if it is busy it may be a bit awkward. However, there is a big square outside with about ten tables that is nice and peaceful and perfect for a summers day. Despite the potential of the Tea Rose café, it is fairly poor. The staff can be incompetent at times and need better training, and the food is not always of the best quality. I’d go there for a cup of tea and a slice of cake, but nothing more than that. If it is summer avoid sitting inside the building as it gets very hot, and if you have mobility problems I would also avoid inside as the floors are very uneven and may cause problems.