Tina’s Traditional Tea Room is one of my favorite places to have tea in Indiana. I was so sad when they closed their Columbus Tea Room – as it was much closer to us. But this wonderful tea room is worth the 45 minutes drive. Due to the Coronavirus – the shop has recently been reopened – and in order to serve guests, their staff followed all suggested precautions. They offered two dine-in options…The Celebration High Tea (Lisa ordered) and The Lady’s Lunch (Nick bravely received). This was a perfect afternoon date-day treat for a belated Mother’s Day gift. It was an expensive lunch – but it was worth to help get this restaurant restarted after a long closure with only curbside pickup due to COVID-19. Our server was wonderful and the kitchen crew served us a fabulous meal!
Teas: Lisa – Earl Grey Creme (her all-time fav at Tina’s), Nick – The Secret Garden (black tea with mango, papaya, rose petal, cornflower and elderflower)
Lunch for Nick – “The Lady’s Lunch” ($25) consisted of 4 delicious egg salad sandwiches, chips, and a lemon poppy seed scone with raspberry jam.
Lisa’s Afternoon Tea – “The Celebration High Tea” ($45)
- Specialty drink: mock-mimosa
- First course: Mulligatawny soup – not as spicy as I’ve had in the past at Irish pubs – liked this version much better!
- Bottom tier: 4 tea sandwiches – Coronation Chicken Salad, egg salad, White Irish Cheddar with green tomato chutney, and cucumber and cream cheese. There was also a 3-cheese mini quiche included. I’m a big fan of the Coronation Chick Salad, and I often re-create it at home. The egg salad was very fresh and the white bread made a perfect tea treat. I gave the cheddar and chutney sandwich Nick – but I suspect I would have liked it much better than he did. The cucumber sandwich was also a staple delight. The quiche was a wonderful couple of bites.
- Middle tier: 2 lemon poppy seed scones with raspberry jam and vanilla chai preserves. Both were very freshly made and the raspberry had a tiny edge for the tastiness of the two. The clotted cream seemed suspiciously close to a tablespoon of cream cheese – but it honestly tasted really great on the scones with the jam.
- Top tier: the Bakewell tart and the Scottie shortbread are the winners of the sweet treats – both homemade and fresh. The chocolate opera cake, pistachio macaroon and the white chocolate and strawberry petit four appeared store-bought – frozen and defrosted. But I understand — they are coming out of a long disruption that most likely affected their staff and their supplies.
Total cost with tip: $96.30 US
Afternoon Tea Time with Lisa & Nick 