My daughters and I met up with my niece for Afternoon Tea at The Steeping Room, located at 4400 N Lamar Blvd.
Three of us chose the Century Oaks Tea Service…
With this we had our choice of a pot of tea (they had several choices to choose from), a mug of chai, a cup of coffee, or a tea-tail (iced tea “mocktails”). I chose their Creme Brulee Rooibos tea, which was a non-caffeinated choice and was very good.
In my previous experiences with Afternoon Tea service (Disney’s Grand Floridian, The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, BC, and at local place here in Illinois) the courses have been served on a 3-tier tray…
Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort
The Fairmont Empress in Victoria, BC (Canada)
Tea Room at the Depot in Mackinaw, Illinois
So I was a bit surprised when everything (tea sandwiches, scone, cake, cookies, etc.) was served on one plain, white plate…
From another angle…
My two sandwich choices were…
Top: Pork Tenderloin (a Malaysian inspired marinated Berkshire pork tenderloin finished with cilantro, scallions and chili mayo)
Bottom: BAT (Bacon, Arugula, and Tomato with basil mayo)
I liked both of these but the BAT was my favorite.
For my scone I chose the Cranberry & Walnut…
This was a little hard and pretty dry and even with the clotted cream (my spread choice) it was rather unimpressive.
The tea cake of the day was a Lemon bundt cake…
Even though I’m not a big fan of lemon, I thought this was pretty good. I liked it better than the scone.
Finishing out my plate were…
…some strawberry and apple slices plus an assortment of three small tea cookies. All of this was good.
Here is my daughter’s plate…
She enjoyed her two sandwich choices were…
Top: BAT (same as mine only on wheat bread)
Bottom: Jasmine Gravlax – Jasmine tea-cured Atlantic salmon with cream cheese, watermelon radishes and pickled mustard seeds (for an extra $1.00 charge)
And for her scone, she chose the Mixed Berry Spelt…
Again her scone was just okay. She didn’t care for the lemon bundt cake or the cookies.
And here was my niece’s plate…
Her sandwich choices were…
Top: BLT (same as mine)
Bottom: Lemon Edamame with scallions and cucumber
She seemed to enjoy her sandwiches and the spiced ginger scone that she chose.
My other daughter though did not want to do the tea service, so she ordered one of their Classic Sandwiches…
She chose the Pimento Cheese Sandwich with white Vermont cheddar and gruyere cheeses blended with basil mayo and goat horn peppers, served on buttery grilled sourdough bread. She also added ham for an extra $2.25 and instead of either of the standard sides of balsamic dressed mixed greens or Kettle chips she upgraded to a caesar salad for an extra $1.50.
She said the sandwich and salad were fine but nothing special.
I would say The Steeping Room was a little better than average and give it a rating of 3 1/2 stars. This is lower than the 4 star rating given by Yelp reviewers and 4 1/2 stars by Trip Advisor. Also, The Steeping Room ranks #349 best of all the Austin restaurants reviewed on Trip Advisor and only #859 on Yelp.
Taste of Disney 