salon de thé cardinal tea room

the good
super cuteplacethat makes you feel in paris
wonderfully decorated and nicely lit.
service is also very amicable and they will do their best to accommodate you.
rose petal tisane was divine! and served at a perfect temperature (not scalding nor lukewarm)
english breakfast tea a good classic
hit chocolate very very good.
tea for two platter, very well constructed. cheddar and lardons muffins where the best on the platter.
cucumber sandwich a classic well executed as well as the ham and mustard sandwich.
lemon and chocolate bars were delicious, although the size looks small they are very rich so more than that would be too much.
scones are ok a bit on the dry side.

the bad
scones could be offered in other flavours rather and blueberries only.
the clotted cream is far from the real thing
the jam seemed to be commercial and not “homemade” and they only offered strawberry flavour.
the muffins are too small but they are espectacular so you will want to order more.

the ugly
parking
they dont take reservations
wait lines can be looonnnnng.
quite expensive

free time is somewhat of a luxury for my girlfriend and i. now…admittedly it is pretty much by choice as we like to keep ourselves busy but regardless, when we have some – especially on a gorgeous weekend like the one we had relatively recently – i quickly enter into date mode. we need to take advantage of the opportunity – and i need to win some brownie points with the lady of course! prior to being completely embarrassed by my performance on the skating rink down in the old port later that afternoon, i figured this was a great chance to go visit aplacei had on my lists for a while now, the cardinal tea room.

i have looked into many different afternoon teas in montreal and every time i go back to the cardinal because it's the most affordable, least snob (no fois gras for me thank you)placeyou could go! their warm scones are great, their selection of tea interesting, and their decor absolutely amazing and inspiring! would 100% recommended it!

there aren’t many places that do english tea in montreal, but the few places that do, do it extraordinarily well. i visited thisplacerecently that doesn’t actually serve high tea, but does prove themselves as one of the premiere places to go for a spot of tea. i went to the cardinal tea room in the mile-end. located upstairs from the sparrow, the space looks like one of those newspaper stories of an old uninhabited building that was stuck in time and untouched for 80 years. i don’t know if that’s a compliment to the decorators, but theplaceis stunning; antiques and

as weak as the tea.... let’s begin by saying that in a traditional english tearoom, you should never have to pay extra to have clotted cream with your scone. it is an absolute must and any tea room owner who really took pride in the experience they were offering would not dare to serve their scones with butter (unless requested). “cream tea” must be an item on the menu – it is what an english tea is all about. here it is on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cream_tea it really is not that complicated.

i’m afraid the service here was very slow, especially considering that most of the food simply needed to be thrown on a plate. one of our plates simply didn’t turn up and as we were leaving we were offered it “to go”. the sandwiches were poorly presented and more reminiscent of a packed lunch and the “ploughman’s plate” was far less exciting than it sounded and quite ungenerous for the price. don’t go here if you’re hungry.

the décor was fabulous, but if you want to experience a good english tea, or if you have been here and really enjoyed it, i now urge you to try somewhere else. i feel thisplaceis for people who don’t know any better and it breaks my heart to think that there will be montrealers who will think that this is what a traditional english tea is all about. it gets so much better!