The Old Curiosity Tea Shop

My recent trip to Canada did include one tea room visit. 

This is a Victorian style tea room in downtown historic Markham Village.  There is a copious collection of pretty tea wares on every surface, rich colored walls and dark furniture.

I called ahead and made a reservation for the “afternoon tea for two” at $20 per person.   

My teacup was in the lovely Royal Albert Lady Carlyle pattern.  I like the feminine color and pattern of this cup and saucer.

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Are you trying to figure out why this table has a pole coming out of it?  We had the special garden table placed in the large front bay window, complete with sun umbrella and main street views.

After ordering our tea – Victorian Markham (house blend) for me and Royal Bengal Tiger for my sister-in-law, our first tray arrived.  The sandwiches were deliciously fresh and included ham, cucumber, salmon mousse and egg.

Then the warm fragrant currant scones arrived.  I like the traditional type scones and these were great.  There was thick Devonshire cream and four varieties of preserves, including gooseberry and apricot.  There were a couple of English chocolate covered biscuits.  Perfect, since I would rather have the sandwiches and scones and less sweets.

This tea room has over 80 kinds of loose tea on the menu and they also have an online tea shop that you can visit here.  There is a new product called “Smart Tea” which is a blend of green teas selected for maximum health benefits.

I was really wishing that I could return another day for lunch.  They offer steak and kidney pie (one of my favorites), as well as sausage rolls, Welsh Rarebit, and shepherd’s pie.  They have English salad cream as their house dressing and English baked beans as one of their sides.

This lovely tea room has been in business for well over ten years.  I would certainly recommend it to fellow tea lovers, or anyone else looking for a delicious lunch in a distinctive atmosphere.