Recently, my favorite sister-in-law, Tiffany, and I set out from the coast to go to afternoon tea at a highly regarded Persian restaurant in the wilds of Sunnyvale, California. Coordinates duly plugged into the GPS, plenty of time allowed to arrive in a timely manner, and reservations confirmed at the Open Table app, we drove in the rain to Chelokababi Restaurant which houses Chelo Tea House. Though their website clearly states tea times of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, and Open Table confirmed my Friday reservation, the hostess at Chelokababi informed us that they do not serve afternoon tea on Fridays. She recommended we come back on Saturday. Huh, probably not.
After a quick internet search for ‘tea near me,’ we called Lisa’s Tea Treasures in Campbell. Their outgoing phone message advised us to refer to their website for information about Lisa’s. Lisa’s Tea Treasures is a Bay Area chain of tearooms that has served a reliably good British style afternoon tea for many years. The local chain expanded and contracted with the times and has now settled on locations in Campbell and Los Altos. When there was a Lisa’s tea shop in Los Gatos, Rose and I spent several happy afternoons enjoying the cozy tearoom.
We rolled the dice and drove to Campbell, to be told that they were completely booked up and did not have a table for us. The hostess was very nice, genuinely concerned with our situation. I was happy to see so many people out enjoying tea. Our hope is always for a tea house to be popular and prosperous, so we’ll have a place to go out for tea.
Tired and hungry but not yet completely hopeless, once again we googled ‘tea near me’ and decided on K Café Patisserie & Tea House, on Bascom Avenue, in San Jose, just a few minutes from Lisa’s. I was cheered by the assumption that the “K” was for Korean because I’d been taken out, years before, to a magical Korean cake salon in Los Angeles. At that place and time, we sat in an exquisite pale mauve dining room, eating delicious French-inspired pastries, surrounded by elegant, beautifully dressed Korean gals: basically, a dream experience.
That was a long time ago. The world is a much different place today. K Café & Patisserie turned out to be a café franchise created to be a backdrop for the taking of selfies to be posted on social media. The patio out front and the interior were what I would call Extreme Flowery/Exotic/Fantastical decor. A bit like the Madonna Inn, updated for the internet age. We immediately noticed the vending machine to the right of the front door, where we could have purchased many different types of false eyelashes, if needed. With the non-subtle décor and loud music, it was a very immersive experience, you might say.
And busy! We arrived an hour before their closing time of 3 pm and there were folks in line to order and lots of patrons already enjoying the food and décor at tables or low couches around the room. We saw that patrons must order at the front counter, where rows of gorgeous-looking pastries were displayed. It took us awhile to figure out the menu; open for breakfast, brunch, and lunch, with a mash up of Asian, European, and American food, the giant wall menu was a lot to take in. Intrepid Tiffany spotted a soba noodle dish and I saw a grilled salmon platter, so we ordered that. The drink menu was also extensive but we tea gals went with hot matcha latte and hot English Breakfast tea. The counter gal asked us how we liked our eggs. I wasn’t sure where eggs fitted into my grilled salmon but always game for something different, I went for poached and Tiffany ordered hers over easy. Fairly quickly, the pager buzzed that our food was ready, and they were not kidding about platters: the food was served on huge platters, plenty of room for the two big pieces of salmon, heap of salad, saucy vegetable medley, large scoop of rice, and my poached eggs. Truly heroic portions. Quixotically, our beverages showed up quite a bit after our food, the matcha grainy and my alleged English Breakfast suspiciously floral, ugh.
Another table of ladies were all dressed in similar outfits in a jade green color but with one gal having a very full, fluttery white skirt: a party of bridesmaids and the bride, perhaps? After lots of selfies at their table, they moved to a recently vacated table which had a better background and continued the photo shoot. All around us, patrons were photo documenting their food, beverages, signs, statuary, and each other. We thought, well, when in Rome, so we took a few photos, too.
This was enough adventure for one weekend. A big thank you to Tiffany for keeping her sense of humor intact during the ups and downs of our rainy outing. Next month, I will write about several other recent afternoon teas in Santa Cruz and Lincoln. I feel very fortunate to have all these tea places in driving distance of the Bay Area and environs. As ever, I recommend making reservations and also calling ahead and speaking to a live person. Cheers!
Chelo Tea House Sunnyvale, California
Lisa's Tea Treasures Campbell and Los Altos, California
K Cafe Patisserie & Tea House San Jose, California