Hy-tea

Lovely little cafe right by the shore of Lake Ontario in Pickering. Owner is wonderful and friendly. We had high tea with a decent array of sandwiches (including vegetarian only on request), a freshly baked scone, chocolate brownie and a bit of fruit. Food quality was good, not on the same scale as a five star hotel in downtown Toronto but we knew that and were pleased with what we got.

I was given a gift certificate for afternoon Tea in this Tea Room and was eager to go there. My husband and I went on a particularly quiet afternoon, there was no one in there when we opened the door and we wondered if they were closed, but soon a woman arrived to serve us. The waitress thought it was OK to shout to us from across the restaurant instead of walking over to our table so that we didn't have to shout back at her. She was pleasant enough, but she whistled as she went about her tasks, not everyone likes to listen to whistling and it can be distracting when you're trying to chat with your lunch mates. However, we played along and ordered our tea and a few other customers came in which was reassuring. Tea came after a long wait. China was chipped, sandwich bread was stale, strawberries were starting to wither, and generally the entire thing was a disappointment. Not sure if the cream was real clotted cream, but this and the preserves were in short supply. We didn't get a choice of sandwich fillings, so some tastes weren't to our liking. Overall it was an unusual experience as it was nothing like other tea rooms i'd been to and the tea was nothing near as moreish as a tea done well can be.