The Tea Cosy Reviews

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The Tea Cosy
3 George Street , Kemp Town , Brighton , East Sussex

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These reviews are the subjectiveú opinion of our users and do not represent the opinions of brightonlife.com. Whilst we make every effort to moderate them we can not guarantee their accuracy.

Irene Pickering Irene Pickering gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 4/5

Sunday 18th September 2011

i booked a table for 6 for tea at the tea cosy and was not disappointed. I am celiac and pre ordered my tea which did not disappoint i have never tasted such nice fresh gluten free food. the rest of my family ordered high teas and were equally impressed. the lady who serverd us was attentive to our needs and filled our teapots and gave extra cream without any complaints. all in all i would recommend this tea room for its quirckiness and hospitality. only constructive critisim would be that the table we had near the piano could do with wedges put in under the table top to make it more secure. otherwise this is a top rate tea room and i for one will be back. thank you ladies for a lovely afternoon tea. WELL DONE !!!

Reviewed 20th Sep 2011

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Rebecca Haroutunian Rebecca Haroutunian gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 5/5

What A Treat

The Tea Cosy is an oasis of British eccentricity served up in a mass produced world.

Fabulous food, superb service and sumptuous surroundings were on offer today in spades during our visit to Brighton’s Tea Cosy. We were greeted with a warm welcome – nothing was too much trouble for the hospitable staff.

My friend and I opted for freshly made scones, served with clotted cream and jam. As a Coeliac sufferer I have sampled a plethora of rock-hard, gluten-free scones, and nothing will come close to those that I tasted today at the Tea Cosy. They were fresh, home made, crumbly – and utterly delicious once they'd been topped off with a dollop of strawberry jam and cream.

But the tea rooms don’t just tantalise your taste buds, they also entertain and enthral. Every inch of wall is adorned with Royal Memorabilia; there is so much to peruse while enjoying your tea and cake!

So if good food and attentive service, enjoyed in highly original surroundings is what you’re after, then I would highly recommend a visit. I will certainly be going back.

Reviewed 22nd Aug 2011

 » Management Response
Kaylee Kettle Kaylee Kettle gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 0/5
We booked a table here on a Friday at midday for the commencement of our engagement shoot. We were expecting a delightful tea full of giggles & great photos to mark us being soon to be married. We were emailed the DAY BEFORE by management & told if we wanted to bring a camera onto the premises we would be charged an extra £50!!! So why is this not mentioned on the website? Or when we originally booked?
Needless to say we didnt go. Rip off merchants. Im pleased we didnt turn up only to
Have our special day out ruined.

Ludicrous!!!

Reviewed 16th Aug 2011

 » Management Response
K Littlewood K Littlewood gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 2/5
I read in a magazine recently that the Tea Cosy was worth a visit. I booked a table for my husband and I and we were expecting a real treat. What a disappointment. There was one miserable member of staff who spent the whole time running around saying how busy it was, not conducive with a relaxing experience. The sandwich was small and the cream with the scone was not clotted but whipped cream, not at all traditional. We will not be returning or recommending this tea room.

Reviewed 29th May 2011

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James Gundersen-mclaughlin James Gundersen-mclaughlin gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 0/5

Jaq67

Totally lacking in all areas! Poor service, bad food, watery tea bags, drafty as door kept open throughout our stay. Don't waste yout time or money on this one!

Reviewed 27th Oct 2010

 » Management Response
Craig Davies Craig Davies gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 0/5

Horrible!!

OK - in the past we have heard good reviews about this one, so was looking forward to a trip for a posh cup of tea.

Sadly the ownership has been taken over and the new personality-lacking owner has made it go down hill (see other reviews to confirm this!!.

OK my reasons:

1. The tea is TEA BAGS!!!!... do we go to starbucks to drink instant coffee???
2. Unlimited tea which was only good if you could find somebody to serve you
3. the smallest portions of food i have ever seen!!! i reckon half a sandwich and the sponge cake was only 5mm thick (you could see light through it and it crumbled on pickup!)
4. the cake and scones were obviously brought from a shop and not home made
5. had to pay to book table (£4) in advance and was additional on top of the bill!!! (as the rest of the tea room was partly empty it seemed very steep!!!)
6. complained about this and the response was 'the old owners told me to keep charging this' and then she walked off!!
7. was not a warm welcoming and she was moody when we walked out (not even a goodbye!)
8. no longer stand for the British anthem - was looking forward to this unique part of the visit
9. dirty toilets
10. very expensive - £10 for the basic tea meal. minimum 2 so £20 for a small cake stand.
11. our friends had to share our cream and jam????
12. vowed never to come back

Don't bother - this place is going down hill and no longer deserves to be in this area of Brighton - maybe whitehawk instead???

it requires change of owner immediately as this place has a unique look. Should be in a museum with fake plastic sandwiches and large dolls at the moment - people staring but waiting for a proper cafe

p.s. i don't normally make such a scathing review, just very disappointing

Reviewed 6th Jun 2010
Management Response from The Tea Cosy on 8th Jun 2010
Thank you for your review of the Tea Cosy, as manager I would like the opportunity to reply. We took over the tearoom on the 24th May 2010 and despite the fact that we have only been in business for two weeks we are still very disappointed and sorry to hear that your visit to the Tea Cosy did not meet your expectations.

I can assure you that everything is homemade on site, all cakes, scones, biscuits, jam and chutney; they are made either by myself or by my business partner. With regard to portion size we are looking into this but have had conflicting views about what a correct size is? Some people have commented that the high teas are too big and have been unable to finish it, so I think this is dependent according to opinion and perhaps appetite. We do in fact offer unlimited tea when ordering a high tea and I’m sorry that you felt this service was not readily available to you.
The cake stand was in fact not small but was a four tier stand for 2 to share, the jam and cream should have been for the high tea, if we forgot to give a separate jam and cream for your friend I apologise profusely, this was an error on my part and I thank you for pointing this out. If you had asked us for more jam and cream or mentioned any of the points you have made whilst in the tea room we would have of course been very obliging and apologetic.

We are currently in discussion as to whether we should use tea bags or loose tea and previously felt that for the time being we should use tea bags as the previous owners had done. However your opinion will be taken into consideration when making our final decision.

The toilet (we only have one) is cleaned and checked throughout the day, however it is an old cistern and we are looking into changing this as soon as possible.

The booking fee clearly states on the website that it is a fee and not a deposit, if that was misleading for you in any way we again apologise and have refunded the £4 booking fee (a gesture of good will). Just to explain; the booking fee is to reserve your table and is not dependent on how busy the tearoom is.

In regard to the national anthem, I can only say that this was indeed a technical hitch, we tried to do this on Sunday but unfortunately could not get it to work. In hindsight we should have made an announcement explaining this to our customers, we are trying to fix this problem as soon as possible.

Again we are truly sorry that you did not feel that the service or your visit met your expectations, we take all these comments seriously and will endeavour to fix anything that is factual and needs addressing.
Emma Emma gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 1/5

Right Royal Rip-off

I was really looking forward to coming here as I had read great reviews on the Guardian website, where it had been voted best place to have tea in the country. Eyes bigger than my stomach, but expecting to be delighted, I ordered the Lady Diana Spencer tea and I have to say, I was expecting much better fare than the supermarket cake slices, piles of chocolate biscuits and bourbons, cheese and pickle sandwiches and tiny amount of potato salad made with salad cream which I received for the queenly sum of £10. This was presented on a wobbly cake stand and had to be shared between three people. I cannot describe any other feeling other than frustration at being totally ripped off.
I also felt really uncomfortable as the manager stalked around us, giving me the distinct impression that he wanted us to leave so he could fill our table with more punters. The only time he appeared genuinely cheerful was when the mayor arrived offering him a photo opportunity which he hammed to the fullest.
I imagine this place once deserved the reputation it now clings to, but complacency and a touch of arrogance have made it more stale than the sandwiches.

Reviewed 17th May 2010

 » Management Response
Kate Kate gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 0/5

Tea Cosy

What a total disappointment. I had been so looking foward to visiting Tea Cosy after being told that it had been voted as one of the top ten afternoon tea experiences to visit (along with Claridges!!!). The decor was OK but it was dirty and mismatched (I won't even mention the state of the toilet!!!). Three of us ordered the Lady Diana Spencer tea which was a total rip off at £10. There were three smoked salmon sandwiches and some ham and cheese, a small almount of potato salad, one scone with jam and cream each and then a huge amount of chocolate borbons, chocolate digestives and shop bought angel cake, walnut cake and lemon cake and not of a particular high standard more of a shop's 'value' range. I at least expected home make cakes. The waiter was extremely rude and made us feel everything was too much bother, I found it rather insulting to be spoken to in such a way. I most certainly wouldn't visit this place again and definately would not recommend Tea Cosy to a friend to waste their hard earned money at.

Reviewed 2nd May 2010

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Lea Lea gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 5/5

Cream Tea

A real brighton Gem to be tresured! ok..... the food is average (although the victoria sponge is excellent), the service relaxed and sometimes a little slow on a busy weekend but the all around 'experiance' is fantastic and very much a touristy tounge in cheek kiss me quick wit. The whole place is very very Brighton and the fist place we think to take our visitors. Let the queen reign at the Tea Cosy for a long time to come!

Reviewed 1st Apr 2010

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Cassie Cassie gave The Tea Cosy a rating of 0/5

Birthday Treat For A Friend

I took a very dear friend for a treat to the Tea Cosy. When I popped in 20 mins before I was told I could not reserve a table.

When we came back 20 mins later we were given a table and the place was very busy. The banter was quite rude to customers considering the etiqutte on the website.

We went for a Lady Diana Spence Special of which was a min order for two - more than 8 people could eat.

After about an hour the tea room emptied very sparse and we were told to leave as the table was booked.

I did feel very robbed considering we orded the top end of a high tea, no customer service and be prepared to get insulted. Very disappointed.

Reviewed 31st Mar 2010

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