Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa offers so many unique and one of a kind Disney experiences when it comes to dining. From character meals at 1900 Park Fare to fine dining at Victoria and Albert’s. One of the unique offerings that we’ve been wanting to try was Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tea Room. The Garden View Tea Room is located on the first floor of the main lobby. It is directly below Mizner’s bar.
We made our reservation for an early afternoon on a Saturday. Bridget, our friend Malory and I all got fancied up for tea and were looking forward to the experience. We checked in and were seated a few minutes later.
Once seated our server explained to us the different levels of tea and how each of us will get to pick out our own pot of tea. We told her we were vegan and she went to grab a chef.
Chef Jose quickly appeared and began to tell us how we could get the Bedfordshire Tea vegan. This option comes with five finger sandwiches, he said that they had Go Veggie vegan cream cheese available and that he would swap out the curry chicken salad and egg salad with vegan options. He told us about a zucchini and summer squash option for those. I knew that they had Gardein Chick’n available on site, so figured I’d ask about that so we got some protein option. He said he could absolutely do that so we could get that and the zucchini to replace chicken/egg salads. For our fruit and cheese plate he’d make us a fruit salad and for dessert they had Erin McKenna’s tea loaves.
Our server brought out our teas. I opted for the Enchanted Forest, Malory got Golden Caramel Roobios and Bridget got Summer Berry. All of us really enjoyed our teas. They have so many to choose from, you’re guaranteed to find one you like! The tea pots get covered in giant plush bags to keep them warm. You are given a full pot of tea. I drank three cups and still had some left over!
After we sipped on tea for a bit our tower of snacks arrived. On top was our fruit salads, next were the sandwiches and last was dessert. We all opted for sandwiches first.
The cucumber sandwich very refreshing. The cucumbers were laid like shingles and the presentation here was incredible. The Fire Roasted Tomato may have been my favorite one, the tomatoes were full of flavor and reminded me of the tomatoes in the dipping oil at California Grill. The Poached Pear, which we all thought was ham at first glance, was a secret winner. I wasn’t sure how pears and vegan cream cheese would mix, but the pear had a super strong spice to it and it was great. I could have eaten that as a whole sandwich.
The zucchini was amazing. As Malory said later, my zucchini never tastes like that! They were grilled but cold, and full of flavor. It was also a hefty slice of zucchini too, which offered a good bite. Last was the Gardein Chick’n. This was my least favorite. The Chick’n was very mushy and generally lacked flavor. We are wondering if they let the Gardein Chick’n thaw as opposed to cooking from frozen. I would have been happy with two sandwiches of squash in the end.
The fruit salad was great. The berries were all very fresh. The blackberries were super tart and the raspberries were very sweet.
While eating the fruit salad I also ate the tea cakes from Erin McKenna’s. They were super dry and required mixing the bites with fruit. One slice was pumpkin, the most dry of the two. The other was chocolate, and while dry, still had a great chocolate flavor. I wish they could have an actual vegan dessert here instead of Erin McKenna’s.
The Bedfordshire Tea was $35 per person. I was unsure of the amount of food we would get as I had read online that you shouldn’t go there hungry expecting a meal, but also don’t go there full. We were there during lunch, I had eaten a later breakfast and I was very full from our snacks. As a whole I really enjoyed the meal and the experience. I would definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a unique relaxing break from the busy world of the Disney Parks. To make reservations here you have to call, just be warned to not book the morning as it is the Disney Princess Tea Party, which is a $300+ experience.
Price $$
Review from July 2018.
