January 24, 2013

England Rose Garden Coffee & Tea Restaurant

The England Rose Garden Coffee & Tea Restaurant is actually a relatively new place.  It opened about half a year ago and I've passed by it many times but never actually stepped in.  After Cathy posted about her afternoon tea at Salut, I was very envious of the dainty tea cups and nicely presented snacks so I made the England Rose Garden Coffee & Tea Restaurant my next go-to restaurant.  Tea time!


Victorian Tea Time Snacks
Victorian Tea Time for two


Of course I had to order the three-tiered snack plates to make my tea time more legit!  I give an A+ for the wonderful presentation and I was all giddy when the waitress was bringing it to our table.  But...I wasn't impressed with the selection and I'm sure it couldn't feed two people.  

First tier: Chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin cookie.  Sadly, they weren't made fresh and were kind of hard.
Second tier: tiny muffin, small cream puff, (prettily)sliced fruit, and a small sliver of tiramisu.  There was only one piece of each dessert and all of them were small, so we had to fight for it split it.   Although small, the tiramisu was the highlight all of the three tiers! 
Third tier: tuna and cheese with lots of lettuce sandwich.  The most disappointing part...there was barely any tuna salad spread on the bread so it was like eating a salty lettuce sandwich


Tiramisu
Tiramisu


The delicious tiramisu: rich cream layered in perfectly coffee soaked layers of cake.


Loose Leaf Tea Leaves


They have a large selection of England Milk Teas and Taiwan Milk Teas.  The Taiwan Milk Teas are the usual milk teas with boba.  The England Milk Teas come in a teapot with the pretty looking tea cups, which is what we ordered.  They had quite a few choices so we asked which tea the waitress thought was the best.  She recommended Irish Cream which is supposed to have a strong tea taste.


Irish Cream Milk Tea Tea Pot
Irish Cream English Milk Tea


I just can't get enough of the beautiful china.  The teapot sat on of a candle so the tea stayed hot throughout our entire meal.  The very last cup that I poured was still steaming! 


Pouring Irish Cream Milk Tea


Irish Cream Milk Tea


The Irish Cream Milk Tea was delicious!  It tasted creamy but light like a tea drink should be.  And I was amazed that the cream did not cover up the black tea taste.  It was the perfect balance of cream and tea.


Shrimp and Scallop Rice Risotto
Shrimp & Scallop Rice Risotto


In addition to the cafe food selections, they also have noodle and rice dishes.  We decided on the Shrimp and Scallop Risotto which came with a cream chowder.  The chowder was a bit watered down but the risotto was amazingly decadent!  If the Victorian Tea Time didn't fill us up, the risotto sure did!  Between me and my friend, we couldn't finish the entire dish.


Shrimp and Scallop Rice Risotto


Shrimp and Scallop Rice Risotto


Their risotto was a fried rice topped it with mushrooms, shrimp, and scallops then topped with a white creamy sauce and a thick layer of cheesy yumminess.  The dish is baked so the cheese comes out brown on top and all gooey.  If you're craving for those hearty-warm-your-tummy meals, this is it right here!  Caution: you may want to take a nap afterwards.


Shrimp and Scallop Rice Risotto
Mmm...look at gooey goodness...


The menu is a bit pricey, ranging from $10-$20 each dish and a pot of tea is $6.  Overall, this place is wonderful for catching up with friends over a a nice cup of tea but maybe after getting some lunch.  A pretty tea time is definitely my cup of tea! (haha)






England Rose Garden Coffee & Tea Restaurant
640 Barber Ln
Milpitas, CA 95035
(408) 800-6658

2 comments:

Emila said...

Yeah not even close to being risotto.

Jocelyn + Cathy said...

I agree, it was more like a baked rice casserole.