Silver Cat Tea Party: A Belated Mother's Day Tea at the English Rose

Over the weekend my husband Tim and I took Tim's mom out for a belated Mother's Day tea!

Tim's mom hates going out for Mother's day during actual Mother's day so she opted to wait until this past weekend for her special day. We asked her what she wanted to do for Mother's day and she said she wanted to go out to Pleasanton, walk around and look at the shops, then go get something to eat. I knew that in downtown Pleasanton they have a farmers market on Saturdays and also a tea room so I asked her if she wanted to go see these two things and thus, walking around the Pleasanton farmer's market, looking at the downtown Pleasanton shops, and going out for tea at the English Rose was our outing for her belated Mother's day.

The English Rose in Pleasanton has been on the top of my list of local tea places for well over a year even though I've only been there once before. I was very much looking forward to revisiting this tea shop. Unfortunately, I was not as impressed the second time around with this place. The first time I went there the tea service was impeccable. We were seated for our reservations right away and I was so surprised and delighted to see that they had cool glasses of water as well as a sweet sugar cookie waiting for us at our table. This time around we walked in at our reserved seating time of 1pm after previously being turned away because we got there too early. After waiting a few minutes standing around at the door and not seeming to be able to catch any of the tea staff's attention we walked farther in to where the register was at in the back of the tea shop. Once again, even though we were standing right in front of two ladies on the tea staff, and even though there was no one ahead of us in line, I found it very difficult to get the tea staff to acknowledge us. One lady, who appeared to be the manager, was standing almost directly in front of me behind the register counter looking at pictures on her co-worker's smart phone. My patience was being tried! After we were finally acknowledged and I let them know we were there for our reservations the lady pointed and said our table was over there by the fireplace rather than have someone escort us to our tables. I felt like we were off to fend for ourselves. Furthermore, after we sat, I noticed there was no cups of water waiting for us, though there was a cookie each.

Soon after we sat down, our tea server came and let us know about their tea selection and the menu for the day. We were told that we could have two different flavors of tea for the table. I had to stop and ask about this. There were three in our party. Does this mean one of us had to share a tea flavor and we weren't allowed to pick our own flavors? This seemed really odd to me since this is supposed to be a higher end proper tea place. We were not at someone's house for tea but out for tea. I was very polite about it but still had to ask. She said that actually with the little table which was set up next to our bigger table we could probably manage to have our own flavors of tea. This mix-up/restriction on tea flavors dashed the second thing I enjoyed most about my first experience at the English Rose. I remember each person being able to pick different flavors of tea and changing them so we can try at least two different flavors each while we were there. I guess they have changed things since I was last there. Or perhaps the young lady working that day was new and did not know it was supposed to be each person being able to try two different teas rather than each table only getting two flavors per table? I hope it was the latter and that the girl was just getting it wrong that day.

The rest of the tea service went alright. The food was great, the company was great, and the service went by smoothly. Also, my pick of Carrot Cake flavored herbal tea was delicious! And so we ended up having a lovely time at the English Rose despite the unfortunate hiccups at the beginning.

English Rose, Pleasanton CA

Our Table Set Up And Waiting For Us

Tea Selections From the English Rose. Any of the flavored black teas can be made decaffeinated up to 80% at the English Rose

Three Tiered Plate For Three At the English Rose

Tim, Me, And Tim's Mom Enjoying A Belated Mother's Day At the English Rose

Around the Tea Shop:

At the Front of the One Room Tea Room

Giftables at the English Rose

Outside In The Lovely Garden Area:

Sign at the Side of the Tea Room By the Garden Entrance

Lovely Tea Table Set Up in the Garden

Garden Area at the English Rose

Side Entrance of the English Rose

Outfit of the Day:

For this special tea outing I wore a light blue and white floral dress by Taylor which I got from Nordstrom Rack. What I love about this dress is that the material is thick and so keeps its shape well including, especially, the flair of the skirt! Also, the fabric has lots of texture to it giving it a very rich feel. This thick, textured polyester dress is completely lined in 100% cotton giving it a nice feel while making it easy care with little worries about wrinkling. I paired this with some navy flats, a light blue and white polka dot wired headband I got as a free gift from Modcloth, and a bold navy and white striped cardigan by Chaps from Kohls.