Summertime Tea at Muir's Tea Room

Pull up a chair and come to tea...

Muir's Tea Room, Sebastopol, CA

Last Saturday some friends and I went out to afternoon tea at Muir's Tea Room in Sebastopol, CA. It was quite a drive up there but the company was well spent. The draw of going to this tea room is that everything on their menu is entirely vegan. I'm not a vegan myself and do enjoy cream with my scones and milk in my tea but for my friend who is vegan, this was a big draw.

My friend made reservations in advance and we met up early for the drive up. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot more traffic than we were expecting but when we called the tea room to let them know we were going to be late they were very accommodating about it.

The tea room is housed in a charming cottage framed by a stunning garden out front. Since I didn't make the reservations I don't know this for sure, but it appears they offer seating in the main house, on the front and back porch, and in the front garden. Our table was waiting for us in the main house at a window overlooking the front garden.

Despite only offering vegan fare they have a pretty extensive menu that includes everything from full tea service, smaller tea offerings, a la cart finger sandwiches, full lunches, soups, salads, as well as sweet and savory pastries and desserts. For tea this day I split the Hope the World Tea (a tea for two) with a friend. It included two pots of tea, two cups of soup, two small salads, three finger sandwiches each of our choice, a "sausage" roll to share, two scones with "clotted cream" and jam, and an assortment of petite desserts.

Tea started with two pots of tea. I chose chamomile since I knew that would be a tea I'd be okay not having milk for though I am curious what they would have offered for milk if I asked. Next the soup was brought out, a tomato bisque, soon followed by a pear and walnut salad. When the soups and salads were done the tea server came with a three tiered plate of our sandwiches, a sausage roll, scones, and petite desserts. For sandwiches we chose the pear and walnut sandwich, which like its name was a sweet and nutty open faced sandwich on a rye bread, a pesto tomato sandwich which came on white bread, and a sandwich called field roast which had a meatless patty with avocado and garlic aioli. The pesto tomato sandwich was the best followed by the meatless patty sandwich even though you can tell is was a meatless patty. The pear and walnut sandwich was alright but wasn't my favorite. It was a little bland to my taste. When we got to it, I was a bit disappointed by the "sausage" roll. Not because it was a meatless "sausage" roll and tasted much like the meatless patty but because there was only one that came in our tea for two. We cut it and shared it but it was strange to see they only gave us one. The scones, slightly lemony poppy seed flavored scones, were good and I couldn't tell they were vegan at all but they really failed I thought in their "clotted cream". The clotted cream did not resemble clotted cream at all, and when I asked my friends at the table if the clotted cream was okay because mine was slightly citricy in flavor and I thought it might have gone bad, my friends said, I thought it was butter. And so the "clotted cream" was somewhere between this weird citricy flavored gooey spread and a salted butter type spread. Also, for our scones we only got the smallest dollop of this "clotted cream" each and an even smaller dollop of jam to share for the two scones between us. Needless to say, I was not able to finish my scone at all. For dessert there were six pieces of petite desserts, all different, all really hard to split when having a tea for two. I would have preferred that they serve us two servings of three desserts which would have been easier to split or just ensured that the desserts were something that could be cut easily. Instead the desserts like the powdered shortbread cookie were too hard to cut, or the many chocolate desserts they served were really sticky, gooey, and messy when trying to split. Also, while the chocolate desserts and chocolate covered petit four were delicious and I couldn't tell they were vegan at all, the shortbread cookie and mini cupcake definitely had a distinct flavor to it. I think the server said the mini cupcake was gluten free which could be the reason for the flavor I was tasting, but the cookie also had the same kind of undertone in its taste. Perhaps that one was also gluten free. Or maybe it was just because it was vegan.

Overall, it was an interesting tea. Not terrible, but definitely different. If it weren't for my vegan friend I really wouldn't have had any reason to want to try a vegan tea... in fact when she suggested going to a place for vegan tea I had assumed she would have vegan tea and I would be free to have regular tea, so I admit, it was a bit of a surprise up to the day before when I looked this place up, to see what was in store for tea. Muir's tea room did a great job on the presentation; the sweet cottage and gorgeous garden were a treat to see, the fable wildlife theme prevalent throughout the interior of the tea room was also cute, the server was attentive and we were even greeted by who I assumed was the owner or manager at the end of our tea to see how we liked our tea. But for me, being a person with no dietary restrictions, I really did miss my non vegan food offerings for tea and was very much aware of how the food was different. This is probably a paradise for vegans wanting tea and I'm glad my vegan friend got to have a proper vegan tea but vegan tea is not really the thing for me. 



Outfit of the Day:

For tea this day I decided to wear my Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias. I wanted to be sure to get to wear this dress out this summer since it has a super cute criss-cross back that is perfect for summer. I paired it with a pink MAK cardigan which I got from either Modcloth or Trashy Diva a few years ago, a grey camisole underneath for extra modesty which I got from Ebay a few months ago, and a pair of white kitten heels by Gabriella Rocha from Zappos from several years ago. For a finishing touch I also wore a pearl and beaded bracelet I got for my birthday from my step mom, white and silver floral stud earrings I got from Forever 21 a few years ago, and a beautiful magnolia hair flower I got from the Etsy shop, Rose La Mer, during an Etsy shopping event in San Francisco last Christmas season.

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Front View

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Front View

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Side View

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Front View

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Front View

Trashy Diva Honey Sun dress in Steel Magnolias- Side View

Rose La Mer Magnolia hair flower, Etsy- Close Up