Spot #2 :: The Quail & Thistle Tea Room

Our 2nd Spot:

The Quail & Thistle Tea Room

911 Capitola Avenue  Capitola, CA 95010

quailandthistle.com

 

 

We drove about an hour to reach this spot.  I’m a fan of small towns and have visited Capitola before, so I figured this place was going to be cute.  The website doesn’t give you much of a feel for what to expect.  Very little photos.  I guess that’s nice, so you have an element of wonder + surprise!?

 

It was hard to get through on the phone at first.  I wanted to talk to a live person to ensure my reservation.  I made the reservations online and hoped for the best.  However, I had a party of 10 and the online form only allowed you to input 8.  The next day, I finally got through and spoke to someone.  The party number change was easy to make, and they did have record of my initial reservation so you can trust the internet!

 

AB-SO-LUTE-LY adorable.  The outside is this cute little tiny cottage with a pink door!!?!  Can it BE any cuter?!  (in my best Chandler voice)

 

         

 

It just got CUTER as we walked in.  The décor is very old school tea party.  Not too many pieces, fairly simple, but #cutenessoverload for sure!

 

          

         

 

 

I feel like the menu was kind of confusing.  For tea sandwiches, there was a ‘meat’ side + a ‘veggie’ side.  Maybe it was just me, but it took me a second to figure out how they wanted you to order this.  I think at our table of 7, there were a few head-scratches about this as well.  Our server helped us make sense of it all, then we were happy.  😉

 

         

 

 

The food-  okay, here we go.  I ordered the California Country Tea.  They offer soup (which was new for me).  It was a Tomato Bisque today.  Good flavor + texture, pretty chunky.  I couldn’t have too much of it.  The rest of it (4 tea sandwiches, 2 savories, scone with fixings + their sweets of the day)…came all on ONE PLATE!!?!  And you were just left to figure out what was what.  If we didn’t question our server, we would’ve just never known!?  I thought it was very overwhelming.  No tiers.  😦  Let’s start with the Scone.  It was a plain scone (which I now appreciate, thanks Leticia!).  It came with some sort of cream (which our server described as “sour cream with sugar”) + strawberry jam.  Not what I’m used to, but it worked.  My SIL described the cream as “frosting.”  It was rather thick + chewy for a cream…  Scone was good.  No complaints there.  I went in for the Roast Beef tea sandwich.  Very plain!  Bread with mayo + roast beef, nothing special there.  But, the roast beef was such a thick cut the whole thing fell out when you took a bite of it!?  Awkward!  You’re sitting there trying to bite this piece off, and it just continues to fall out of the finger sandwich.  The Chicken Salad was okay.  The Cucumber with Mint Butter (sounds divine right?) was bland!  And open-faced??  We didn’t even realize that was our 3rd sandwich!?  The Olive Cream Cheese (which our server raved about) was sooo salty!!  The kalamata was so overpowering!  I couldn’t have more than one bite.  I also just had one bite of the Sundried Tomato Crostini (1 of the 2 savories).  The other was a Pesto Quiche-esque thing.  That was good!  But so tiny.  For the desserts today, they offered a Mini Cheesecake Bite, Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Earl Grey Cookie, Peanut Butter Cookie, Raspberry Loaf + fruit.  Here’s what I thought of those:

cheesecake-  melted + fell apart as soon as you forked it, more like a cheesecake SHAKE

strawberry-  good, but the chocolate was so thick it wasn’t a perfect ratio

earl cookie-  nice texture, but nothing really “earl grey” about it

peanut cookie-  tasted like it came from a supermarket box

loaf-  ehh

fruit-  I didn’t even taste it

 

         

 

 

The Teas were fun!  We ordered the Chocolate Rose (black tea with cocoa nibs and rose petals), Raspberry Earl Grey, Hojicha (toasted for a nutty flavor), South African Rooibos (a mellow fellow with a vanilla signature), Peach Oolong + Earl Grey.  They were all very yummy.  My favorite was the Chocolate Rose for sure!  Nothing stood out or was very memorable for me.  But all-in-all, we were happy with our tea choices.  What’s nice is they give you to-go cups if you didn’t finish your pot!  🙂

 

         

 

 

I have to say-  what I liked best about this spot was the service.  Our server was very personable.  He gave us everything we needed and was a nice guy throughout our visit.  At one point it got really warm (doesn’t it always, after you’re having cup after cup of hot tea!?), and he opened the window for us.  He took a few shots from [like] 4 different cameras + camera phones for us!  When he had to leave, he ensured us the owner + cook in the back would take care of us and they sure did come out a few times to check if we needed anything.  When it came time to pay, they broke down our bill for us + made it easy to divide.  Very sweet people.

 

 

If you’re looking for a “CUTE” place to hang out with your family or girlfriends, this is your spot.  But if you’re more of a foodie or want a quality meal, I wouldn’t recommend this place.  I’m still very happy we came.  Always a good time with your gf’s of course, but the experience + ambiance made up for the quality + flavor of the food.  Not a total waste of time.  We still loved coming!