I have not had much luck finding afternoon tea rooms in London, Ontario, but every now and then I come across afternoon tea events in the city. I had my eye on Villa Cornelia Restaurant for a while now as I noticed in the past they occasionally hosted the traditional tea service. So, I was just waiting for a date that would work with my schedule. Luckily enough their online calendar showed an Afternoon Tea at the Villa event during a winter weekend that I was in town. I made my reservation, crossed my fingers for clear weather for my drive and anxiously awaited the day.
About Villa Cornelia Restaurant
Located in the heart of downtown London, Ontario is a Victorian home built in 1892 by Alfred M. Smart. Alfred was the President of Ontario Loan and Debenture. Villa Cornelia was named after his wife, Anne Cornelia McLaughlin Smart.
The house was restored in 1987-1988 and later designated as an architectural heritage property.
This elegant house has been described as a place of social gathering from its beginnings as a family home. Today Villa Cornelia Restaurant continues the tradition as a social gathering place and home to fine dining by serving dine-in dinner and take-out dinner.
Normally, the restaurant is open in the evening hours only. However, once a month they open their doors to tea drinkers and more for an afternoon tea service.
The restaurant has limited free parking at the back of the house. Plenty of street parking spots are available though. Street parking is free on Saturday for 2 hours.
Entrance
The front steps and door lead you to an entrance where you’ll spot a welcome desk straight ahead. To the left is an upright piano just before one of the main dining rooms.
A friendly gentleman greeted us and looked up our reservation information before guiding us to the other dining room space that looks out towards the porch. This room was a smaller seating area with about 4 or 5 different tables.
The tables were lined with a navy blue tablecloth and dressed with silver cutlery, white napkins and white teacups lined with gold to match the serving plate, too.
The walls were decorated with framed photos, mirrors and there were even shelves with vintage china and books.
Tea Menu
The tea selection was mainly sourced from Harney & Sons tea company. There were a few teas that I recognized from DAVIDsTea, too.
There were 25 different teas to choose from, including a few seasonal options. At the time these seasonal options were appropriate for the winter season as they were warm and spicy.
Guests could pick a black tea, green tea, white tea or herbal tea.
I decided to try the Victorian London Fog tea. It was described as a full-bodied blend of black tea, oolong tea, bergamot oil, lavender and vanilla notes.
I’m extremely glad I went with this blend because it was phenomenal. I enjoyed it so much I immediately looked for it online to order some for home. If you’re a fan of London Fogs (earl grey tea lattes) or just creamy and comforting teas in general, you’ll want to add this one to your list.
My husband ordered from the seasonal tea menu and enjoyed the Winter White Earl Grey. It was a light floral Chinese white tea blended with oil of bergamot.
Teaware
When ordering from the tea menu the server highlighted the tea additive options, milk or cream and sugar, and brought out our requested items with the tea.
Cold milk was in a mini pitcher. White and brown sugar cubes were presented in a vintage sugar dish that matched one of the teapots on our table. Mini stainless steel tongs were present for clean serving.
Everyone had their tea served in their own unique, vintage teapot. Tea bags were used and left in the teapots as guests had to still wait for their tea to steep.
Unfortunately, we weren’t advised on the recommended steeping time for each of our teas so we just went by the standard guidelines for the type of tea.
The one thing I noticed that was missing from the tea service was a small dish to place the tea bags. We didn’t have a designated spot for the used tea bags when we had to remove them from our teapots so they didn’t oversteep. We ended up having to use one of the saucers for all of the spent tea bags, which wasn’t ideal.
Food Menu
The food menu for afternoon tea hosted at Villa Cornelia restaurant is set. When you are seated at your table and the tea is ready, a three-tiered stand will follow shortly.
However, Villa Cornelia does offer gluten-free and vegetarian options for their afternoon tea. They even have a Children’s Portion of Age-Appropriate Fare menu.
To receive any of these special requests though, you must give the restaurant 3 days notice so they have time to prepare and make sure they have everything needed.
I put special requests for gluten-free and vegetarian options for a couple of my guests when I made the reservation online. So, we had quite a few three-tiered stands appear at our table but the server did a great job at outlining every different savoury, scone and sweet.
Although, it would have been helpful to have a printed out menu at the table as well. With the impressive variety, it can be difficult to remember everything on your plate as you slowly make your way through the menu!
Savouries
The savoury portion of the menu was a bit more than traditional tea sandwiches. Presented on the bottom tier, there were 5 different items served on a variety of breads.
This included an Egg Salad Turnover, Open-Faced Cucumber with Dill Cream Cheese, Croissant with Asparagus and Roast Beef, Roasted Red Pepper and Brie, and an olive-based sandwich. My apologizes but I completely spaced on the exact contents of the final tea sandwich.
For the vegetarian option, the roast beef was replaced with mushrooms.
For the gluten-free option, a few of the sandwiches were served on gluten-free breads and lettuce wraps. There were also homemade potato chips in place of some.
My favourite from the savoury menu was the Croissant with Asparagus and Roast Beef. The mini croissant was so buttery and flaky. The crunch from the fresh asparagus paired beautifully with the tender roast beef.
I was a bit disappointed in the cucumber tea sandwiches. They were the smallest, however, there were at least 2 per person because of the size. The cream cheese was tangy and infused with the perfect amount of herbs. I found the cucumbers were sliced too thin so it wasn’t a well-balanced bite.
But, I do have to say that I really appreciated the uniqueness from the classic egg salad tea sandwich as it was presented like a turnover. I haven’t seen that before! It was definitely my second favourite from the savoury menu.
Scones
Traditional English style scones were next to enjoy! Presented on the middle-tier, there was 1 per guest.
The gluten-free scone was different. Instead, it was a raspberry scone.
The housemade scones were accompanied by clotted cream and strawberry preserves.
The scones were circular, airy and warm. I was really impressed with them. I always love when an afternoon tea service features traditional English scones, opposed to American style scones.
Sweets
Lastly, the sweet portion of the menu was served on the top-tier. This final course consisted of 5 bite-sized desserts, plus a scoop of something cool and refreshing at the end.
The items on the last plate were a Chocolate Covered Strawberry, Blueberry Cheesecake, Carrot Cake, Chocolate Dipped Shortbread and Lemon Cake.
Every single dessert blew me away. Not only were they all absolutely delicious and a great way to end the tea service, but they were all presented so beautifully too.
The Lemon Cake was garnished with a strawberry slice and fresh mint.
The Chocolate Covered Strawberry was drizzled with white chocolate design.
The Carrot Cake had a candied carrot piece on top.
It’s truly hard to pick a favourite from this selection. If you’re usually a fan of any of these desserts, then I think you won’t be disappointed in the sweets crafted by Villa Cornelia’s team.
When we were down to the last few bites of our sweets and sips of our teas, our server asked if we were ready for the final treat. I didn’t know there was more to come so this was a pleasant surprise!
Wine glasses with a small scoop of fresh Cherry Sorbet inside were brought to our table. It was vibrant, tart and sweet. A refreshing way to finish the afternoon tea experience at Villa Cornelia Restaurant!
Price
Afternoon Tea at Villa Cornelia is currently priced at $45.00 per person plus applicable taxes and gratuities. The price is the same for the Gluten-Free or Vegetarian option, too.
The Children’s Portion of Age-Appropriate Fare is priced at $25.00, for ages 10 and under.
The pricing is very reasonable for an afternoon tea service in Ontario especially since there was a wide selection of food and tea. There was a total of 5 savouries, 1 scone and 6 sweets per person.
Overall Thoughts
The staff at Villa Cornelia Restaurant did a tremendous job at organizing and preparing an enjoyable afternoon tea service. They offered traditional bites and sweets and in the proper order, too!
It’s always a huge plus when the entire atmosphere and menu was near perfection. Also, the downtown location was great as it was easy to access with ample parking.
The historic house provides the perfect setting to relax with good company and savour this traditional English tea time.
Visit Villa Cornelia:
142 Kent Street
London, Ontario, Canada
www.villacorneliarestaurant.com
*Visit their website to know when their next Afternoon Tea event is held. Reservations can be made online here.
**Prices and tea/food options may change. All were accurate at the date of this tea room review.