Leland Tea Company - Burlingame 1223 Donnelly Avenue, Burlingame, CA 94010

"I'm surprised by the glowing reviews. My review is for tea service and I was left disappointed by bizarre charges, mediocre food, and ungracious service. For some context, I adore afternoon tea. I'll start with the good: the staff was friendly (but see below); the tea was lovely, with some really interesting blends (I had the fig black tea and enjoyed it); the scones were pretty good, although not as flavorful as I would have liked (I tried both kinds); the jam was really nice. But I was disappointed with the small things that added up and made me feel like I was at the Spirit Airlines of tea houses. I've never been to afternoon tea where I'm charged for milk. They didn't even have dairy, so we were left with almond milk. It was laughable how little milk they brought out for one pot of tea. We didn't find out about the up-charge until we paid. We were asked if we wanted to add lemon curd and clotted cream for a charge. We received literally a spoonful of each. The spoonful of curd was $3 and clotted cream a whopping $5. The lemon curd wasn't good. I love homemade lemon curd, so this was a bummer. Turns out it's thickened with corn starch, which is what made it taste off. The last straw was having to pay the 3.5% credit card fee. I'm actually going to reach out to Visa about this one. Half an hour before closing, the server brought out to-go cups for our tea and cleared the table because they needed to do the dishes. What?! If you want to go home earlier, change your hours. If I wanted tea in a to-go cup, I would've saved $50 and gone to Peet's. Leland Tea has some odd ways of approaching tea service that certainly didn't feel like the gracious experiences I've had both locally and all over the world. I will not recommend Leland Tea to friends looking for delightful afternoon tea, but it seems fine for takeaway tea."

"Tucked away and somewhat exotic setting. One of very few places in the Peninsula where you can order high tea with sandwiches and scones. Everything was good. The chicken, tuna and egg salads are homemade. The service is very friendly. One less star because the cucumber sandwiches--usually a favorite of mine--were a little disappointing and the clotted cream wasn't homemade."

"A tea room hidden behind a downtown Burlingame parking lot serving an eclectic collection of teas with scones and sandwiches; great portion/pot size of tea. The hot chocolate was also great. Very friendly family run businesses too!"

"My first time here and I definitely will be coming back again. Will, the owner is such a wonderful and friendly man. He made my friends and I feel so welcomed. The food was wonderful and the tea was great. Thank you for such a lovely experience Will."

"Not quite sure what the hype behind this place here is but my wife and I were fairly disappointed. We were hoping for a nice tea and snack experience. The China is super simple it’s not anything special. The cookies and scones feel like they from Costco. The salad also was not anything special. Very plain. The only thing I enjoyed was the cucumber cheese spread and egg salad sandwich but these are dishes you can make well at home. If you are assuming to get a British tea shop experience, this is not the place."