Garden View Tea Lounge -- Afternoon Tea -- Table Service -- Grand Floridian

*This dining experience took place in February 2016. This is a gluten free only review but notes information about dairy free and vegan options. The Garden View Lounge, located at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, offers guests a chance to enjoy a proper English tea-time complete with tea, sandwiches, and pastries. I had only ever been to the Garden View Lounge for tea on my 30th birthday, and I didn't have a particularly good experience.However, it has been several years, and I thought spending my birthday here again might be another nice way to check it out. I was joined by my mom, who also came with me the last time, and we were both cautiously optimistic about the tea.One thing I will say about the ambiance is that it can seem a bit stuffy in the Garden View Tea Lounge, but overall, I do find the theme charming, and I love the china that they use for the tea cups and serving ware.They do tend to squeeze tables in rather close to each other, but thankfully, on this visit, the tea room wasn't too crowded.The Garden View Tea Lounge offers several fixed price options for tea, and I opted to get the Derbyshire Tea which came with several courses, along with tea and a glass of champagne. It was my birthday, after all, so I thought champagne was in order!You do get a choice of tea, and like my previous visit, I chose the Princess Breakfast Tea, which is made exclusively for the Grand Floridian. It combines one of my favorite teas - South African Rooibos - with one of my favorite fruits...Strawberry. I need to see if I can buy this tea and bring it home because this was a true highlight of the afternoon tea service. My mom also ordered it and enjoyed it too.For my first course, I received several sandwiches, fresh fruit, and several wedges of cheese. Because I've been reintroducing a bit of dairy back into my diet, I opted to indulge in some cheese and a few other dairy filled treats on my visit.The cheeses were both really great, and I have to say that I loved the sage cheese, which I thought added a unique taste and wasn't overpowering. The cheddar that was also on the plate was very mild, and I think I might have preferred a sharper cheese in contrast to the sage cheese which was also quite mild.The sandwiches were all served on Udi's Gluten Free bread. One included golden beets, which was nice and light and earthy tasting. The egg salad was nothing special, and actually a bit dry. The ham sandwich was plain and also nothing special. I can't recall the 4th sandwich I had, but it must not have been very memorable. I know I did not get curry chicken salad, as it was not considered safe.One important thing to note about the sandwiches is that unless requested not to, they will butter the sandwiches on the inside. This is a very common practice in the UK and adds some authenticity to the tea experience, but may not be your "cup of tea" as a preference or something to know about if you are dairy free, have a milk allergy, or are vegan. It's easy to not add though, so definitely let the chef know when you speak to them about this.For the scone course, sadly, they do not offer a gluten free scone. However, they had two different kinds of gluten free and vegan tea cakes from Erin McKenna's Bakery NYC. One was a lemon tea cake, and the other one was banana. Accompanying that was Earth Balance vegan buttery spread, clotted cream (which I did not eat), lemon curd, and apricot jam.I was also given fresh fruit, a coconut macaroon with strawberry sauce, and chocolate mousse cups. The chocolate mousse contained dairy (and wasn't very good in my opinion) and the coconut macaroon was both gluten free and dairy free, but was very dry and not very tasty. I was pretty disappointed with these as dessert options.The apricot jam was dairy free, and all three accompaniments were gluten free. Sadly, there's a bit of butter in the lemon curd, and the clotted cream is all dairy. I did try the lemon curd with the lemon tea cake and was wowed by it. Super fresh and tons of lemon flavor. If you can have dairy, it's a real winner. I also adored the apricot jam too.Overall, I found this experience at the Garden View Tea Lounge to be nice but not as amazing as I would have hoped. They definitely have special diets options and can work with you, but I felt like the presentation and options compared to a non-special diets diner were a bit lacking.And the price of the tea is steep. Mine was around $45 with the champagne. It's definitely a special occasion only experience and one I'd probably not do again for several years. One nice touch that I will mention is that they gave me a rose for my birthday, which was very sweet.Having gone to the Crescent Solarium Afternoon Tea at the Beach Club a few weeks later, I think I preferred that both in price, special diets accommodations and selection, and atmosphere.You can also read about other experiences at the Garden View Tea Lounge by checking out Alexis's Gluten Free Adventures and Dairy Free Gina's posts.Have you been to the Garden View Tea Lounge? What did you think of the special diets offerings?

Garden View Lounge Afternoon Tea--Table Service--Grand Floridian

On my 30th birthday, I wanted to do something special. I have always wanted to do the high tea at the Grand Floridian and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do so. I planned a 2 p.m. tea, so that we had 1 1/2 hours before our spa appointment at the Grand Floridian spa at 3:30. I thought this would give us plenty of time. It's only tea right?! Well, this turned out to be a disastrous affair, with rude waitstaff and rude guests and completely unprepared chefs. Previously, Chef Jeff Bliss had called me and arranged to make some salads and some desserts. Ah, too bad this didn't come to fruition. I believe there was some misscommunication because when we arrived, the waitresses said they thought I had food with my name on in it their fridge and later the chef (not Jeff Bliss) came out and totally ignored me and took forever (like 30+ minutes) to bring me a scoop of tuna and egg salad. I asked for no GF bread (because I was avoiding yeast) and I got bread (which I was told did have yeast in it).

Lovely tea and china!

To begin with, we were seated next to some really rude guests. They were very snooty and rude to everyone. This made my mom and I feel very uncomfortable (and I'm not usually bugged by people, rude or otherwise). The waitress was a bit curt. I ordered the Princess Breakfast tea which was strawberry vanilla rooibos. YUM! I was going to buy this, but didn't get the chance. The chef arrived and I explained that Jeff Bliss had spoken to me and made arrangements. Like I said, 30+ minutes later I got my food. My mom was already done with her sandwiches and scone.

My egg and tuna salad.

Taste wise, the salads were OK. Nothing spectacular. I have made better at home. I found the egg salad to be overly mayonnaised (is that a word?!) As time progressed, I realized we only had 30 minutes before our spa appointment and our waitress and the chef weren't in any hurry to let us leave, so we asked the waitress for the desserts and our bill. (i.e. pack the desserts to go) She got very rude and said it was 4:30 not 3:30 and I had to literally show her my watch. She was like "Fine. I guess." She got my mom a dessert, and tossed a cut up, pre-done (i.e. French Meadow) brownie at me. Ummmm, I thought I was getting a dessert made for me?! At this point, we were so frustrated and I was getting upset, so we decided to forget it and leave. I got charged for the Buckingham Palace which was $19.50 and I got very minimal amounts of food, compared to my mom. I wasn't expecting a meal by any means, but I was expecting some effort to be put forth, especially in the place where the pastry chefs made a big deal about calling me to make a dessert. Sad really. They didn't sell me on their bakery, their service, or ever staying at the Grand Floridian.

Overall, I give this a big fat 5 out of 10. Mostly because of the bad service and lack of accommodation. I'd have let the accommodation part go if it wasn't for the big deal they made about it prior to me arriving. Disappointing and something I probably won't do again. Thankfully, California Grill made up for this tea when I went there for dinner.