Lovejoy's Tea Room

Pin It Now!

Such a gorgeous day made it the perfect setting for tea time in San Francisco.  I rarely get to venture out to what I thought was a sleepy area of the city,but Lovejoy's was probably the busiest storefront in the whole neighborhood.  I highly recommend reservations here.  I've called a couple times for a reservation that same week only to find out the whole weekend has already been booked.  Having been to DarTealing (see post HERE), I was intrigued to see if this was better than the half filled DarTealing Lounge.     

On a sunny Saturday, the tea room was bustling with almost every table filled.  The decor here is a lot more cozy feeling than that of DarTealing.  Also, the neighborhood almost perfectly fits this type of establishment.  Similar to DarTealing and other tea rooms, tea service for both adults and children are popular here.

The tea selection isn't quite as varied as that of DarTealing, but they do cover the basics (green/black/roobios) as well as some of the fruit flavors.  I found that they have a wider range of decaffeinated teas so this could be a more viable option for baby showers.  I didn't stray too far from the traditional this time.  Just a pot of the Tea Room Blend (blend of Assam and East Africa black tea) and a pot of Apricot tea( ceylon black tea and pieces of dried apricot).  The Tea Room blend with a dash of milk and a sprinkle of sugar was subtle and worked nicely with the tea service.  The apricot was a bit too fruity for my taste, but it did have a true apricot flavor. 

The options for tea service can get confusing.  I chose the high tea option, which includes a choice of two sandwiches, coleslaw, organic spring greens, a scone, preserves, devon cream, and a shortbread tea biscuit.  This is per person so for two people, you will get a choice of 4 types of sandwiches.  

My tea service didn't come with crumpets so I added an order which included two crumpets and a side of lemon curd.  The lemon curd wasn't very creamy, but the lemon had more lemon flavor than the lemon curd I had at DarTealing.  Since the crumpets come out warm, they are usually the first thing I nibble on.  These were too soft and didn't have a nice crunchy top.  DarTealing wins on the crumpets against Lovejoy, but the lemon curd is better here. 

The currant scones here are soft, fluffy, and warm.  The preserves are nothing special here and I actually prefer the devon cream to spread on my scone.

Lovejoy has 16 sandwich choices to choose from as well as a daily special, which was curry chicken.  The green apple and cream cheese sandwich (left) had a nice crunch from the thin slices of apple, but didn't have that tartness of green apple that I expected.  The smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich (right) was more smoke salmon than cream cheese, which is not a bad thing at all.  It was probably one of my favorite sandwiches of the meal, but you can never go wrong with smoked salmon in my book.

Of course, I had to go traditional with the cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches (left).  They were okay, but I think I prefer the flavor of the ones I had at DarTealing.  The curry chicken sandwich (right) was just okay as well.  The curry flavor wasn't very strong and there were too many raisins in the sandwich.

The tea biscuit cookies were soft and buttery.

At the end of the meal, they bring around a tray of even more sweets.

Chocolate covered rice crispy treats (left) and a white chocolate covered brownie (right) were the two that stood out to me.  Both were average and nothing special.  The brownie bite was a bit too dry, but both were a fun way to end the meal.  Overall, the atmosphere at Lovejoy is much better than that at DarTealing, but the sandwiches, crumpets, and tea selection is better at DarTealing.

       

Address:                    Lovejoy's Tea Room
                                 1351 Church St.
                                 San Francisco, CA  
 

Type:                         British/tea room

Popular chomps:        cucumber sandwiches
                                  smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches

Chomp worthy:          smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches