Rose Garden Tea House, 1151 Oxford Rd, Los Angeles

It’s the perfect Sunday for tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room, so don that frilly yellow sundress, pull grandma out of her rocking chair (or in my grandmother’s case, off the dance floor at the senior center!), grab a parasol and head over to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena.

It’ll cost ya a few bucks to get in, but it’s worth it!  The 120 acres of trees, ponds, Japanese bamboo forests, and a children’s garden full of fountains to splash in, will give you plenty of space to walk off the treats you’re about to consume.  If you’re a member of the gardens, it will be free for you and a guest; all the more reason for grandma to pick up the tab at tea.

The wait staff immediately brings you a basket of the best crunchy on the outside scones you’ve ever tasted, sometimes ginger, other times pumpkin, or classic currant.  You will be offered 2-3 kinds of tea, hot or chilled, and instructed to head for the buffet.  

This buffet is no senior citizen mashed potato and soggy green bean kind of food.  Grandma’s glad to be tempted by a variety of cheeses and sandwiches that decorate trays with red salmon, green cucumber and buttery looking egg.

When you return to your table, you'll notice that the wait staff has left a pot of Black tea with raspberry for you, and one of decaf tea for grandma.  Grandma likes hers’ with sugar and cream, but you’re more of a lemon kind of girl, must be those hippie parents you had.  

For dessert, if you haven’t already filled up on the bottomless basket of scones, you can savor cookies, brownies, or tiny fruit tarts.  And the lemon bars are as good as grandma's!  (Hmmm, there’s that lemon thing again).

After you haul yourself out of the tea house, if grandma complains that dancing every night has made her tootsies tired (so what if you did, too, she’s 80 years old!) you can grab a wheel chair from the front ticket office (better to reserve in advance).  Then take a right and roam into the Japanese garden; winding your way through the bamboo forest will eventually lead you to the duck ponds.  Or, if grandma’s not in the mood to stroll, she can sit under a shade tree on one of the benches and watch her favorite lemon yellow clad granddaughter twirling a parasol and sniffing the roses.

Review by: Christine Offutt

Posted: Tuesday, September 05, 2006