Butter Baked Goods: Sunday high tea in Kitsilano

My boyfriend has never been to high tea so I decided to take him to one.

High tea is a very girly experience. The places that serve high tea are usually covered in pastel colours and floral prints, cute teacups and cake tier trays of baked goodies. You sit and chat and sip your tea – a fun experience to do with your girlfriends, mother, grandmother or daughter.

We chose to try high tea at Butter Baked Goods, a local bakery in Kitsilano. They offer a traditional afternoon high tea for $30 per person, which is on the lower-end scale compared to other high teas in downtown Vancouver. Their high tea service runs at two times – noon and 2:15 pm. You will need to call and reserve a table. They only have seating capacity for up to 22 people.

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Interior

The interior is super cute! The walls have a floral wallpaper and the ceilings are painted a pastel pink. Most of their furniture is a minty green with a fake marble top finish. You walk in and it feels like you walked into a romantic comedy film.

There’s not a lot of space inside the bakery. The main counter is like a square shaped U and takes up most of the room. Small tables line the outside of the U so if you are seated, there can very well be people standing literally right behind you looking at jars of cookies. This can be a tight squeeze for some people and you may want to enjoy your high tea with more privacy.

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Traditional afternoon high tea ($30)

Tea

Each person gets a bottomless pot of one of their custom blended teas. By bottomless, they mean you get bottomless hot water, not tea bags.

Their tea menu:

Kazuko’s sencha Certified organic green tea harvested every spring in southern Kyoto	Sunset sencha Organic Chinese green tea with citrus peel	Mackenzie black maple Blend of organic black tea and natural maple flavour
Buttercream blend Blend of organic estate black tea inspired by buttercream	Breakfast at Butter Blend of organic estate black tea	Cream of earl grey Classic earl grey with a hint of cream essence

My boyfriend chose the earl grey and I chose the buttercream.

Earl grey

The earl grey is a classic tea that went very well with all of the treats in the high tea menu.

Buttercream

The buttercream was an interesting black tea because it tasted slightly fruity and sweet. I did not feel the need to add sugar or cream and I preferred the buttercream blend over the earl grey.

Full 3-tiers

They place this at our table within minutes after we ordered the high tea. I think this is because we reserved a table and they already have everything prepared for their busy Sunday service.

Their high tea set has 3 tiers and you start from the bottom up. The first plate has a selection of sandwiches and savoury items. The second plate has scones and the third plate has sweets and desserts.

Tier 1: Sandwiches + savoury

For each person, there are 5 finger sandwiches and a quiche tart. We ate these in the following order:

1. Cucumber
2. Egg Salad
3. Tuna Potato Chip
4. Quiche tart
5. Chicken Waldorf
6. Ham & Cheese

The cucumber and the egg salad sandwiches are both Japanese style with white bread and the crust cut off. They were light and refreshing. I am surprised at how much I enjoy cucumber sandwiches.

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The tuna potato chip is interesting because I love potato chips and I have never thought of putting them inside a mini slider bun. Gives it an extra crunch and a more savoury taste.

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I’m not sure what the quiche was made of – cheese and some sort of vegetable filling with spices. I think the quiche changes every Sunday. For a small little thing it is quite tasty.

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The chicken waldorf sandwich usually includes a mixture of chicken, mayonnaise, grapes, walnuts, celery, apples, chives and lemon juice so it kind of tastes like a salad. The mini croissant holds everything together quite well.

The ham & cheese is kind of basic but still yummy.

Tier 2: Scones

We are given two different types of scones – raisins and chocolate chip. We have a small dipping plate of fresh cream or jam.

The scones taste a little crumbly, which I like, especially when paired with some jam. I wish they had given us a savoury scone (like a cheese one) to replace the raisin one. Both of them tasted sweet. For a scone, the size is a bit on the smaller side but I was feeling pretty satiated after 5 sandwiches.

Tier 3: Sweets + desserts

The third plate has a variety of different treats, including:

• Macaron
• Lemon Tart
• Butter Tart
• Vanilla Shortbread
• Empire Cookie
• Dream Slice
• Bajillionaire Bar

I didn’t enjoy the lemon tart too much. The meringue was done nicely but I didn’t like how thick the tart crust is.

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The empire cookie reminds me of the childhood cookies where there is a red jelly filling in the middle. The actual cookie part tastes very buttery and rich. On top they have a jelly candy stuck on with icing.

I heard a lot of positive comments on the bars sold at Butter. Their most famous bar is the Bajillionaire bar. It is made up of brown sugar shortbread crust and a creamy caramel centre finished with dark chocolate and a sprinkling of sea salt on top. This bar is very sweet so if you have a sweet tooth, you will certainly enjoy this bar.

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The Dream bar is their best seller. It has a shortbread crust, cherries, walnuts and coconut topped with vanilla butter cream. This bar is even sweeter than the Bajillionaire bar so I can’t say I love it but having a small bite of it is lovely.

The macaron tastes decent. I like that it’s not as sweet as everything else on the plate, but I did notice it broke and collapsed on itself when I bite into it. Usually it stays more fluffy and firm.

I didn’t taste the butter tart or the vanilla shortbread because I was too full.

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Final thoughts

We really enjoyed our high tea at Butter Baked Goods. For $30 a person, we were actually very full and had to pack the rest of our high tea goodies to go!

Butter’s biggest selling point is definitely any of their baked goods. Their cookies and bars are perfect treats for children or adults with a sweet tooth.

Another selling point to this bakery is their interior design. Very instagram worthy and just a very lovely and feminine ambiance to it.

I read many online reviews for Butter that said their service is poor so I tried to keep my expectations low, but we received above average service from the moment we entered to the moment we left. All the workers always had a smile on their face and came to refill our pot very often.

One thing that did disappoint me is that the high tea menu on their website is incorrect. Basically, they didn’t give us some of the things listed on their website like the lemon loaf or a cupcake.

Generally, this is a worth-it experience and if you are looking to try a casual high tea in the Kitsilano area, it is worth a visit.

Sincerely, Loewe