Neverland Tea Salon: Grand adventure high tea in Kitsilano
For my friend’s birthday, I treated her to high tea. High tea usually consists of a tiered cake tray filled with finger sandwiches, pastries and desserts along with some nice tea in flower-patterned teacups. It is a fun girly experience.
High teas in Vancouver can get pricey with an average of $50 per person. I chose to take my friend to Neverland Tea Salon because I took my sister there for her birthday a few years ago and we were happy with our experience.
Neverland Tea Salon is a high tea establishment located in Kitsilano. Their standard high tea menu is $38 per person and comes with never-ending pots of tea. Note that this price was back in 2019 – now their high tea is $48 per person and items in the menu have also changed.
Interior
The interior of Neverland is similar to any other high tea place – white, flowery, dainty. It does have a bit more of a vintage feel to it with old western-style sofas and chairs.
We are late for our reservation because the street is closed for a block party, so they have to move our original table to beside the counter. It is a smaller table but more private and secluded.
Tea
Because we have bottomless tea, we try as much as we can. In our 2 hour session, we try 4 different teas:
- Heavenly cream
- A nice pear
- Peach oolong
- Berry me in champagne
I prefer fruity teas and I find the peach oolong to be quite refreshing. In the past I have also tried Tinkerbell’s kiss, which is a children’s favourite but too sour for me.
In terms of pairings with the high tea set, I would say the heavenly cream or any of the classic teas (london fog, earl grey) are the go-to choices.
If you don’t finish your tea, you can also take them in a to-go cup.
Grand adventure high tea ($38)
We order the Grand adventure high tea for both of us. They have other menus for gluten & dairy omitted, vegetarian and vegan options, which is quite amazing. They also have a Take me to neverland bubbly high tea ($48 – includes sparkling wine), a Tinkerbell’s high tea ($24 – for children), and a demi tea ($30 – less food).
Tier 1: Savories
For each person, there are 5 savoury items. This includes:
- Thai red curry egg salad sandwich
- Asparagus and pesto croissant
- Cucumber and mascarpone sandwich
- Proscuitto and brie bun
- Tarragon chicken salad sandwich
We start off with the lightest sandwich – the cucumer and mascarpone. The mascarpone has lemon herbs in it as well as a little bit of arugula. Size-wise, it is the smallest sandwich.
Next, we have the croissant. Inside the croissant is asparagus and feta mousse. The pesto has pumpkin seeds and some more arugula.
I’ve never put asparagus in a sandwich before, but this just goes to prove my theory that anything in a croissant can taste good.
Next, we try the egg salad sandwich. Neverland’s egg salad sandwich is Thai red curry flavoured so it has a bit more of a kick to it. It also has mango chutney, red pepper, red onion and cucumbers in the mixture.
Next, we eat the tarragon chicken salad sandwich. The bread is interesting, I like to call it cow bread. It is dense and not as soft as the other sandwiches. The taragon chicken salad mix also has candied walnuts, salt roasted pears and pickled grapes.
Lastly, we try the proscuitto bun. It has proscuitto, pears, honey mustard with brie inside and is the most savory item out of the rest.
Tier 3: Scones
So I know I just said you start eating from the bottom up, but I like to leave my desserts for last so we choose to eat the scones next after we finish our sandwiches.
We are given a citrus scone with devonshire cream and house-made strawberry jam. The scone has a scattering of sprinkled sugar and is quite large in size. The inside is dense (as a scone should be) and a little flaky at the top. I found that I prefer eating it with the jam over the cream.
Tier 2: Sweets
Finally we are at dessert! By this point, my friend is actually too full to eat the desserts so she watches me eat and take pictures of them instead.
For each person, there are 4 sweets on the plate, including:
- Strawberry vanilla shortcake
- Pandan tart
- Orange dome cake
- Passion fruit cheesecake
What is pandan you ask me? It is grass lol. Think of it as Asia’s vanilla – it has a sweet flavour but is actually the color of grass (i.e. GREEN ok everybody?).
Neverland’s pandan tart is similar to a fruit tart except without the sour or acidity of a fruit. The tart’s filling is sweet and paired with a little bit of cream and a chocolate leaf.
Next, this strawberry shortcake is really a quick bite. You can pop it into your mouth in two bites and have it disappear in two seconds.
The layered cake has strawberry gel and mousse, making it fruity and sweet without making it overpowering.
This orange dome cake is actually white chocolate mousse with an orange citrus glaze on top. It sits on top of a little biscuit that is surprisingly easy to eat. I thought the biscuit would make it hard for my fork to slice it up into smaller pieces, but it doesn’t.
Lastly, we have the passion fruit cheesecake. Couldn’t taste much of the passion fruit aside from the 3 drops of gel at the top. The cheesecake itself is pretty average, but portion size is generous for a rich cake.
Final thoughts
I do have to applaud the staff. I was very stressed out knowing was late to my reservation, but they reassured me that they will arrange for another table so we get our full 2 hours. Staff was always attentive, friendly and happy to share their expertise on all the different teas they have on selection.
Interior related, I do think some of their furniture is not as comfortable or modern looking as other high tea places. I think this just depends on what kind of an interior ambiance you want to be in.
Food-wise, everything was yummy, however I was slightly disappointed because I enjoyed the food selection at my previous high tea with my sister more than this time’s. Some of the things I remember from last time was their cheese scone, which they did not include in our tea set this time (only citrus). I also felt like their savory items from before had less vegetable components, which I prefer. The only real stand-out sandwich in this high tea set was the proscuitto bun for me.
In total, I spent around $90 after tax and tip for two people. Still, $38 is a lower-end price point for high tea in Vancouver and my friend wasn’t able to even finish eating everything so maybe I’m just a picky fatass. Give it a try – especially if you have gluten free or vegan friends!
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