Tea Room review: Afternoon Tea at Floris in Richmond, Virginia

Stress has always been my constant companion, but when I’m in a car or plane, stress multiplies by tenfold (hundredfold? 🤔). The only thing that makes traveling palatable is when there’s the promise of a stop for afternoon tea. Ahhh.

Xak is well aware of the importance of planning a tea stop (or two) during any trips we take. Between that and ensuring kettle chips are in our snack sack, we’ve survived many trips together. This usually means researching out of state tea rooms and praying that their hours of operation match the exact time we’ll be passing through the area.

For this particular trip from Florida, we decided to make our tea stop not in Georgia or South Carolina, but in… Richmond, Virginia. While I’ve been to several tea rooms in Northern Virginia, as far as I’m concerned, anything past Ikea in Woodbridge is considered way too far. Therefore I was very excited to finally see the tea scene in the “far off city” of Richmond, Virginia! 😄

There are a handful of tea rooms in Richmond, but the one that fit our very specific requirements was Floris at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). Our visit took place on December 29, 2024.

About Floris at VMFA in Richmond, VA

In December 2023, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia unveiled their new tea room, Floris. The updated event space located in the Stanley and Dorothy Pauley Center features French and English inspired seasonal menus prepared by an in-house chef as well as occasional themed teas (such as Bridgerton).

While the actual museum itself is open all year round, Floris only serves tea on Saturday thru Wednesday from 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM. Private events, a wine menu, happy hour, and a la carte options are also available.

Reservation Process

Afternoon tea reservations for Floris can be made through Open Table on the VMFA website. If your party has more than 6 people though, you’ll be prompted to contact the restaurant directly. Reservations aren’t required, however if you are looking for private dining options for a large party, you do have to call or email.

Since our plan was to leave North Carolina in the morning and stop off in Richmond before heading back to the DC area, I booked a reservation for a “safe” 1 PM. This would hopefully account for the inevitable holiday traffic we would meet along the way.

Surprisingly, instead of a delay, we actually arrived in Richmond a whole 2.5 hours ahead of schedule. (This never happens). While normally I would be delighted to spend 2 hours in a museum prior to enjoying afternoon tea, I was even more excited at the prospect of returning home earlier than planned and decided I would test my luck with an earlier reservation.

Although I couldn’t update my Open Table reservation through the website, I made a quick phone call to Floris and my reservation was updated from 1 PM to 11:30 AM (opening time). Woohoo!

Parking

The museum itself is free to visit, however only annual membership holders get free parking at the on-site garage. You can hunt on the surrounding streets for free parking, but the garage is the most convenient since it’s a short walk to both the museum and the tea room. Parking is $6 for the entire day and you pay as you exit. $6 dollars for a whole day at the museum is not bad at all.

the Tea Room

There’s a bit of a walk once you exit the parking garage. Floris is actually in a separate building across from the museum’s attached dining location, Best Cafe & Espresso bar (that’s the actual name; I can’t confirm if it is actually the best). 

Although it was the end of December, the weather was an unusually warm 60 degrees. It was a beautiful day to spend walking through the reflecting pool and the Robins Sculpture Garden, which is exactly what you have to do to get to the Floris entrance from the museum.

There were plenty of people outside enjoying the nice weather, including some other waiting tea goers standing in front of the building we were headed towards. The name “Floris” was helpfully listed on the door. Once the clock hit 11:30, all of us opened the door to enter the dining room.

To the left of the door was a check-in podium for parties to confirm their reservations before being seated. After the people in front of us were seated, I told the employee behind the podium my name and then explained I had called about 30 minutes earlier to change my reservation. Luckily, our reservation details had already been updated and we were led to a table.

The tea room was filled with round and rectangular tables of various sizes to seat both small and large parties with empty Chivari chairs that would soon be occupied by the upcoming reservations.

Since it was the end of December, there was seasonal and festive decor hanging on the mantles and windows, as well as laid out including pink poinsettias placed on long tables in between champagne bottles resting in bowls of ice.

Several chandeliers hung from the ceiling, adding elegance to the already bright and beautiful room. The tall windows had colorful valances framing the view of the sculpture garden. 

One side of the room had a large rug covering the herringbone patterned wooden floor along with a fireplace on the center of the wall. Instrumental music played in the background including a pleasant jazz trio rendition of Habañero from Bizet’s Carmen and Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now”.

Tea Table

Our table had been placed on the opposite side, in front of a mantle with a large mirror above. It had been set with a beige table cloth and white table overlay. In front of us, we each had silverware, water glasses, tea cup and saucer, and a plate with a menu resting on top.

This turned out to be a double sided afternoon tea menu which listed the seasonal meal we would be served on the front and the list of different tea offerings on the back.

The table also contained a wine menu, a sugar packet holder (no cubes), and a small gold lamp which didn’t really provide any actual useful lighting, but looked nice on the table.

Tea Menu

As we sat down at our table, a server poured water into our glasses and explained that we could order multiple types of tea throughout the meal. Yay!

For the first pot, Xak uncharacteristically chose my standard of English Breakfast and I uncharacteristically decided to branch out with the VMFA Blend, a black tea which had been described as vanilla, floral, and smoky. 

Since we both ordered black teas, we requested a small pitcher of whole milk. Our options for sweetening the tea included honey, regular sugar, Sweet & Low, and Splenda packets that were already sitting on the table. 

Food

Bread Basket

Our tea pots were brought to the table and our server poured a cup each for us. We were also served our first course: the bread basket (ok, really the bread cloth. No actual basket)

Inside the cloth were two slices of multi-grain bread and two scones with little dishes of whipped butter, fruit preserves, and a small spoon. Xak and I each took one slice of bread (it was actually a half slice) and one scone which sort of resembled a scallop. 

The bread was delicious. It had a nice, crusty exterior and the whipped butter I had spread on top added a nice amount of salt. Sadly, the half slice of bread was gone very fast. I even checked the cloth to see if there were any stray crumbs. (Note: there were none)

Thankfully, the scone did not actually taste like a scallop. It was butter based and disappeared quite quickly after I spread some of the fruit preserve on each side.

Most tea rooms we visit typically only serve one medium sized scone during the scone course, so having a slice of baked bread was a nice surprise. The scone and the bread together were roughly the same amount as a medium sized scone, however I would have preferred if both were just a little bit bigger… especially the bread. Full slice, please!

Three Tiered Tray

After our bread course was finished, we received our three tiered tray which included desserts on the top tier, savories on the middle tier, and a combination of the remaining desserts and savories on the bottom tier.

Although the menu had been printed out, our server took the time to explain what was on each tier.

Savories

• Roasted Turkey Salad with pine nuts and cranberry compote on sesame focaccia
• Pimento Cheese on Brioche with sweet peppers
• Smoked Trout Rillette on a Potato latke
• Bacon cheddar quiche

Desserts

• Milk Chocolate & Ginger mousse with crumbled Biscoff cookie and candied ginger
• Frangipane tea cake
• Raspberry lemon sponge cake
• Chocolate truffle
• Macarons

Savories

The open faced turkey sandwich and potato latke seemed like an appropriate choice for a winter menu. Turkey gobbler Xak was particularly excited for the turkey and as a potato lover, I was eager to crunch into the latke.

The turkey sandwich did indeed taste very festive. I am a big fan of cranberries (particularly the controversial jellied cranberry sauce served at Thanksgiving. Perfection.). While I normally do not care for open faced sandwiches, it turned out to be a good choice because the sandwich would have tasted even better with less bread, if possible, because the topping was really good!

Next was the pimento cheese sandwich. I get strangely excited whenever a tea room serves pimento cheese since it’s not something that Xak and I ever prepare at home. This pimento sandwich was salty and smooth and had nice soft bread. I’m starting to really like pimento cheese though, so maybe it will make an appearance at one of our home teas.

Moving on to the latke, I was proud of myself for having such restraint and not diving into this first. Latkes are fried potato pancakes or fritters, and commonly served during Hanukkah. The latke had a great salty flavor and the fish spread (the smoked trout rilette) was particularly delicious. 

Rounding up the savories was the bacon cheddar quiche. As I picked it up, the top rim of the quiche separated from the base so I quickly popped it in my mouth before it fell apart. I didn’t really detect bacon, but you can’t really expect more than a few specks in such a tiny quiche. 

Overall the savories were a good variety, and while there was no traditional cucumber sandwich, I still enjoyed the selection. I appreciated the different textures (crunchy vs soft), bases (bread vs. pastry), and the flavors. 

Second Pots of Tea

Before diving into the dessert course, Xak and I wanted to order our second pots of tea. The Shenandoah Blue tea caught my eye. It was a blueberry and cornflower black tea which ended up smelly fruity and quite tasty with milk and sugar. Xak chose the Asian Pear & Spice Tea, a white pear, anise, and floral flavor. The tea turned out to be pleasant and light. The most shocking part though was that Xak drank it without cream or sugar. Considering he puts cream and sugar in everything, the tea must have been very good.

desserts

While macarons and tea cakes are common at most tea places, the mousse and the sponge cake looked very unique. 

The first dessert we tried was the Frangipane tea cake. Frangipane is a term you’ll hear on a lot of baking shows. Surprisingly though, I don’t think I’ve actually had it. It’s a type of French almond custard made with pastry cream. The tea cake was pretty small, but a yummy bite nonetheless. I also identified some coconut flavor.

Next was the Raspberry Lemon Sponge cake. A crispy looking fan perched on yellow shavings that were scattered on the top cake layer. There was a little bit of lemon on the end and tasted great! The cake itself was a soft soaked sponge which was true to the flavors of lemon with a raspberry aftertaste. It paired excellently with my Shenandoah Blue tea.

The macaron was just a regular macaron, which isn’t a bad thing. If a macaron isn’t memorable to me, then usually that means it was pretty good. I did inquire if the chef made these (he did not).

I’ve made chocolate mousse for my own teas in the past, but never with ginger. I’m a huge fan of ginger bakes (snaps, bread, actual bread, etc) so I was very much looking forward to this. The Chocolate and Ginger mousse was served in a pretty hefty glass receptacle (which explains why it was on the bottom tier) with slivers of candied ginger, crumbled Biscoff cookies, and edible silver pearls. Overall it was good since it was all things I liked, but I think I prefer plain chocolate mousse.

Finally, only the round chocolate truffle was left. It was slippery (weird description, but it almost slipped out of my fingers) but when I popped it in my mouth, it turned out to be very decadent and melted nicely.

Third Pots of Tea

When tea rooms tell me I can get as much tea as I want, I take them up on their offer! During the dessert course, both Xak and I perused the tea menu one last time. I love any kind of lemon tea, so I was eager to try the Sunshine herbal tea, a citrusy, tart, and sweet blend. Unfortunately, they were out so I quickly chose the wildberry and hibiscus tea flavor listed underneath it: Adirondack Berries.

For Xak’s last pot, he decided to surprise me again by choosing a green tea: Moroccan Mint. The tea was a very strong mint flavor which Xak realized he really liked. My Adirondack tea was also a great tea to end with since it reminded me of a cherry tea that I am very fond of. Overall, we really enjoyed all the teas we tried!

Restroom

The Floris tea room is only a small part of the Stanley and Dorothy Pauley Center; if you exit through the back doors, you enter a hallway with a blocked off staircase and a sign that points you in the right direction for the restrooms.

The restrooms are for the entire building (not just the tea room), so there were multiple stalls available which is excellent for someone who drank three pots of tea. 😄

Payment

As we sipped on our final cups, our server came to our table again, this time with our bill and a small plate with two chocolate caramels (oooh!). The bill was $45 per person, for a total of $102.15 after tax. With 20% gratuity, the final amount was $122.15.

Final Thoughts

I’m glad that Xak and I made a stop at Floris before heading home. The tea room is beautiful and while some of the food selections of the tea were more noteworthy than others (like the yummy bread), we always appreciate any tea room that encourages you to try multiple types of tea. We especially appreciate when the tea has been properly steeped!

A day at the museum, a leisurely stroll around the park, and enjoying afternoon tea is a great way to end a vacation. While I plan to visit other Richmond tea rooms the next time I’m in the area, I won’t rule out another visit to Floris in the future.

Bonus: Visiting the Museum

Although we couldn’t visit the museum for too long, I wanted to at least make a stop at the Faberge Egg exhibit and the Impressionist paintings. I really appreciate all forms of art and I sincerely hope we can return again to take in more of the masterpieces that live within the walls of the VMFA.