Tea Room Review: Afternoon Tea at The Chattaway in St. Petersburg, Florida

When Xak and I were traveling to Florida for a Labor Day weekend family wedding, I had a feeling we would need not one but two afternoon teas to cancel out the chaos and stress of traveling. Between flying on an extremely busy holiday, we also had to drive a few hours from the airport to the actual wedding. The first part of our trip was in the Bradenton area, and we were lucky to book afternoon tea at the Elixir Tea House in Sarasota for an absolutely excellent experience.

After the wedding and some quality family time, we had to drive back north to drop off our rental car, which is when I hoped to find another tea room to visit. Most tea rooms have limited days of operation and with us visiting on a holiday, we expected we’d have to forgo our second tea stop. 😞

However… along the route for our drive back to the airport, we found a place called The Chattaway which not only served afternoon tea but was open on Labor Day. We placed a reservation to visit on September 2, 2024.

About The Chattaway

The Chattaway is a family owned restaurant that’s been operating since 1951 in St. Petersburg, Florida. While the main menu served on the colorful patio consists of burgers, sandwiches, and typical lunch entrees, afternoon tea is served inside the dining room in honor of the owner’s original home of England. 

The Chattaway also hosts special events including local musicians on weeknights and large private events like wedding receptions and parties.

Reservation Process

The Chattaway has two different websites: one for the main restaurant and one specifically for afternoon tea. If you want to make a reservation specifically for tea, you’ll need to go to the tea website to fill out a contact form to enter your information like name, phone number, number of people in your party, etc.

The other option is to text a specific phone number listed on the main restaurant website with your details. Since I’m not keen on texting random numbers, I decided to fill out the form.

The tea times listed on the main website (12:30 – 3:30) are different from the tea website (12:30 – 4). Since Xak and I wanted the first time available, it didn’t matter but something to note if you prefer taking afternoon tea late. Reservations must be made 48 hours in advance.

Some time after submitting my request through the online form, I received a text message confirming my reservation details and asking me to select 3 tea sandwiches (out of a list of 6) for our visit. I was also informed that the restaurant was cash only, which I’m really glad they notified us in advance.

I noticed yet again that the time in the text message was different from both websites (12:30-3:00 PM). Definitely recommend checking which time is accurate.

Parking

After a weekend of wedding celebrations and visiting family in Sarasota, Florida, Xak and I were ready to drive our rental car back to the Tampa airport with our planned stop at The Chattaway on Labor Day.

As we dutifully followed the directions from our GPS, we pulled into a large gravel lot at the entrance of what seemed like a residential neighborhood with single family homes and lawns lining the street.

Since we arrived close to the start of lunch hour on a weekday, there were several open spots and we had no trouble finding a place to park in the private lot. No fear of tow trucks today.

The Tea Room

exterior

This is one of the most unique vibes I’ve ever seen at a restaurant. It felt very Florida and definitely not like a place you would expect afternoon tea. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many bathtubs outside of a kitchen and bath store. Pink bathtubs filled with plants and flowers lined the exterior, leading to an archway and a bridge atop a small waterfall and stream. There were decorative rocks lining the stream including one dedicated to the husband of the owner.

As we walked over the bridge, we saw a large outdoor dining area with umbrella covered tables and chairs, picnic bench seating, and a covered eating area with outdoor ceiling fans. There were people sitting at the tables and I wondered if our tea would be held outside. There was no host podium or signs indicating how to get a table, so we walked to the area where we saw a few employees to ask.

We were informed that our tea would take place in the enclosed dining room area and led us to a room behind a closed door.

Interior

The room was a stark difference from the outside eating area. It was painted in different shades of blue with various shaped tables and wooden or wicker white chairs on top of a carpeted floor. The ceiling held fans and a chandelier nestled within faux green foliage.

A server was standing at a table filling little bowls with lemon curd, clotted cream, and raspberry jam. He told us he was still preparing our table which made sense since we were 15 minutes early. That was fine since there was plenty to look at on the walls.

Artwork, tea pots, trinkets, and what looked like Wedgwood Jasperware covered every inch of the shelves that lined the perimeter of the wall. There were also items related to the Royal family on display, likely due to the owner’s British roots. As we were making our way around the room, the owner came in and we chatted a bit and she gave us a magazine featuring local events.

By that time, our server had finished setting up our table and we were seated at the table under the chandelier.

The Table

Xak and I each had our own tea cup, teaspoon, and saucer on top of our dining plate. A fork and knife rested on a napkin along with a goblet of water. There was also the condiments our server had been filling up when we arrived, resting on some green doilies along with sugar cubes in a small bowl with tongs.

Food

Since we had sent over our order for sandwiches via the reservation text message, I knew what to expect for the savories, however the website did not list any other specifics with regards to food or tea flavors. Would we receive menus?

I got my answer pretty quickly: when our server re-entered the room, instead of a menu, he brought out a tea pot which held Tetley tea bags and told us to let it steep for five minutes. Good thing I like black tea.

Before he left, he asked if we wanted milk (which we always do) and came back again this time holding a two tiered tray with a separated top tier of desserts and also brought out the milk.

The tray contained the following:

Bottom Tier

• Turkey and Provolone
• Cucumber
• Shrimp Salad

Top Tier

• Scones
• Crumpets
• Fruit

Separate Platter

• Chocolate Macaron
• Tuxedo Bomb

Savories

There were 12 sandwich halves in total meaning 3 sandwiches for each of us. All of the sandwiches used the same extremely soft white bread, but the fillings and condiments were obviously different.

We started with the turkey and provolone, which turkey loving Xak (not surprisingly) had requested. Along with the meat and cheese, there was a layer of mustard on the bread. I don’t particularly care for turkey or mustard, but Xak enjoyed the sandwich.

We moved onto the Shrimp Salad which Xak and I mutually had selected, mainly due to curiosity. This is the first time I’ve ever seen shrimp salad as a sandwich selection during tea. Earlier in the year, we had a shrimp and crab canape at tea (which was delicious), tuna fish as a sandwich option, and I’ve seen smoked salmon several times, but that’s the extent of sea food cuisine during all my afternoon teas. Although I’m normally exclusively a fried shrimp person, the shrimp salad was quite tasty and Xak particularly liked that it did not have a “super strong shrimp flavor.” That’s a good thing apparently.

Finally, we moved onto our cucumber triangles, which I had selected since it felt wrong not to have cucumber sandwiches during tea. I have a certain preference for my cucumber sandwiches, but I’m always interested in how actual tea places serve them. The sandwich here was very thin and instead of and herby creamy spread, it tasted like butter and overall very plain.

Out of the three, our favorite was the shrimp salad which truly surprised me. Maybe more tea places should consider adding seafood as a sandwich selection.

At this point, additional people were coming in to be seated. One party was also there for tea while the other was there to eat lunch. As they waited for their orders to be taken, we moved onto our second course.

Scones and Crumpets

While scones are traditional to all afternoon teas, this is the first time I’ve ever been officially offered a crumpet at tea. I’ve had crumpets before (thank you, Trader Joes) and while they share some similarities to English muffins, the ingredients and preparation are different.

The crumpets had been split into two pieces (one whole crumpet per person) and Xak and I decided to just slather on the Devonshire cream with raspberry on one side and lemon curd on the other. Since it had been toasted, it was a bit crunchy. Crumpets are typically unsweetened and I personally prefer them with butter.

On the other hand, our scones (two each) were blueberry and quite sweet on their own so I only put a little bit of the cream on it. They reminded me more of mini blueberry muffins than scones. The final item on this tier included a few pieces of fruit, but I decided to pass after seeing the strawberries. Maybe it was supposed to just be a garnish…

Dessert

At this point, our server had come by to ask if we wanted a refill on tea. Sure, why not. Always good to have tea during dessert.

We started with the chocolate macaron (one each) which tasted a bit fudge-like. I noticed that the other party there for tea was also served macarons, but instead of chocolate, they had vanilla. I prefer chocolate over vanilla in almost all instances, so I was happy with what we were given.

The final item was the tuxedo bomb which was described as a chocolate sponge cake with chocolate mousse and served with whipped cream. I’m not a whipped cream fan, so I scooped off most of the dollop for Xak to happily plop on top of his cake. However, I did leave a bit on because there are times when whipped cream (in very limited quantities) is essential for rich desserts. This particular dessert fell into that category since it was extremely chocolatey which is great, but also nice to have some airy sugary lightness (aka the whipped cream) as relief.

Xak, on the other hand, seems to think there is never such a thing as “enough whipped cream”, but he too seemed to enjoy the dessert.

Payment

The Chattaway is a cash only/Venmo establishment for all diners (lunch, dinner, afternoon tea). This is stated on their website and I was also informed in the original text message I received. There’s an on-site ATM located within the tea dining room if you forget to bring cash on hand. Throughout the entire meal, customers were coming in and out of the dining room to extract cash, as evident from the many beeps coming from the ATM during our visit.

Since Xak and I had been aware that it was cash-only, we made sure to go to a local ATM before we flew down to Florida (to avoid fees of course) and bring enough to cover our expected bill + tax and tip.

When we asked our server for the check, he plopped down an index card instead of an itemized bill which took me a bit by surprise.

Since there was no breakdown of our meal, I could only assume that the $90 included tax. But did it include tip too? Also, did they have a stack of index cards in the back office ready to go for various numbers of customers? For example, if a party of 4 was there, did they have a “Tea for Four” card? And if so, what were the total number of customers they had a card for? 10? 20??

Since I didn’t want to necessarily ask our server these questions and I was ready to leave, we ended up paying $108 in total ($90 + $18 for a 20% tip).

Important Note from Dani: I found out later as I was writing this blog post that tax and tip are already included in the price. This information is only noted on the Chattaway restaurant site in the High Tea section. It is not mentioned on the Chattaway tea website where you make your reservation.

Restroom

After we paid, it was time for us to make sure we were ready to continue our road trip. This, of course, means a trip to the restroom. When we had asked our server where it was, he mentioned it was a little hard to describe so he would show us instead. 🤔

Turns out, the restrooms are located outside the dining room, a couple of turns through the outdoor dining area, and up a little walkway. Luckily the bathroom area does have an overhead cover, but I was glad it wasn’t raining the day we visited.

There are two enclosed brightly painted bathrooms: one for ladies and one for men. I don’t normally take pictures of bathrooms, however this was my first time seeing hand painted flamingos on a bathroom wall, so I couldn’t pass up that chance.

After we both exited the bathrooms, Xak and I headed back to our car and exited the gravel parking lot to head to our next destination.

Final Thoughts

The Chattaway is clearly a beloved place by the St. Petersburg locals. I really loved the outdoor eating area and the overall unique tropical vibe of the restaurant. I imagine most people who live in the surrounding areas pop in for a burger to relax and enjoy the outdoors with live music.

With regards to the tea, I was a bit surprised that we weren’t able to choose our tea since we selected which sandwiches we wanted in advance. The inclusion of crumpets was nice since they were more appropriate than the scones to use the lemon curd. Being cash only can be tough, so I really am appreciative they notify you in advance.

While I’m happy that Xak and I found an afternoon tea place that was open on a holiday, if we ever return in the future, I think we’ll just pop in for a burger instead.

Bonus: The Florida Botanical Gardens

Like almost all our other afternoon tea trips, we planned for a stop at a local garden. When doing our research for The Chattaway, we saw that we could make a stop at the Florida Botanical Gardens on our way back to the airport. No way would I pass this up.

The gardens was awesome! For starters, admission is free (unless there’s a special event) and they’re open everyday with the exception of Christmas and Black Friday.

I love visiting different botanical gardens and seeing native plants. An excellent way to spend your afternoon!