Tea Review: Dainteas

Next up on the tea tour is Dainteas! They are a by-reservation-only tea place in Concord. I was excited to see the invitation to the birthday party to this tea place as it's one I have not been to this year! 

This tea places wasn't particularly hard to get to just a longish drive for me from the peninsula to Concord and the parking lot is rather small. There is a BART station nearby for those taking public transit and for overflow parking. I did not make the reservation this time as it was for another person's birthday but it seemed like while there was vegetarian options there were no gluten free options (edit to note: the hostess was able to bring in outside food to have gluten free options as the venue was not able to accommodate gluten free at the time of our visit). They are only open on an as-needed basis with no set hours.
Ease of access (location, hours, ease of making reservation, dietary menu options): 6/10

The atmosphere here was very cute! All Alice in Wonderland themed with paintings of the Disney cartoon around as well as card and tea pot motifs. Place settings were a little plain but it seemed more a place for small childrens birthday parties (though all the people there even the non-party patrons were adults) with a play area and a hat try-on wall. The staff were very attentive to our water both for the hot teas and ice water.
Atmosphere (décor, place settings, staff): 8/10

Tea was a flat $55 per person which seems really average for afternoon tea. I left feeling satisfied but not overly stuffed. Not the most creative tea place I've tried but a solid choice and variety. 

Price (value for money): 6/10

The teas we had that I liked were the Lychee Nut and House Blend. The tea list was decently extensive but not overwhelming. I tried the two other teas picked but I was not a fan, however I knew that going in based on the names. Unfortunately even though we had a large long table there was only one pot of each type of tea so there was a lot of passing up and down the table to get the different ones.
Tea: 7/10

The scones were quite small (see dessert picture) but tasty- not too dry and an interesting texture (apparently they are corn and cherry?) but there was only strawberry compote and lemon curd- no clotted cream- in pretty small amounts for the 5 people sharing the one tier. 
Scones (and/or crumpets): 6.5/10

The sandwiches were what I think of as 'traditional' tea sandwiches: egg salad, ham and mustard, cucumber and cream cheese etc. Nothing unique but pretty tasty overall. 
Savories: 6.5/10

There was definitely more sweets to the savories (I'm counting the Nutella sandwich as a sweets). I liked the inclusion of a macaroon and banana bread. They also had some cherries as fruit options but those are kind of hard to eat elegantly 😅
Sweets: 7/10

Total average rating: 6.7/10

Overall a solid place for tea but definitely not my favorite so far. It seemed a little more geared towards children and large event parties than a place for a small group or more adult tea service. I'd recommend it if you are close and wanting to host a tea for a large group that also has some great photo ops!

JSK: Wonder Story

Headbow, tights: Angelic Pretty 

Blouse: BtSSB 

Shoes: Sheep Puff

Necklace: BB&B