The Dining Room at Butchart Gardens

Bar none, the best high tea experience in Victoria. Menu is stunningly beautiful and even more delicious. We’ve tried every place for high tea in Victoria and this is our favourite. Love the season changes to the menu, and at $50 it’s expensive but not unreasonable. 6 stars!!

As hundreds before us, we had tea in the dining room to kick off our day at the gardens. It was everything we hoped for, elegant, delicious, unpretentious. We were seated in a side room with a table celebrating a birthday and another table full of young ladies. The birthday table meowed out happy birthday and the vibe from everybody in that room was warm, caring, inclusive, and it made for a great time as we joined it. We all had a great laugh, and it was so nice to be in such a beautiful place with beautiful humans.

Our service was exceptional, every item served was delicious, it was really hard to pick a favorite, but the sausage roll, to me, was definately in the top three. It tasted like my great grandpa use to make when I was a child.

All in all, we had a wonderful time, and I highly recommend!

This place has a special place in my heart- I came here for the first time in the summer while undergoing chemotherapy to celebrate my 5 year wedding anniversary. The server was so kind and attentive and told me that she can't wait to have me back when I was finished treatment so I could enjoy the garden fully. Fast forward to December - I came back to see the garden's Christmas display- and she remembered me, gave me a big hug and it was smiles all around. Not only is the food extremely well prepared and seasoned, I made a lot of yummy noises over the verrine, the staff are professional, friendly and love their job. I can't say enough good things about this place. I have now have an a new anniversary tradition. ❤

Highly recommend to try the afternoon high tea if you have never done so. Great ambience, friendly staff and amazing service; the money spent is well worth it.

Pro tip: Definitely reserve a table in advance. If the website doesn't show any availability, do call them. Our hotel concierge desk assisted us with the booking just a couple of days before the visit.

Food:
For teas, we tried teaberry blend and, lemongrass and ginger. Both of them paired very well with the food. We decided to try vegan menu(shared in the image) and were not disappointed at all. Portions are generous and took some effort to finish off everything on the plate.

We enjoyed the teas so much that we ended up purchasing loose tea leaves from Seed and Gift store.

Experience:
5/5

Highly recommend! My gluten-free tea experience was outstanding! Happened to be dining solo. Appreciated being seated at a nice quiet table indoors (I opted for indoors) overlooking the Italian garden, and a beautiful view of the dining room. The manager even came to my table to confirm my dietary restrictions prior to the food service. A lovely and generous selection of gourmet savoury and sweet tea items. Especially enjoyed the English Breakfast tea, Rose Congou tea, Butchart Gardens’ heavenly signature scone, sausage roll, wild BC salmon sandwich, and smoked albacore tuna sandwich. You do need to reserve well in advance; and advise of the gf tea/dietary requirements 24-hrs in advance. Thank you for a fabulous afternoon tea!

The vegan tea was excellent! Amazing food and sweets, don't skip this! What a magical place ✨

The tea selection was a bit weak, and I was surprised several of the teas had artificial flavoring in them. The food was delicious, though a couple menu items for the afternoon tea weren't were shown in the online menu. Pilar's service was amazing.

The online downside was the family with unruly young children who were seated near us. Not what I expect out of an expensive and refined dining experience.

I ordered the well done half rack lamb the lamb was extremely tender on the inside but crunchy on the outside and the vegetables were really juicy and delicious.

This is an amazing experience that I would recommend to all visitors of Butchart Gardens. The staff are very friendly and considerate. We were initially worried that we wouldn't get a table because we didn't make a reservation. The staff put us on a waiting list and we did end up getting a call even though it was one of the busier days of the season. The atmosphere was wonderful. I kept expecting someone from the Royal Family to walk around the corner. The food was excellent and plentiful. Don't give this experience a miss when you visit Butchart Gardens.

I highly recommend Afternoon Tea. Reservation only. Outdoor tables on the porch are only available at your reservation time by availability.

I was surprised how good the tea and nibbles were at this highly popular tourist destination. Definitely one of the best I've experienced.

You must pay the $38/person entrance fee for Butchart Gardens in order to enjoy Afternoon Tea, which is an additional charge.

If you haven't enjoyed afternoon tea before, it might seem expensive, but it includes a pot of tea and a three tier tray filled with a scone, savory finger sandwiches, and dainty treats.

At Butchart's, they begin with a sweet trifle, which was unbelievably tasty.

The conservatory setting and the dining room are quite lovely, but I recommend going early if the weather is fine and requesting a porch table. All have views of flowers.

Our waitress Dakota was attentive and charming and created a beautiful experience for us that fulfilled my expectations.

So worth the expense and time. You can also order wine at an additional charge.

What a lovely experience. Chose the Bachelor Button tea and you can really taste all of the notes the tea had to offer. Was so relaxing and just able to decompress. The service is top notch. They made you feel quite special. Highly recommend!

We had afternoon tea in the dining room. I have to say curried egg salad and cold raw tuna is not my thing. The tea and pastries were delicious and scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream (which sounds gross but is delicious) is my new favorite thing. It is pricey but half the price if the Empress for those about to visit Victoria, BC Canada.

We came here for our anniversary and it was phenomenal! The ambiance is so bright and beautiful. It's like eating in a greenhouse. The food was incredible, and our server was so lovely. She brought us extra tea because I wasn't sure what flavour I liked, and she recommended a really nice Italian place for us to eat supper as well. She said "you'll thank me later" so if she's reading this, thank you!!!
We also really loved enjoying our tasting flights of local wine and cider all cozy next to the fire whilst we waited for our table to be ready. This was absolutely magical and I dearly hope we have the chance to come back someday.

Great tea at beautiful garden. We enjoyed the savory over the sweets, but overall good value and the price! Remember to make a reservation in advance!

After tea at the Empress, I actually prefer tea at Butchart gardens. Held in the original residence of the family, the house overlooks the Italian garden on one side and the square near the entrance to the sunken gardens. There are multiple rooms but I reccomend the original dining room overlooking the Italian garden if possible, as the other main room doesn't have much of a view and overlooks the small garden in the front of the house. We had quite frankly a spectacular view overlooking the Italian garden and was probably the best seat in the house. The tea and food were excellent and I liked the more casual atmosphere, since guests were to be trooping in from their tours of the gardens. Definitely make a reservation, its not to be missed.

Loved the vegan high tea experience at the dining room. The savoury items in particular were absolutely amazing, but all the sweet items were great too. Hot tip: If you are more of a savoury person, when you book you can request that both main tiers are savoury. My favourites were the savoury tart with mushrooms, the lentil roll, and the espresso truffle. But honestly it was all great. We also had the tasting drink flight that completed each food tier. Service was excellent and friendly. I will definitely be back! PS. If ordering the vegan high tea, make sure to put in your request at least 24 hours in advance either via the comments box at OpenTable or calling the restaurant.

Was somewhat disappointed in a couple of desserts, but was a lovely experience. Our server was kind. Had a beautiful view of the gardens.

Wonderful vegan afternoon tea, highly recommended. It was delicious.

Such an amazing bucket list experience! Make a reservation for High Tea! 100% worth it for the experience alone. The food and drink were also very very good. Great service!

Gorgeous atmosphere! Reasonably priced for a real tea service. Tasty variety. Great waiter. Only one choice for tea service. Tea itself was very lovely and can be purchased in gift store if you want to purchase and take it home. Fresh gorgeous flower arrangements from the gardens throughout, even in the bathroom.