High Tea at Butchart Gardens

On a recent November day, we headed off to Victoria's Butchart Gardens - now one of Canada's National Historic Sites - for High Tea.
This was a special occassion, as all four of us where there together. Here are mom and I after our repast, which is served in the Dining Room, in the original Butchart family residence.

My sister and brother and brother may look like they are sitting outside, but that's just a really clean window. Great views of the gardens from here.

For each type of tea we had at the table -- it was the only thing we had to choose -- comes with it's own teapot (we had 3 types between the 4 of us), and individual straining devices. The teas were truly lovely.

And the food, ooh la la!! High Tea is what is served here in the winter, and is more robust in it's hot foods than the Afternoon Tea served in the summer. And, how scrumptious! We began with to-die-for candied ginger scones, followed by hot delicacies (we each got a cornish pastie, quiche and vol-au-vent), then a selection of sandwiches and savouries (4 types, and 4 of each, tho there was some trading off for favourites!), and finally the sweets. Ooh la la indeed! All of this, including the tea, is served for $26.65/person.

My sister and I also ordered the Backyard Flight of 3 wines, modestly priced at $12.95. How decadent to sit there sitting champagne! If you go, keep in mind that you need to pay for admission to the gardens to get in. In our case, we were treated on this occassion by my brother, who was, in turn, invited to High Tea as guests of the owners, with whom he has recently done some work. Lucky us! But for the quality of the food, and service, and the environment, the High Tea was good value and I would definitely recommend it.

From our table, we could see this statue of Mercury in the gardens (above).... and the water of Tod Inlet beyond, near Brentwood Bay (below).

There were still lots of autumn colours in the gardens...

My sister took this awesome picture of this not-so-green greenery.

One of the chandaliers.... ... and some of the old stained glass windows in the building.We didn't spend a lot of time exploring the gardens further on this visit, but we all wanted to come back for more. My brother and sister hadn't been there before, and my mom and I were unable to remember how long ago it was that we had been there together (20 years?!?), so I am sure we will be back. People travel here from all over the world to visit the gardens, so living 20 minutes away in Sidney does make it a must see! Thanks bro :-)