Crown & Crumpet Tea Room, San Francisco, Part II (Picture heavy!)

It's rare that I do a complete 180 degrees turnaround on anything, but in the case of Crown & Crumpet Tea Room I feel I owe it to myself to reflect honestly. Now, I've always had a thing for afternoon tea, but this place officially turned me into an addict, because to get my fix, I come here once a week. Yes, you read that right. Once a week.

My first experience here with hubby wasn't anything special, and I even said so! Their savories were meh, but scones and sweets were excellent. So a couple of weeks later when I was stressed out from work and craved some tea and sweets, I loaded my iPhone Instapaper with a lengthy reading list and came crawling back one afternoon. This time, I substituted the mini sandwiches on the savories plate with an order of the Chicken, Mozzarella, Tomato, and Pesto pressed sandwich from the lunch menu. I also added an order of soup. I was told they serve a different soup every day, and that day's soup du jour was Cream of Chicken and Rice. Fine, I thought I'd try it.

Holy smoke the soup was fantastic! It was creamy and savory and well flavored. And the rice grains were still intact, chewy but neither grainy or soggy. Together it was a lovely concoction with some texture I just ate one spoon after another! I thought they would bring me a small cup when it came out in a gigantic bowl instead that I could only eat a third of! Later that night, hubby was all too happy to inhale the leftovers. He agreed it was good soup. The Chicken, Mozzarella, Tomato, and Pesto sandwich didn't fare as well. The panini bread was tough and dry, the grilled chicken breast was cut too thick and was dry and flavorless. But never minds the sandwich, the soup totally won me over and I was determined to come and try all their soups!

Blueberry scones were as yummy as I remembered it, and the sweets were good too, although not as great as last time, probably because I filled up on the soup and didn't have any stomach left for the sweets -.-' But I made sure to eat the dark chocolate-dipped strawberry LOL! The next day, the lime cheesecake was just as fresh and yummy, the strawberry mousse in a dark chocolate cup was yummy, the chocolate pecan bar was yummy. Yup. I was totally coming back.

Yep, I came back. This time I switched out the mini sandwiches again for a different Ham, Apple, and Brie pressed sandwich from the lunch menu. They were out of soup that day so I skipped it. 

The Ham, Apple, and Brie pressed sandwich totally wowed me this time. I guess the melted brie and juice from the apple slices kept the panini bread moist on the inside and crunchy on the outside, which makes an excellent, savory but tart sandwich! They gave me small spinach and cheese quiche and an egg and cheese tart as well. Both were decent.

Got a repeat of blueberry scones, which I love, and the dark chocolate-dipped strawberry, which I also loved. The vanilla cheesecake was yummy, the mocha mousse in dark chocolate cup was especially delectable, and that chocolate fudge square was very special. The chocolate fudge sounds sweet it was just right. And sandwiched in between the layers of the chocolate fudge was chocolate waffle cookies that were crunchy. Damn, this place sure knows how to put texture in their food!

By then, I was already sold on this little gem, but that particular afternoon, they totally blew me away with their offerings of the day, which included a Tomato Basil soup, cranberry scones, and sweets. This time, I switched out the entire savories plate for extra scones, so I can bring some home for hubby ^.^ And the two extra scones were of different flavors, one cinnamon raisins, and the other cranberry.


Wow, I mean, wow. That Tomato Basil soup was the best I've ever had. Hands down. It was so flavorful with a spicy kick, splashed with just a touch of the tomato's tartness. Since then, with every visit I've been hoping they'd make it again but they haven't yet believe it or not! Seriously, how many different soups does this place make?!? One time I had the Tomato Bisque soup once, but that soup was more tart and less flavorful, so the Tomato Basil was still their best. Ordered the Ham, Apple, and Brie pressed sandwich again too.

Cranberry scones was sooooo good and I was so glad I switched out the savories plate for more of them. The dark chocolate-dipped strawberry had strawberry chocolate shavings, which was a nice touch but I love it either way. The raspberry bar was yummy, the mini custard fruit tart was yummy, and the puff pastry cone filled with chocolate mousse was yummy.

That particular afternoon, I had such a spectacular meal I order cakes and macarons to go too, just to bring home some treats for hubby (excuses, I know). And holy crap their macarons knocked my socks off! They were light and fluffy, and their cream fillings buttery and silky smooth. Best macarons in the area, I swear! And I've tried almost a dozen different places, including the better known Fillmore Bakeshop, Cako in Japantown, Sift Cupcake & Dessert Bar (also on Fillmore, will review later), I can go on. And no, I didn't make this conclusion with just 3 macarons. I ordered one of each flavor, but, umm, let's just say the other 7 didn't quite make the pictures LOL!!!

Lemon, raspberry, and strawberry. The strawberry macaron had a dollop of jam at the center too!

Came back again, determined to get all the macarons in the picture (more excuses) ^.^' Clockwise from the top is chocolate, salted caramel, strawberry, lemon, pistachio, raspberry, pomegranate, and green tea in the middle.

Funny enough, the soup that day was a bland Chicken Noodle, which needed more salt. That time, I skipped the traditional afternoon tea in the 3-tiered tray and went for just the sweets plate (double order, too! I'm a piggie, I know haha...), which more than made up for the flavorless Chicken Noodle Soup. The repeats were the cranberry scones and mocha mousse in dark chocolate cup, both of which I inhaled. The new additions were mini cupcakes, mini cream puff, lemon bar, chocolate coconut bar, and raspberry swirl cheesecake.

Mini cupcakes were Red Velvet and Banana with cream cheese frosting. The salted caramel macaron was my absolute favorite. It had a dollop of caramel at the center, and again that sounded sugary sweet but it wasn't. Even better was that I could taste the salt crystals in that caramel. Hell, I could discern their crunch as I chewed, damn! Texture, people, it's all in the texture.

Came back again, but wasn't hungry enough to order the afternoon tea that time. So I got a small pot of tea, soup, scones, plate of sweets (just one order this time LOL!), and macarons. The Chicken and Rice soup looked meh but was excellent. And I got myself 2 salted caramel macarons that time ^.^ More repeats of the sweets plus a pear tart I haven't had before. Oh, the scone was an orange marmalade repeat too, which I happily ate.

Every once in a while, in addition to the fantastic afternoon tea fare, I was treated to some adorable pet (versus people) watching. One of the ladies having afternoon tea with her friends that day brought her 2 dogs, a tiny pom and a corgi. Tied to the waiting chairs in front of the elevator and supplied with a bowls of treats and water, they were content in lying on the cool marble floor watching people coming up and down both the elevator and the stairs.

Kind of rude, I guess, to steal photos of other people's pets. But hey, who told them to point their furry tocks directly at me the whole time?!?

The funniest part was that every time someone, anyone at all, emerged from the elevator or the stairs, these dogs would hop up with their ears perked and their tails wagging. Especially that corgi, my goodness he (totally guessing here, for all I know it could be a she too!) was so excited to see people, anybody(!), that he danced on his four stubby legs and rubbed up against the legs of his visitors, all of whom obliged a pet and a scratch. Oh man, those dogs were great entertainment. I totally see why some people love their pets as they would their kids.

And when the visitors left, they would plop back down on their tummies, facing the elevator and stairs. Their ears would perk up whenever they hear sounds of people. Oh my god, those furry things totally owned me.

See my previous Crown & Crumpet Tea Room post.