Samovar Tea Lounge

Kitty and Ducky

Samovar Tea Lounge

498 Sanchez Street

San Francisco, CA 94114

(415)626-4700

Samovar @ Mission-Castro SF

We are a fan of the tea room experience and over time more tea parlors have started opening up in the Bay Area. Tea rooms aren't for everyone though, especially for those who are looking for maximum quantity per dollar. Usually tea sets run on average about $22 per person (before tax and tip). So what makes this appealing? For us, we enjoy the relaxing atmosphere, bottomless pots of delicious tea, and a variety of delicious finger foods.

Although Samovar is a tea room, it is not similar to its siblings Lovejoy and Crown and Crumpet. It has a more international and hipster feel. Instead of offering the usual High Tea Service it offers tea sets with Indian, Japanese, or Russian themes. Armed with a $25 for $50 Groupon, Ducky and I decided to see what all the hoopla about this place was.

Paleolithic Tea Service

[$19]

My set included:

• Steamed kale, carrots, and beets
• Smoked duck
• Tangy sesame dressing
• Normally this set comes with Houjicha Japanese green tea, but I opted for the Golden Phoenix oolong tea.

The duck was delicious. It was a tad jerky like but I suspect that it's the result from smoking. None the less it was well prepared. The sesame dressing was also a nice touch to the salad, adding a salty and sour blend to the sweet root vegetables. The tea had a light and fragrant flavor, but I am no tea expert, so I simply enjoyed.

Overall I was a little disappointed with this tea set. Carrots, beets, and kale can be bought at a very cheap price even if they were grown organically, so I felt a bit miffed that something like this would cost $19. The only item I could see that would be remotely costly was the smoked duck...but not enough to make up for this pricey set. -Kitty

[2/5]

English Service

[$22]

My set included:

• Salad
• Quiche
• Scone
• Fruit
• Tea: Earl Grey

The English tea service was acceptable, but only because of the quiche and the scone. There is just something special about tiny tea sandwiches that come with traditional English tea. Unfortunately, Samovar wanted to go a different route and just do a salad, quiche, scone and fruit. Although the quiche and scones were delicious and filling, I want my TEA SANDWICHES! :). The tea itself was pretty refreshing with a slight bitter taste to it that is common to all black teas. -Ducky

[3/5]

Curry Egg Salad with Sliced Fuji Apple

[$11]

Whoever though of mixing the taste of curry and egg salad sandwiches was ingenious. Samovar took it a step further and added bite size slices of Fuji apple, making it a very wholesome and satisfying flavor. We strongly recommend getting this.

[5/5]

Overall Samovar is a nice tea lounge, but we felt it was a tad too "hipster" to us. We can see the appeal it has with many of its fans but we wouldn't come again without a Groupon. We felt that it appeals to the more hip and trendy youngsters with all the zen buddhist atmosphere, which is good, but that also means the price is increased for a "unique experience".