WOW!! Salle de the TEA ROOM is the latest amazing food find that iPanda has had the pleasure to visit.

Salle de the TEA ROOM

(778) 297-7638

113-8571 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC

It’s located at WINSTONE PLAZA  113 – 8571 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC.

Make sure you give them a visit because this is truly a fantastic place.  iPanda gave them 5 paws!  Salle de the is basically a tea, desserts as well as wine and cheese place.  The food quality here is amazing because they focus on using all natural ingredients and back to basics good cooking.

The decor is comfortable and very good for groups of people to hang out.  They offer rooibos teas which are non-caffeinated or you can try something from the wine list.  They have white wine, red wine and dessert wine.  During this visit, we sampled a little of everything and we were super impressed by their overall quality.

The first thing that we sampled was the Rooibos Ice Age.  This has rooibos, lemon grass, lemon peels, mint safflower blossoms, orange blossoms.  I liked this tea because of its minty flavor.  It was refreshing and smelled heavenly.  The only thing about rooibos is that it often smells deliciously sweet but the taste is quite different.  Compared to Chinese teas, rooibos does not have a very strong flavour but is better for your health because it has many medical benefits and doesn’t contain any caffeine (there are even some teas that can help you sleep better).

My tea was served in a ceramic tea set.  These tea sets were specially ordered from Japan so that the tea can be kept hot until it is poured into the cup.  The little glass cup and spoon set contains honey which you can add to your tea if you prefer to have it sweet.

In addition to Ice Age, they also offer a whole menu of tea choices.

What goes better with tea than desserts!  And here comes one of the best dessert in Vancouver!  This is Salle De The’s signature dessert: Crème Brûlée Cheesecake!  There is a layer of caramelized sugar on the top.  I’ve tried a lot of dessert places all over Vancouver, but this really surprised me.

The cheesecake was very different than what I am used to having.  The cheesecake at Salle De The was much better!  You can actually taste that it was made from really good quality cheese because it was super moist.  The good thing about this is that it wasn’t overly sweet or rich.  I found that everything about it was just right.  I got a chance to chat with the dessert chef and she said that their desserts are made that day and never kept overnight.  This is to guarantee the freshness of the ingredients.  This is a MUST TRY!  Looking at the pictures again makes me drool. YUM!

We were also given this fresh homemade strawberry sauce to try.  I was surprised that this tasted so good because it was sweet but it was sweetness from the strawberries itself. The strawberry sauce I’ve had at other places often tastes more like strawberry jam.  This was very good because it was juicy but not from sugar and sweeteners.

After that amazing dessert, we had to try another one.  This next dessert is a homemade yogurt ice cream with black sesame whipped cream.  We also added a bit of the strawberry sauce on top.

The yogurt ice cream was delicious, but it tasted the same as yogurt but it was thicker and creamier.  However, the unique part about this dessert was the black sesame whipped cream!  iPanda has never tried different flavors of whipped cream.  This was fluffy and light.  I love black sesame gelato so I also loved this whipped cream.

Moving on to their wine.  I sampled two different sweet dessert wines.  The Hugel Vendange Tardive and the Chateau La Tour Blanche was vastly different in color and in taste.  I personally preferred the lighter colored Hugel Vendange Tardive.  iPanda doesn’t drink a lot of wine or alcohol, but I could tell right away that this was good.  Hugel wines are made from grapes which have over-ripened on the vine, and are picked much later than the normal harvest. This wine is aged to perfection and was perfect for anyone who is new to drinking wine.
The cheese platter was served next and went very well with the red wine we also had.  I was having too much fun trying everything and we forgot to take a picture of the red wine.  But this experience really opened my eyes to the tastes of different cheese and wine combinations.  Everything can be mixed together to create a new unique flavour!

The cheese platter was served with these toasted crackers.  They looked so crispy that I thought they were freshly made.  But these were store bought.  Either way, they were good~

The bottom tier was the side dishes that went with the cheese and crackers.  There was a pâté, mini pickles, pickled onions, dried figs and apricotes and a preserved fruit bar.  My favorite was definitely the pâté because I polished it off before Rockia could even taste it.

There were four different cheeses on the top tier.  There was Stilton White with Mango & Ginger, Black Truffle Cheddar Canada, and Saint Andre which is a French triple-cream (this was my favorite).  I forgot what one of them was called.  When it comes to cheese, I personally like soft and strong flavored ones.  I was a bit shocked by the Stilton White with mango and ginger because it was sweet.  I’ve never had cheese that had the taste of ginger and fruit in it before.  I sampled everything with different combination.  I drizzled honey on the triple cream cheese.  Then I combined the fig and the black truffle cheddar.  The cheese platter was lots of fun and definitely opened my eyes to cheese and wine as well as European dining.

Last, but not least!  We finished off the meal with an assortment of meat.  There was prosciuttino shoulder, culatello prosiutto ham and two other varieties of salami.  I really enjoyed the prosciutto because it was less salty than what I usually buy from the stores.  The owners also recommended we combine the side dishes with these meats.  I tried everything to make sure I didn’t miss a combination.  Overall, this was a wonderful evening dining out~

Salle De The is a must try for anyone who loves food.  I would definitely recommend their desserts because it is by far one of the best.  In addition, you can really taste the time and effort the owners/chefs have put into their food.  Everything is great quality and service is excellent.  This is a great place to hang out with friends or just to relax after a long day.

Additional Information:

Salle De The is having a FREE wine tasting event on May 20, 2010 from 4pm to 6pm.  All you need to do is reply via their Facebook page to tell them you are coming so they can prepare beforehand!  There might also be some munchies for everyone!  This is a great opportunity for you to learn about wine and sample different varieties.  And don’t forget!!  It’s FREE!