Tea Grotto

Cool place. Good people. Tea is good.... Food is why it's not getting five stars more

It is good to know there is at least one place in SLC where they know, and care, about tea. The space is open, the owner is pretty and the tea is excellent with mucho choice. And they have informative tastings on Saturdays. i like this place. Pros: good tea, nice place, cool people Cons: NA more

Coffee makes me nervous as I grow older. Tea has a variety of benefits and I've enjoyed discovering many of them by purchasing tea from the Tea Grotto. Their wide variety of excellent, hand crafted loose-leaf teas carefully purchased from organic tea farmers enable me to enjoy tea at home, with full flavor and rich aromas. Their service makes a person feel warm and happy and I enjoy buying tea and even staying sometimes and drinking a cup of tea with a good book. Pros: Great Teas Cons: No Feng Shui more

I used to frequent another tea place in town (see other reviews) but in the past couple of years have turned my loyalties to the Tea Grotto for the following reasons. First, they have great food, my husband remarked that it ""tasted better than how much we paid for it."" They pair tea with interesting foods like polenta and pine nuts (our favorite!). Second, its a great place to hang out. At many other coffee shops in town I have heard horror stories where people have come up to customers to tell them they have to pay rent for using their wireless or told them to buy something or leave. Both myself and my sister and nieces have NEVER had this problem, even when my nieces are there alone. Trust me, we have received the quite the array of bad service in Utah, especially my nieces who are teenagers and women of color. This place is one of the friendliest around. At least one person that works there each time I am in there says hello, smiles and most of the time someone asks me how I am doing or strikes up a conversation. Usually, I am quite busy and it I don't have time to chat, but knowing that there are still NICE people out there makes me smile! They have never been rude to me ever! Even when I have sat for long periods of time without buying more food. I think they remember I always buy something to take home! A third reason this place is great is because the staff is nice and helpful with picking things on the item and they are for the most part really sweet people. \r \r I would recommend you coming here to try out their food and tea pairings. It is also a great place to study and the owner is very very nice! \r \r Sometimes there are alot of hippy-types, but thats par for the course. What I love is their acceptance of everyone! Even an uptight businesswoman! Pros: Food, Staff, Tea!, Ambience, Everything! Cons: It's across town from me :) more

The Tea Grotto is a spectacular place. I stopped in yesterday just for some chai and to relax for a few minutes in their zen space. I decided to try the free tea tasting on Saturdays simply because I wasn't in a hurry to be anywhere. It was wonderful. I tried teas I'd never heard of before. The woman who did the tastings was exceptionally knowledgeable and friendly, we could ask her anything! They know their list of teas is a bit daunting so the purpose of these tastings is to introduce you to new teas and help you try something different; thereby eliminating the overwhelming nature of the massive (and exceptional) tea list. I am far from a tea expert and had stayed away from these tastings so that I didn't have to listen to true tea 'experts' show off to each other how much they knew (you know, like people at wine tastings?!). I was genuinely surprised at how much fun and un-intimidating my experience was. Importantly, there is no pressure to buy anything. I did give her a tip, but in no way was that forced on me. Try this place, you won't be disappointed!\r Pros: Great environment, friendly people, relaxing Cons: Parking can be hard more

The Tea Grotto is inviting, smells amazing, has a wonderful atmosphere, and the tea selection is out of this world! Too bad we made the mistake of coming in a half of an hour before close. The two girls working were relatively friendly, although obviously preoccupied with closing. We sat on the couch as they put up chairs (still twenty minutes before closing time, the neon open sign still on) although they didn't touch the four chairs most near to us, a demonstration of some consideration. We decided to finish our tea in a hurry to the jarring sounds of breaking down for the evening. We brought our teapot and cups to the counter and said, ""Thank you."" The RUDE young man reconciling the cash did not reply, did not even look up (we were no more than a foot and a half away from him). So we repeated ourselves, thinking perhaps he was so very focused on counting the till (with his back to the open door, not exactly the smartest thing to be doing anyway) that he missed what we had said. He ignored us yet again!\r When we got in our car, the time read 8:48, the open sign was still on. Good thing our tea was expertly prepared and presented, because we were otherwise totally insulted. Pros: Atmosphere, vast tea selection, neat merchandise. Cons: Icy, adversarial customer service after eight. more