I was treated to Floris for my birthday, and I loved it! The building is traditional with matching decor. Beautiful. You sit in chairs and tables like a restaurant, which is comfortable (unlike an English salon setting that you'll experience at another tea room). The tea was NOT the star of the show. The food was. Every single thing on the tower was incredible! The only mediocre item was the brownie. How hard is it to mess up a brownie? There was no presentation of the tea. The porcelain was attractive, but plain and didn't meet the vibe of the venue and the event that afternoon tea should be. One of my pots came barely warm when tea should be piping hot. None of them stood out as a favorite, either, which was disappointing. I was also disappointed that they didn't have a huge selection of teas or porcelain for sale. Go for the food and atmosphere, with good company, and you'll leave very satisfied. read more

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Let me correct a common assumption right away: Floris is not an English tea room serving finger sandwiches and scones. The food is American, and it's quite good. The quiche is the best I've ever had -- the crust was perfectly flaky, and the eggs were cooked just right, not overdone. The overall selection is well-chosen: not abundant, but calibrated precisely to leave you satisfied. Every item earns its place on the menu. The space is lovely -- period decor, elegant wall trim, beautiful curtains, and charming antique tea dishes on display. But there's a jarring note: a large modern painting occupies a prominent wall, clashing visibly with everything around it. The tea itself is served in individual modern pots, which is practical (you and your companion can each order something different), but the pots are plain and forgettable. A beautiful period tea cup and pot would elevate the experience into a proper event. And then there's the tea -- which, in a tea room, really ought to be the star. It isn't. There's no presentation, no ceremony, no ritual. Of our three orders, the first (lavender, chamomile, and mint) arrived scalding hot and tasted bitter, as though it had been brewed too long. The second -- Moroccan Dreams, I believe -- was fragrant but flat in flavor, and arrived tepid. The third, a cherry blossom blend, was genuinely lovely. Third time was the charm. Service was warm and capable when our server was present -- which wasn't always. Fortunately, we were in a leisurely mood. If you're pressed for time, that could be a real frustration. I parked in the lot which was an addition $6. read more

I went here for tea with three friends on a Saturday afternoon. The space is beautiful and the service was welcoming and friendly. The food is a 3 course, fixed menu and there are so many tea options, including caffeine free. While they do offer to brew as many pots of tea as you'd like, given the size of the tea pots, it would be nice if they did a pot per person. We went through our tea pretty quickly and then it's a bit of a wait for them to brew a new pot. The food was interesting and I didn't love it. The bread service was nice and the highlight for me. I can always enjoy more scones! The savory course was okay but I did not enjoy the sweet course which was Hummingbird Cake, Red Velvet Madeline and Ambrosia. While i know it's just tea service, I definitely left hungry. We weren't rushed at all and enjoyed our time together. We had booked an exhibit so we went into the museum after that and enjoyed our time there as well. read more

Floris at VMFA - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

Floris offers 3 course fixed menu tea service. -bread course -savory course -sweet course Alongside all the tea you can drink. Iced tea, fruity tea, black tea, chai tea. You name it they serve it. The staff was very friendly, the setting is relaxing and the food was delicious! I recommend making reservations ahead of time to secure your spot! During the holiday season they offer a special tea menu. Over all I enjoyed this experience and look forward to my next visit! read more

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For ambience, this place gets five stars... Service, also five stars. I've had a lot of tea in my day as a girl mom and while this place sets such a beautiful table, the food leaves a little to be desired. Everything is just fine, certainly to the classic English style, but in comparison to some of Richmond's other tea offerings, you're just getting a cute lunch with a pretty table. Recommendations: take your favorite person for a cute midday getaway. read more

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My Mom's Self Care/Book Club Group had tea for the first time at Floris at VMFA a few weeks ago and to say that the experience was simply magical would be an understatement. Everything from the tea to the food to the service were simply exceptional. The decor was very soothing and inviting. Our server was attentive and knowledgeable in regards to tea and food offerings. The variety of teas, as well as, the food offerings were delicious. I sincerely enjoyed our time at Floris and cannot wait to return. read more

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We want to celebrate my dad's birthday. My mom messed up the reservation time and they nicely accommodated us despite being understaffed. I'm not the biggest fan of hot teas, but he loves it. Therefore, I don't have a strong opinion on the teas. We did al agree the chai tea was not good We got 6 teapots for 3 of us. My favorite was the english breakfast. I thought the food was pretty good and surprisingly fills you up. It did feel like a lot of bread/crust, but I guess that is how the food with tea usually is. The building is old. It's the perfect vibe for tea. read more

Floris at VMFA - Food menu - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

I was so excited to visit this new tea room but left very disappointed. The setting is really pretty and the food is beautiful but lacks flavor. The croissant was good but everything else appeared to focus more on appearance than taste. Many pieces were dry and not good. A nice tea selection but they only wanted two pots on each table which meant we had to share. Each pot is small and the steep time is 10 minutes so we spent a lot of time waiting and hoping for tea. The $45 price tag ends up at $61 with fees, etc and the $6 parking makes this an expensive tea. read more

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Lovely ambiance, friendly service, ok food. The tea selections were excellent with lots of different styles that are sure to please any tastes. The disappointment was the food! The menu is set, but they will make adjustments for allergies or other dietary needs. Be aware that those adjustments are limited (generally to duplicating another tray element) and gluten free is subject to a hefty $10 surcharge. All of our food did not seem fresh. The puff pastry on the cheese cigar was gummy, like it had been baked yesterday. The bread on the chicken paprikash sandwich was I think supposed to be toasted but came across as stale. That sandwich also had the THINNEST slice of chicken I'd ever seen - needed a magnifying glass to see it. The one standout was a whipped cheesecake puff and the whole table said we would have been happier (though likely sick to our stomachs) if the whole tower had been those. The only thing fresh was the warm scones at the start. Overall a disappointing experience for $45. There are much better teas in the area at similar price points. I won't get back to Floris (and if someone says "hey let's have tea for my birthday" I will have other suggestions in mind.) read more

Lovely ambience and servers. Continental cuisine that was so incredibly delicious!! Amazing tea choices. Loved every minute of this experience read more

Floris was one of the most perplexing dining experiences I've ever participated in. The good first: the space was really lovely. The ambiance was exactly what you'd look for with an English tea service and I think is really where the museum's influence shines. The teas were also great! There was an interesting variety of teas and our party each found something enjoyable on the tea menu. The sandwich tower was beautiful. But the flavor choices for the food were somewhat clumsy--a couple of the items were really disharmonious in flavor and confusing. Some of them were excellent! The egg sandwich and miso cucumbers were particular highlights, but there was a gelatin-based caramel pudding with blackberries that just felt really directionless, and the bread on the stiry fry sandwich and lobster roll was generic and felt vaguely stale. All in all the things that worked well were very surface level: the aesthetics of Floris are great. Now on to the really very bad. The service at Floris was basically non-existent. Our reservation was at 1:30 and we managed to get out the door at 4, too late to go to the current exhibit at the museum. Our party was large, yes, but patient, until we had been waiting for our checks for thirty minutes and one of us had to get up and go track down a server--there were literally none in the dining room for us to flag down. Our table was never cleared of dishes, and at one point we had six teapots cluttering the table until one of us asked for them to be removed. Menus at the table indicated that checks couldn't be split for parties of nine or more--great, we're under that, but our server insisted they could only be split four ways and begrudgingly relented to splitting five ways after we pointed out their own menu policy, and then split the checks evenly after we clarified who should be on what check (we had checks of 2 and individual checks). We waited for another twenty minutes for ANOTHER server to return to have them fixed (which we honestly appreciated, because our server was clearly getting frustrated and short with us). With a glass of champagne and the mandatory 20% large party gratuity (which we were all aware of upfront and fine with, to be clear) I ended up paying over $80 for this experience, which was *absolutely* not worth it. In dining experiences like a high tea, the service is really what makes the experience, but Floris left us all baffled, frustrated, and, I'll be honest: hungry. read more

Floris at VMFA - Egg salad sandwich! - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

I hesitated before writing such a terrible review- I've been to Floris once before and thought it was lovely all around. This time, however, was a major disappointment. Everything, starting with the scones, felt and tasted stale, as if it had been a day ahead and left out. The savory plate was uninspired and pretty bland. The macarons were old- crispy all the way through, not the way they should be. For $45 per person, I would expect better. read more

Just not good...I wish it were otherwise, but it's just not. The tea was tea, so nothing to complain about there. They had a wide selection, however they were out of a few that I wanted to try. But no big deal I guess, I ordered others. The food is another story. Nothing, and I mean nothing, was good. The sandwiches were awful. The staple of any English tea, cucumber sandwich...the cucumbers were slimy & soggy, the bread was dry & tasted like it had been left out on the counter all night. Not sure if it was old or just a bad choice of bread?? The egg salad was rancid tasting. The other 3 were just not good. I don't believe anything had actually "gone bad" I believe it was just not yummy food. The sweets tray was worse. Obviously just mass ordered, nothing made in house. An English tea isn't right without a good scone with cream & what we were given was a hard, over dry mass produced biscuit with butter. And random other sweets that had no character or charm like an English tea should have. And to have packets of sugars & large spoons, versus sugar cubes & teaspoons??? It's these little things that make English tea, English tea & the price worth it & sadly this price was not worth it. The servers were kind & attentive enough. Were they tea experts, no, & again that's why you pay what you do for an English tea service because you want the expertise read more

Floris at VMFA - Sad tea sandwiches - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

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I just spent a lovely afternoon at Floris with great friends! I discovered a new tea (Apollo blend) that I really liked and the food was delicious. Our waitress, Ellie, was very attentive and welcomed all of our questions. I especially found tasty: the Roasted turkey with cranberry moutarde, the tiramisu with spiced pineapple and a black currant tart. -- The presentation was beautiful to the eye and the tastebuds were not disappointed! Although the tea room was filled with other guests, we were easily able to hear only our own table conversations. I really enjoyed this experience! read more

Let's talk about Floris -- one of the newer tea rooms in Richmond. As I've visited each tea room I've taken extensive notes and thought about what makes an experience great. I'll start with the atmosphere. Floris is the VMFA's newest addition to the campus. It's located in the building across from the main museum through the sculpture garden. The decor feels like southern charm with old world touches finished off with blush pink accents and bright teal walls. The presentation was nice, though there were some details that left much to be desired. For example, there were no sugar cubes on the table but an assortment of packaged sugars. I was given a full size spoon rather than a teaspoon and the service was a bit slow. The tea I tried was great, however. I started with the VMFA blend which is a black blend with notes of vanilla, flowers, and smoke. It reminded me of mezcal and I would be happy to brew some at home. Overall Floris is a nice place for afternoon tea, but I wouldn't say it's a "must visit" personally. They also cannot accommodate a vegan diet. read more

PS two other things that were upsetting-when I made reservation three weeks prior I asked for confirmation that there would be gluten free options. This did not come until day of reservation. Lastly, we were seated at the very worst table in the room next to a wall and kitchen noise was overwhelming. So sad. Don't think we will try for a fifth visit. read more

The food was awesome, a lot of depth to each item and each item had its own unique memorable flavor. I'd definitely be interested in trying each season's menu, although the price is a bit steep- with taxes each person will be about $60. The interior of the place is cute and fancy, adding to the warm comforts of the tea. The service was good and attentive, making sure to explain the different foods on the platter. Overall, a solid 4.6/10 ! read more

Floris at VMFA - Winter Menu - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

Server explained each item served to us and was helpful to pick out a tea selection. My favorite items by far were the curry chicken salad on rye and the French macarons. The phone from the hostess stand was a bit distracting and louder than the music, but you feel like you're sitting in a proper English estate. Tea was delicious, I would've bought some loose leaf off the menu if it was for sale! read more

Floris at VMFA - Matcha tea, full tea service. - Tea Rooms Near Me - Richmond, Virginia

Menu was vegan & vegetarian along with thoughtfully prepared teas to complement the palate which was delicious & presented very well with a glass of Prosecco to top it off. The service & ambiance was warm & inviting. Great place to share with a loved one, friend etc.... Enjoying Life !!!! read more

I've been to Floris several times and the food is always truly delightful. The menu changes regularly to reflect the seasons and the museum exhibits. The tea room itself is lovely and the service has always been great. It's a lovely experience and a wonderful addition to the museum. read more

Just experienced a lovely afternoon tea with friends at Floris tea room in VMFA. The service was excellent and the food dreamy. Original hot tea blends on a cold January day! read more

I recently had a second visit at Floris at VMFA. I think a "4" is about right. I think the atmosphere is very nice, and you can hardly go wrong with tea. For $45 their set menu is reasonable and the servers are all friendly. My friend and I requested the lounge and not the table and were accommodated. The reason for that is because the chairs are rather hard, that was found out on our first trip. I'd upgrade them if they got better chairs. I also personally wish I could request only savory items, I have to avoid the sugar, but that's inflexible with the set menu. I didn't have a bad experience and they don't rush you, so you can linger as long as you like, until they close probably. The bathrooms are nice and clean. It's a good place to visit if you want to catch up with a friend and chat. read more