I’ve decided that tea is the most perfect meal one can have. There are sandwiches with no crusts, there are pretty pastries and there is unlimited tea. It’s the type of meal that you go to with the intention of enjoying yourself and the unlimited tea kind of commits you to sitting for a while. So I don’t know why I started going to tea with my two spirited boys, but we’ve all decided that it’s something we really love to do together. We sit. We eat the treats. And we all drink tea. And surprisingly, even with these two boys in tow, we’ve all had a really good time. On a recent trip to Amsterdam I was searching for coffee shops and bakeries on Google Maps and by chance found the most unique afternoon tea I’ve ever heard of: a private tea in the smallest house in Amsterdam. And once I told my boys about it, we all just had to go.
I was a little curious at how small the smallest house in Amsterdam could be and how the tea service would work. Would there be other people dining with us? How long would our orders take? Would there be a bunch of tables crammed into a teeny little room? I filled out a reservation on the website to make sure we didn’t miss out.
We showed up at the Smallest house in Amsterdam with our kids a little before our reservation and there was a sign on the door that said “back in 5 minutes” or something like that. So we waited.
A few minutes later the door opened and we met Niels, the friendliest person you could meet in Amsterdam and began our journey through a cozy tea shop and up a steep spiral staircase to the most intimate tea service I could ever imagine. This was going to be a tea for just me and my family in the most adorable place you could ever have tea!
Niels had asked about our dietary needs beforehand and made us vegetarian sandwiches and a beautiful pie. He even gave me the pie recipe so one of these days I’m going to see if I can recreate part of this meal. There was a butter cake and brownies too-we ended up taking the butter cake to eat on our way home because there was so much food to eat. And there were so many beautiful teas to choose from-the boys were so thrilled because they could actually choose the tea they were dringing. I loved all the dishes on the table too-since taking pottery classes I really appreciate these types of things. There were so many beautiful details and thoughtful touches at this tea that made it truly special.
We also learned a little bit of history about the house from Niels while our family had a delicious lunch and it was so neat to peek over the streets of Amsterdam from up above. I think this experience really helped make Amsterdam feel like a more intimate place for us. Tea is the perfect way for our family to commit to eating and enjoying a meal together and tea in this place, in the smallest house in Amsterdam, was the most wonderful way to enjoy our time together on this trip.
(PS. Are you a fan of tea? And do you have a favorite place you’ve ever had afternoon tea?)
(PPS- here are some other places we’ve had tea: Richmond BC, Vancouver Island, Vancouver.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)
This sounds and looks like a lot of fun! I would love to explore Amsterdam again one day. If I do, I’ll have to add this to my itinerary.
What a fun adventure! it looks beautiful.