Anteaques

Unique. A cute tearoom in an antique shop. Great selection of teas served in high quality China ware. Cakes are average. Would recommend for the ambience and the tea but not for cakes.

Enormous range of tea, and very delicious too! I purchased some loose tea to take away, reasonably priced. The café is quite small, perhaps not suitable for groups or children, but cosy and very pretty inside. The scones we had were delicious and came with a choice of jams and clotted cream. I would visit again.

Beautiful little place on Clerk Street, and quite below the radar, despite its very public location! I’ve passed the shop countless times, and never stepped in until today. And I’m glad I did. The first thing you notice when you walk in is the beauty of the shop, and the cosy atmosphere. As the name suggests, there are antiques and teas everywhere, and it’s really a pleasant experience to step inside. There aren’t a huge amount of tables, so perhaps best to book in advance, but we were lucky to get a table for two right beside the counter. This meant I had the gorgeous tarts and scones in front of my eyes the entire time. What else could I do but, you guessed it, order a scone with clotted cream and jam to go with my tea?
The tea selection is immense. Mary simply adores tea, so she was really in her element at Anteaques. We ended up choosing a seasonal Pear and Caramel tea, along with a scone each. A pot of tea is £3.20, which may be a little expensive, but it is big enough for two– we each got three cups from the pot, so I was happy with the value. The tea was delicious, and the scones went down a treat!
Afterwards, whilst Mary analysed the tea selection, I took a quick look around the store, and it’s really beautiful. The antiques selection is great, and the calming music playing in the background was also a nice change to the hustle and bustle of the streets outside. Part of me wishes the place was slightly bigger, though another part is happy at the cost nature of it all, and the selection of edible treats isn’t huge (but what they do have looks and tastes great!).
Mary ended up buying some vanilla chai loose leaf tea to take home, and I have no doubt we’ll be back!

So many reviews already for such a small place
What can I say?
It’s a super cute tea room which also is an Anteaques shop. You can browse through all the China Ware, books, coats, vases, mirrors, coats and then even have some time for tea. The menu offers an extensive range of TEAs, be it black tea or herbal.
BE warned, the place is very small, 6 tables. It’s best to make a reservation as this place is VERY popular.
The choice of cakes are minimal, but the scones and truffles offered are of good quality. Sadly, no coffee.
This tea shop is easy accessible and lots of buses stop nearby on South Clerk Street.
Enjoy!

One of Edinburgh’s best-​kept secrets. Cedric has the clock set in the 19^th century — except for the electric kettle (Don’t get him started on this, he’ll tell you!) and the electronic scale for METICULOUSLY measuring your brew. What’s on the menu? Cream tea, modern twists on classic cakes, and a mindblowing CATALOGUE of teas. Time stands still in every sense of the word; don’t go in a hurry and do spoil yourself to some time out.

My first high tea experience in UK. I’m so glad that I chose Anteaques for the first time experience here in Edinburgh. They offers wide range of tea, including those in Malawi and China. I guess it would be a very interesting place for those who love tea a lot. For me the best part is the cakes and scones there. Plain scones with rose and cream are just PERFECT! Today’s special was lemon tart. And we ordered another green tea cake as well. The difference is that most cakes in UK are too sweet for me. But this one serves cakes that are not too sweet but very very delicious.
Apart from food, the atmosphere is very nice. Just like the name of this tea house indicates, they have lots of antiques there.
It’s a bit small and only open on Friday Saturday and Sunday. So if you really want to go there, it would be better to make a reservation in advance.

I love anteaques! I think it’s my new favourite place. After reading reviews I decided to make a reservation for Sunday afternoon — and I’m glad I had as it got really busy.
I met two friends to catch up, chit chat, drink tea and eat scones. Lovely atmosphere and great service. We spent more than three hours there and we never felt pressured to leave.
Our server was very knowledgeable about teas — although he did advise that he is allergic to chocolate! I selected Russian caravan as my tea of choice. So many different types to pick — it was difficult! The tea came in a huge tea pot. We all ordered a plain scone each as well two of the tarts on special and a green tea cake. Everything came out on antique serving trays and tea was served on China. The scones were delicious!
Overall — a great afternoon and I’d recommend making a reservation.

I’ve been desperate to go here for ages, after one of my friends claimed that it has the best scones in Edinburgh. I finally made it here, and it’s quite frankly awesome.
I’m a sucker for weird teas, and this place has some excellent concoctions. I had the gardenia oolong which smells utterly fabulous and I love the teapots where you can see it brew. We also had some green tea cake which was strange but really nice.
The place is insanely cool as well. It smells a little like my granny’s house (there were definitely some relics in there which looked very similar to things she had!). All the tea cups are really cute and there are some really gorgeous antiques as well, which I spent a long time admiring.
As others say, check opening times (although during the fringe it’s open every day from 11 – 7 and we got a table just walking in).

Anteaques is pretty delightful, and is the kind of tea room I like, except without a high tea option, which was a bit of a shame at the time, as that was why we went. Instead, we had to console ourselves with a lunch of cake, but seeing as it was my birthday, I thought that was fair enough!
There are lots of teas and tea blends to choose from, reminding me of my favourite SF haunt, Lelands — in that, there are mini jars on the side so you can just go right ahead and have a good sniff of the tea options before you choose. We both went for a couple of special blends — being a cold February afternoon, I went for the Christmas blend — all orange and spice and all things very very nice. Washed down with some lovely tarts — dark chocolate ganache and raspberry, followed by a gluten free lemon tart (both in the photos I’ve uploaded) — the lemon was so crisp and clean, I can still taste it now, 5 months on. That is what cake is supposed to be.
The gents remind me of steam punks back in SF, with their retro fashion and hair stylings and the air overall, with the antiques around you and the quaint plate ware and teapots just give Anteaques a lovely sense of character. A profoundly pleasant place — oh but beware — it’s tiny, so even when we visited, there were countless unlucky lots being turned away.

How absolutely charming!
First of all, the staff are excellent, I had to think about that for a while, I was slightly worried that I may have been biased in thinking that they were fantastic because they are so sharply dressed… one has to account for these things! But no, they are just excellent. I arrived a few minutes early for our booking only to find there had been some confusion but the staff, two soft spoken, well dressed me, started moving tables around to find us a spot! Throughout our afternoon they were extremely polite, very knowledgeable on the enormous selection of teas and perfectly witty. I was charmed for sure!
The tea selection is overwhelming. I’m not sure you could ever get through it all! They have every flavour you could possibly think of and then some! I personally had a cinnamon and anise rooibos. I teamed this with a green tea cake, from the admittedly limited menu, but it was really really good! The waiter then brought us our transparent glass teapots, our china cups, saucers and plates and some adorable cutlery, the type that you wait for the waiter to leave and then snatch up quickly oohing and awing and examining closer!
We had our tea, cakes and a natter and after a while decided that more cake was in order! We went for a fruit scone this time, with clotted cream and jam. We chose two jams out of the three available, apricot and raspberry and we passed on strawberry. The scones were perfect and had a sprinkle of brown sugar on top that gave them a perfect amount of sweetness. I was delighted to discover you can buy crystallised rose petals and crystalised violets, along with an assortment of chocolates which change regularly.
As for the surroundings…
Antiques everywhere, a rack of fur coats, tea cups, silverware, a huge tapestry… amazing. You feel like you’re having a decadent tea in your grannies attic, but the window which shows the garden behind lets in a decent amount of light, preventing the place from looking stuffy!
I really enjoyed my visit, I don’t know whether it was the novelty or the spread but we were all suitably impressed!

I’ve been coming here regularly for a year and fell in love with Anteaques.
This place is a bit like The Leaky Cauldron in Harry Potter: you just don’t notice it from the outside. A tiny shop window with a few anteaques and that’s it. However, the inside is a great surprise: I personally find antiques quite tacky, but this place is astonishingly elegant, combining the antiques with a superb selection of teas (i counted 76 jars of different types, but they might as well have more). The staff is very polite and dedicated, the serving impeccable and the quality of the cakes and scones can hardly be matched. The prices are very competitive too, and if you are lucky enough, you can find rose jam produced by a family business in the south of france, as well as gluten-​free stuff in the week-​ends.
This place is very small so it’s better to book in advance.

This place is like the tardis. From the outside, it is small, unassuming, and easily missed. Rumor has it that even the neighbouring shop doesn’t know about this place’s existence. Enter, and you will be thrown back in time, to a period where men wear waistcoats, the three penny bicycle is still cutting edge, and tea is made properly. Usually I am not a fan of antiques, I find them creepy, ostentatious and over the top. Here, the antiques are used in a very tasteful manner and one feels really comfortable sipping tea here. Some of the antiques are for sale, so it’s also a tangible reality, that of imagining them in your own.
The cake menu is very traditional, expect scones, fruit cake, and various other British tea time classics. The tea menu on the other hand is extensive, my boyfriend and I spent around 20 minutes just reading the tea menu and discussing which one to get. We eventually went for genmaicha, as I adore it when it’s done properly: green tea with brown rice, makes for a less bitter tea. We both ordered scones, I ordered one with sultanas whereas my boyfriend opted for plain. We were offered a choice from 3 jams: apricot, strawberry and raspberry. We both opted for the latter. The tea arrived in a big pot, which comfortably provided 3 – 4 cups of tea each! This was surprising, considering that the entire pot only cost around £2.20. The scones arrived on a three tier cake stand, alongside the jam and clotted cream. My scone had a delicious brown sugar topping, which probably made it the best scone I have eaten in Edinburgh. Surprising, given that they only cost £1.20 each! The cutlery was also beautiful, which made me want to eat slower, so I could savour it all. The little knife had a mother-​of-​pearl handle, and everything was served on pretty little china plates.
We spent a couple of hours here studying after finishing our tea and scones, and found that the staff were completely relaxed about this. This is the kind of place you should take friends or family when they visit Edinburgh. You’d be surprised at the quality of the service, food, and environment, especially considering the price. It’s only open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so be sure to make it a weekend mission!
One word of warning: There are no toilets, so make sure you are not bursting when you enter. If after all your tea you are absolutely desperate, there is a public toilet down the road, or alternatively you can sneak into Starbucks…

If you want a traditional British afternoon tea, complete with tinkling China, steaming pots, tiered cake stands laden with Dundee cake, chocolate truffles and currant-​studded scones, polite waiters, ornate spoons and knives you’ve probably never seen before (not butter, more like scone knives? Do they exist? Well they do in Anteaques), with an old-​world feel where surely a corset and bustle wouldn’t be out of place, then Anteaques should be your first port of call.
Don’t bring a big bag. I did. There are lots of rare, unusual antiques scattered about the small store. There were collections of tea sets strewn around, behind and beside, our table so that you couldn’t tell what was used crockey and what was on display. The waiter was dressed in a waistcoat and seemed to take his job very seriously, and with pride. He also took our order in a large notebook, rather than a pad and pen. That notebook must have the order of 100 previous customers before.
Playing on the pun, they have many types of tea here. So many I didn’t know where to start. I was intrigued by the Assam Margarita, but my afternoon tea partner and I choose to share a traditional Earl Grey. It was the perfect accompaniment to «the scone».
I’ve never seen a scone like it. Honestly. It was heavy and dense and much more moist, with sugar crusted on top, and properly glazed with egg white and thick with currants. It came with real clotted cream and jam (with a choice of lavender jelly too). The scone looked smaller than some you might find, but it was so heavy and filling and delicious it shows you definitely shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, or a scone by its, er, girth?
This was a real treat for a Saturday afternoon, and definitely distinct and memorable compared to any other tea shop, café, bakery or coffee shop I’ve been to in Edinburgh, or actually anywhere else (bar the Russian Tea Rooms in New York). A scone and cup of tea like this you won’t find anywhere else.

This place was my favorite of all tea shops while studying abroad in Edinburgh! The atmosphere is really cozy and feels like you’ve suddenly been transported to some grandmother’s home since there’s antiques everywhere around you. I’m pretty sure even the spoons they give you are antiques.
The tea itself is quite good — I advise splitting one pot between two people. My friend and I made the mistake of each getting our own so by the end of it we were veryyyy stuffed. I also got the Green Tea Savarin to go with it. It was delicious. (:

The highlight of my Edinburgh stay. After stumbling across Anteaques on a few review sites, I decided to give it a go… and I’m so glad I did it! What a little, fine gem far away from your regular franchises. The French owner has lovingly combined his passion for teas and antiques and has successfully created a unique setting for customers of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy a truly unique tea room experience.
The only downside is that it’s a bit of a track from the train station but definitely worth the effort. Also book in advance if you can to make sure you secure yourself one of the only 4 tables available. Demand is high, so call ahead.

I do like a good cuppa, and whilst my affection for antiques is limited, I quite like the quirky nature of this place. Imagine stepping back into a Dicken’s novel, that probably gives you the best idea of what the interior of the shop is like. Surrounded by curiosities you are served tea in real china tea cups and scones from silver cake racks, I felt pretty posh to be honest. The people who work there all add to the feeling of antiquity, as they are dressed in pretty old school clothes. They are really friendly as well, and always have a bit of a chat to you. The fact there are only about 4 tables as well means there is a nice intimate atmosphere, but the lack of a toilet can prove irritating as you have to nip across the road all the time to the pub.
The selection of teas is frankly astounding. They have over 250 types of loose tea, many of which I had never heard of. There are all the classics — Darjeeling, Ceylon, Assam etc and also loads of herbal and fruit teas, including quite a few berry ones, which are really refreshing. At only about £2.50 for a pot (6 cups) the value is amazing as well.
Don’t be a mug, come along for a cuppa at the most original tea room in town

Assam
Ceylon
Darjeeling
English Breakfast
Earl Gray
Blue Lady
Jasmine
Almond
Grapefruit
Raspberry
Redcurrant
Rose Petal
Lemon Verbena
Orange Pistachio Rooibos
Cherry Almond
Chocolate Cherry
Christmas Orange
Hazlenut
Lapsang Souchong
Orange Blossom Oolong
White Pomegranate
Violet Petal Tea
& Russian Caravan
With over 250 varieties of loose tea on offer, Anteaques is clearly Edinburgh’s most distinctive tea shop and café. The problem is, I didn’t really enjoy hanging out there. I found the layout and style a bit too chintzy and old fashioned whilst the intimate atmosphere made it impossible to sit and enjoy a cuppa without overhearing other customers’ conversations.
To top it off, when they made an orange pistachio rooibos for someone I had a flash back of a particularly nasty hang-​over in New York many moons ago. The words, several pots of orange pistachio roobios followed by several vodka cocktails, no food and a slam poetry night should give you an idea of the disaster that lay ahead!

Although I would much rather drink coffee than tea, I would much rather come to this cozy, unique and charming tea shop any day of the week over chain coffee houses.
A tiny tea room that can fit maybe 10 people in at most, with an attached antique shop — but its huge selection of exotic teas keeps me coming back to try something new each time. The atmosphere is good, feeling genuinly like you have stepped back in time to a much more civilised era.
A lot of people would just walk past Anteaques, but implore you not too — its far too great.

I over heard someone inside saying «this is not just the best tea shop in Edinburgh, it’s the best tea shops in the whole world». Steady on! — But she had a point.
Modestly sized and rather old fashioned café with an obvious love for tea, and so do I so how can you possibly go wrong? I’m a big fan of Green Tea (don’t let me ex-​boyfriend know that because I gave him all sorts of abuse for liking it) but apparently I’ve been blinkered. Being a newbie to the world of exotic teas (having only previously drank PG tips) the world of black, white, yellow, green, infusions and fruit teas made my head spin and I panic bought something which perhaps didn’t agree with my insides (glamorous eh?) If I could only remember what tea it was I would’ve lost a stone by now.
It’s cleverly got an attached antique shop next door so you can pretend you’re civilised with tea sets at surprisingly wallet-​friendly prices. Isn’t being British great?

This is the ultimate decadent tea drinking experience in Edinburgh! A small selection of wonderful homebaking delights and a vast selection of all kinds of tea (also available to take away) and the incredibly knowledgeable owner is extremely helpful in guiding you through this and recommending the right one. As I discovered to my surprise — citing breakfast tea tentatively as a guide of what I usually drink! My appreciate, knowledge and understanding of the different teas has increased vastly with two visits!
This is without doubt the ultimate cream tea in Edinburgh (and beyond) — homemade scones, jam and clotted cream served on the most delicate china and ornate cutlery. The silverware for the tea is also wonderful, and substantial! A real decadent, indulgent experience of the highest quality and best value! To be in the company of antiques, lovely french music and a friendly host tops it off wonderfully!
Run by someone passionate about tea for people just the same!