Tea Pavilion

Located at scenic Balboa Park, the Tea Pavilion is a great stopping place to rest your legs, enjoy a hot beverage, and chat with friends.
We were in the SD area for a day getaway, decided to finally walk the ins and outs of Balboa Park with my friends and my dog, and a hot tea was just the right touch to the blustery and somewhat overcast morning.
As always there is plenty to do and see in Balboa Park, from museums, to the botanical garden to listening to Hare Krishna’s bang on drums and wail their dulcet prayer tones… so much to do you can get carried away. So when you’re ready, head over to the Japanese Garden overlook and have a tea and relax.
Trust me, its worth the time.
By the way I had the Green Dragon Jade Star Something Something Explosions and Herbs Something Something tea… it’s the Green tea with the longest name. It was good… and HOT! Wait for the leaves to drop to the bottom and it is steeped well.
ENJOY!

The one star is for the service, which was great. Their food unfortunately, not so great. I had the Japanese cherry sakura ice tea, and it was like drinking something from bath and bodyworks. Horrible aftertaste. I had the teriyaki bowl with salmon, and although the salmon was not awful, just bland, the rice and vegetables that came with it were. Barely had any teriyaki sauce and the little it did have was not good. Rice was not like real rice at all. Basically, please don’t waste your money here unless you are buying things that are already prepackaged like pocky and ramune. I was starving, and even starving their food was hard to eat because it was so lacking in taste and what little taste it had was subpar.

Came here on a Wednesday afternoon for lunch. It was busy and full of tourists (expected as it’s located in the middle of Balboa Park). By the time we arrived, sushi was already sold out. They have a large selection of teas. It took about ten minutes for our buzzer to ring and in that time, we swiped up a table (only outdoor seating).
Food:
— salmon curry rice bowl (loved it, potatoes and carrots were tender, curry had a kick of spice)
— grilled chicken curry rice bowl (boyfriend liked it but he didn’t think it was spicy at all, he’s got a much higher spice tolerance)
Drinks:
— green sencha tea (really tasty, notes of toasted rice)
— iced passion fruit black tea (just ok, not sweet at all, couldn’t taste any passion fruit)
Overall, would definitely come back if I was in the area.

This place is right next to the Japanese Friendship Garden. You can come here for a light lunch, a snack or hot/​cold tea. There are tables that overlook the bottom of the Japanese Friendship Garden too. My husband had a teriyaki bowl and I had a chicken salad plus a black and passion fruit tea. The bowls are reusable but so many people just throw them away. This is a nice place to relax and have a light meal.

Was working at the organ pavilion here at balboa park and decided to try the tea pavilion café. There was a decent size crowd so I thought why not.
I ordered tea and a chicken teriyaki bowl. Although the the chicken was delicious the rice was mushy and wet. But other then that I couldn’t complain. The view was nice as was the atmosphere. Would come again and try a different tea and enjoy the ambiance. Until next time

This is a cheap little place to grab a drink in Balboa Park. I’ve only ever had tea here, but the tea is usually quite good. The sweetened teas are a little too sweet for me. The pearl tea is okay, but again too sweet. Fortunately, both the iced tea and hot teas can be sweetened or unsweetened. You also have a while range of standard drinks: water, coke, bottled ice tea, etc.
They also have lots of Japanese snacks, including wasabi peas, trail mix, mochi, rice wrapped candy, and even pockey sticks. You can only sit outside, but you likely wouldn’t be in Balboa Park if it wasn’t nice weather.

Horrible. Arrived at 2:20pm on Monday to be told that they close at 3pm and that they had run out of coffee. They ‘do not want to brew a fresh pot as its nearly closing time’.
I hope the boss sees this and realises how much business their staff are costing him by effectively closing 40 mins early every day.

You don’t have to pay the entrance fee to the Japanese Garden to get into this place. Just outside the Garden’s door is this small shop that sells some nice things and of course tea. You can also get some Japanese meals too. Outside table and chairs with umbrellas gives you the opportunity to sit down, if you can find a seat.

Food and drinks were tasty and good. Good prices and good value. Convenient location too on a hot summer day.

Absolutely love this place the food is delicious and the service is excellent! There is a great view of the Friendship Garden from the patio the ambiance is so nice for all!

A simple place to get simple meals and drinks!
Came here after me and my daughter went to the Japanese friendship garden.
I got the cold noodles with salad (cucumber, carrots, walnuts, etc). IT WAS SO YUMMY AND REFRESHING. The chicken with it was ok. Did not taste fresh I would say? I was more focused on the yummy sauce and veggies. When you get your bowl it looks small. But do not judge because it is filled! So much noodles, chicken, and veggies. The sauce is very light tasting. And the walnuts. Who would have thought it would balance everything out in the bowl?! It tasted wonderful with the noodles and veggies ^_​^
I got my daughter a yummy strawberry soda and she was delighted! Different taste since it was imported from Japan.
The line could get really long and it could take up to 15 min for your food to be ready.
Since me and my daughter wasn’t in a rush. We enjoyed sitting in the shade and waiting for our food (:
The customer service was good. Although the guy wasn’t really helpful when it came to picking the most popular dishes here.
I will definitely come back here to grab another bite (:

This is a cute place to hang out. The tea is great! Got the blue lady ice tea!
Service is a little slow
But it’s ok bc the ambiance and the garden is beautiful.

Short version: If they get your order right, the food is decent. But if they get your order wrong. Prepare for a looooooong ordeal.
Long version:
The good: The curry is decent Japanese style on a bed of rice with pickle on top. The udon and soba are on par with fast food-​ish eateries. The sandwiches are normal American style sandwiches, if that’s what you expect, you’d be fine.
The bad: The people working has no concept of food ingredients and allergy accommodations. My wife cannot have mayo, told them, but the crab in the crab sandwich is already pre-​mixed. We waited 20 minutes to find out. We replaced it with a vege sandwich with no pesto. We waited another 15 to find out they can’t do it because it was already marinated. I ordered a soba noodle salad with tofu and got a soba noodle soap after 20 minutes.
Oh and I overheard the back wanting to reuse a tuna sandwich they made wrongly for a different order (sent out and returned) for a new order. Seriously?! Very poor judgement.
Decent food can’t save the slow and poor quality of service. Food service is a privilege, they evidently don’t take it seriously. Definitely will NOT return.

I never really thought about going to this place! But I was visiting a bunch of museums today and got hungry. In I wandered to this little tea pavilion.
They have a number of food items available, like sandwiches, miso soup, soba, teriyaki bowls, curry bowls – stuff like that. I was nervous since I could see 2 microwaves in their little kitchen (who wants microwaved food?) but I’m such a sucker for Japanese curry that I threw caution to the wind.
I got the curry bowl with chicken. Dude, this thing was huge! It consisted of a big layer of plain rice with a bunch of white meat chicken on top (I gotta admit – it was dry) and then the curry. I stuffed myself and didn’t even finish all of it. I think this could be shared among two people. It was around $ 8.50 or something.
How good was it? Well, like I said, I love Japanese curry. It’s obviously not the best one you’ll ever have, but… it did the job. I liked it. Comfort food. nom. The iced tea for $ 2.50 and it was fine. Hard for me to get excited about iced tea! :)
There is an outdoor seating area outside the tea pavilion.
Overall, I would come back here if I was hungry in the park. It’s not a bad option for some simple Japanese dishes, just don’t expect anything too fancy.

This place has so much potential but the staff that I experienced is rude. We walked in and were the only customers in the place and no one acknowledged us at the counter for five minutes. Then when someone else walked in the guy started to help them instead. Major nonchalant attitude, extremely unappealing.
The place had a lot to offer drink and snack wise. From hot foods to Japanese snacks, the options were there. Now if the staff was more on point…

Chose to eat at this place only because my friends and I were starving after walking through the Japanese Friendship Garden and couldn’t wait any longer for food.
I ordered the vegetable sandwich. Picked up the sandwich and saw that they used the end slices of the bread loaf for my sandwich. REALLY? Who does that?!! NO ONE likes the end parts of the bread loaf!!! So that was really annoying. The sandwich itself was pretty good aside from the annoying bread, but then I saw there was a piece of plastic in my sandwich. Unacceptable. So gross.
I got the blood orange tea, not great. My friend got the cherry blossom green tea I think it was, and it was not good at all. Tasted like medicine.
Would have given 1 star but the sandwich didn’t taste horrible aside from the issues I mentioned, but how can you really mess up a vegetable sandwich.
Not coming back here again. I wish we had walked a bit farther for food instead of stopped here.

Located in beautiful Balboa Park came in with an empty stomach and left happy and full. Delicious Japanese potatoes salad. Good priced for a quick bite. Dice bowl comes out fresh and steaming hot. Definitely recommend this place. Tip: get a Miso soup as an appetizer.

Type.. .. .. .. .. .Clutch Snack Place
Location.. .. .…Inside Balboa Park
Prices.. .. .. .…Medium
Beer Selection.. …none I believe
Food Level.. .. …Okay, better than expected
Staff.. .. .. .. .. .Friendly
Noise Level.. .. …Quiet, outdoor seating
Décor.. .. .. .…Outdoor patio, Zen garden
Good for Kids.. …Yes
Parking.. .. .. . …None
Cash Only.. .…No
Recommended. .Sure, if in a bind
Comments: If you are walking around Balboa Park and suddenly are starving, this is a pretty clutch find. They have sushi, seaweed salad, hot udon soup, hot soba soup, probably a few other things. Sushi and udon were not bad, better than expected. Ambiance is calming and quiet. I can’t complain here. I was expecting this place to be a rip-​off given its prime location, a pleasant surprise.

Walked in looked around and walked out. They have nice items to snack on. Tea menu and quick bites. Convenient for grabbing something quick and having a seat outside or walk around the park. To the left is a wall of drink items in a fridge. Assorted ice teas, water. To the right a menu of all their teas and by the register quick bites.

After visiting the garden we stopped in for some lunch tea. The staff seemed very overloaded around lunch time, they couldn’t take orders and get food out at the same time. I am sure glad that we just ordered drinks or we would have been waiting a while. For a tourist area, place is quite inexpensive. Got a super large ice tea for three bucks (
).
Friend ordered some hot tea and I decided on their ice tea of the day (green tea tangerine). My friend’s hot tea was so hot she couldn’t even pick up the cup. Had to wait quite a bit of time before drinking it, it most likely would scold your insides. Might have caught this place on a off day.