Although I live right across the street from the Tao of Tea, I hadn't been in there until today. I wish I hadn't gone today either. Although the tea was good, the service was slow and the servers unhelpful. Although there was only a small table open, and we communicated with the server that we were hoping to move to a larger table, when we finally did so we were told off. It seemed to completely throw off the ability of their one server to remember where we were seated. On top of that, the server gave us no information about what food was available, so we were four times told that what we wanted, they were out of (this included desserts, which we waited for 10 minutes to order and then were told that none of what we wanted, they had).
If the servers had been happy, conversational or communicative at all my experience would have increased exponentially, but unfortunately they seem to only employ mutes.
I will never go back again.

This tea shop is centrally located on Belmont, across the street from the Avalon. The teas are aromatic and flavorful, and the staff is really knowledgeable. For instance, my dad told me he wanted some tea with a specific taste. I was able to describe the taste to the employees, and they knew exactly what i was talking about. They also serve food- delicious vegan appetizers in a space that's inviting as well as calming.

It's a quaint little place, but the service is slow. They're probably understaffed, but we were ignored for about 25 minutes after sitting down at a table while others were not. I had to go get menus myself. The tea is good, and the atmosphere is nice, but it was frustrating being constantly ignored throughout the visit.

This used to be SUCH a nice, quiet, zen, peaceful place to have tea and snacks with your significant other, date or family member. BUT. Either the ownership has changed or something else has changed because it's not the paradise it was a year ago. The plants were dying (Bad Feng Shui, people), they're under-staffed and the food is not as good anymore. This makes me want to cry.

The past several times I've gone here, it's been pretty bad, on top of it being expensive. The daal is too salty, the kombucha is too weak and sweet, and the guy who always works there argued with me when I sent something back because it was disgusting. It made me angry, and I vowed never to go back to that overpriced hole again, but alas, I have to admit that i have been back since. The atmosphere is very calming and nice (then that guy isn't working there, that is), and they are open pretty late, which is convenient.
I'm often frustrated with the quality/tastiness whenever i order something that's not just tea, but I guess that's really what they are there for...