Bygone Beautys Treasured Teapot Museum & Tearooms

Such a beautiful place to go, the museum was just beautiful. Lovely lunch and tea, scones are the best I've tasted. Will be back.

Disappointed experience (probably our worst experience ever in Australia), we came with a high expectations from the nice review to find out that place didn't worth our time. After waiting 20 minutes to get one of the waiters respond to us and take the order, another one came after 10 minutes to say that it might take more than 25 minutes to prepare it and came again after few minutes to say it's close to lunch time now and the chief won't be able to prepare our order.
Completely unprofessional and waste of time.

A treasure. Lovely little meals, Devonshire tea scones over priced. Incredible array of tea pots, museum or to buy. Delightful owner. Lovely old rooms, decor.

Been here twice now, still love this place and it will always be on my visit list each time I'm in Leura. First time I visited on a quiet mid-week day late in the afternoon. The tearoom was all but empty and we were served by Victor who is just an absolute credit to this business! He was polite, knowledgeable, quick, well spoken and more than willing to answer any questions or find anything out. Excellent knowledge of the teas on offer and very friendly. 10/10 for service and the scones and tea were perfect too! All round an awesome experience. The second time I stopped by with my mother from out of town over the Easter weekend. I raved to her about how wonderful this place was. Unfortunately we had a far less enjoyable experience due to there being a shortage of staff that day. We went in the morning, was offered a table, it was quite busy. After 20 minutes of not being approached to order or acknowledged at all, we decided to leave since it was clear they were overburdened this day. While we were here we witnessed four other groups leave as they had not been acknowledged or served either. People were lining up at the entryway unsure if they needed to wait to be seated or not. The flustered staff that were on were struggling to monitor each of the rooms and there were long periods where customers were looking awkwardly at each other not knowing what to do. We returned later in the afternoon because I still had hope, I wanted to show my mother this lovely little hidden gem still. It was a bit quieter, we waited yet again to be acknowledged, and eventually a flustered young man spoke to us and a number of other tables at the same time and offered to take our orders. It was not the exceptional service like we had from Victor, but under the circumstances I can understand. We ordered a simple Devonshire tea which took 40 minutes to come out. We watched as a larger table had ordered mains was served meals two at a time with noticeable time between plates arriving. The kitchen was not prepared or staffed to handle such demand but the food that was coming out looked beautiful and smelt wonderful. We would have ordered mains too if we were prepared to wait another hour for them to come out. We noted that the cheque was placed on the table at the same time as the tea arrived and found it a little off-putting that the cheque was quick to be supplied but the service and food was heavily delayed. Understandable why it was done this way, but it just added a little more to the negative experience this day.
The food was still lovely though. I still have faith in this establishment. Avoid during peak hours and you'll have an absolutely charming experience.

Nice little tea cafe. They do traditional scones and tea which is lovely. They can get busy but we got a table without a booking around 3.30pm.

A great experience - the museum and then high tea. The tea was scrumptious served in beautiful silver service and china. Maurice and Jason couldn’t have been more attentive. Maurice is an absolute fount of knowledge- don’t miss a fantastic experience!

Probably the best scones I've ever had. A must try if in town. Great collection of teapots too.

So much fun. Food delicious. Suggest booking in as they were busy, but we were able to get served before a tour group arrived. Collection of teapots is amazing.

The Devonshire tea offered the best scones I’ve ever experienced; they were fluffy, melt in your mouth, and buttery soft and were complemented perfectly with the decadently heavy whipped cream and jam. The house tea wasn’t anything to write home about and the cherry tea I tried had a pungent scent reminiscent of potpourri, but a had a far more subtle flavour which was quite nice.

The service however left much to be desired as we had to chase down service several times throughout our dining experience and were basically neglected. The servers appeared to be stretched quite thin despite it not being too busy, so be ready to sit and wait for an unreasonably long time - they were friendly when we did manage to catch one though.

Overall the scones alone deserve 5 stars (despite being pricy!), will be back for them!

Loved the huge range of teapots, tea sets in the museum and retail shop. Fabulous tea room. A true gem. Must visit.

Cafe, museum and shop all in one. Airconditioned, easy parking, disabled access and bith new and old wares.

Settle in for one of the best excursions or excuses to indulge yourself, family and friends in. I guarantee it. Once you enter the door you'll be transported into a time when best manners, polite & curtious personalised attention will greet you.
The personalised service and attention will overwhelm you all in the very best of ways. Food is deliciously homemade, be it the jam, scones, cakes, pies, slices, sandwiches, soups or savoury dishes.
And, the Museum is a must see. We can draw on the delicate and profound nature of that Bygone era when to partake of the serving or even the invitation to join in the morning/afternoon or anytime tea ceremony be it serfs or royality was a privilege and an honour. The making time to entertain, engage was and still is the vital principle of maintaining, encouraging pleasant or robust conversation that was always coupled with respect and one's best manners.
And yes you can purchase unique teas, gifts and trinkets to sovernier and sample.
Maurice and his staff are positively focused on making your visit a memorable one ensuring your visit will definitely not be a one and only one.
Try the High Tea experience for any special event.

They have the best scones ever! Period! Always come here each time I go to Leura to enjoy their scones. They also have other cakes and light meals as well. Entry to the museum is free if you’re having meal there otherwise they charged you a small fee to enter the museum which is in the same building with the tearoom. There’re hundreds of antique/rare teapots on display. They also sell souvenirs.

My daughter's took me to high tea for my 60TH. I Loved it. The young man with top hat that served our delicious cakes sandwiches was so charming, and entertaining. I felt like we were in the 1920s. Thank you cheers Mary rose.

Friendly staff. Fascinating range of teapots to look at in the museum, jewellery and other curios to buy and the lightest, tastiest scones that I've encountered in a long time. A delightful little stop in Leura, if a little pricey, but worth it all the same!

Even better than expected, spent lots more time poking around the museum than I anticipated, and easily could've bought half the gift shop

Great tea, delicious scones and am amazing story and museum experience looking at all the teapots, it will surprise you.

I've visited this definite beauty twice now. I thoroughly enjoyed myself on both occasions. The service is incredible, the tea museum is very quaint and quite interesting. The menu is full of tea that is begging to be devoured. Highly recommend this tea house. Go for a walk about the town after to top of the entire experience.

2 weeks ago, I had a horrifying experience here. I was treated rudely by the business owner himself. I recommend against coming here & supporting this unprofessional, humiliating behaviour.

There was no staff around when we entered so we seated ourselves at a table for 6 thinking it would be fine with many larger tables available in a mostly empty room. When a waiter finally came, he didn’t worry about our table selection & promptly cleared the extra place settings. We ordered 1 Devonshire tea set as we were cafe hopping & did not want to eat too much at 1 location. The waiter commented that there would be 1 tea served & we said that was fine. Minutes later, a man in a pink shirt ushered us to a smaller table as we were 3 pax at a table for 6. We were happy to make room for larger parties arriving; however we noticed that the room sat only 2 other couples & we had been moved to a tiny table when there were plenty of seats & no new guests. We did not think much of it.

The set arrived & we shared the scones. The waiter recommended we try a special tea so we all took sips to try. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the same man appeared & started to berate us loudly. The man, now identified as the owner, exclaimed "THIS IS WRONG! WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS NOT OK. YOU ARE TAKING 3 SEATS & ORDERED 1 SET” pointing at us & then the food repeatedly. People stared. He continued" THIS IS WRONG! WHERE DO YOU COME FROM? " Shaken, I muttered that we were (female Chinese) Singaporean. Red faced, he yelled that in his culture you cannot share 1 set as this will not pay the waiters’ wages. We had no idea as in my 8 years of living in Sydney, sharing food had never been a problem & most places were fine to have their food sampled as a pit stop while cafe hopping. I asked if it would make a difference if 2 of us stopped & let our 1 friend finish the rest of the meal on her own. He retorted "DON'T GET SMART WITH ME YOUNG LADY! " This felt patronising & bigoted, forcing me to end the interaction. I decided not to explain myself as the man had some strong stereotypical preconceptions & there was no arguing with a red face that was already too close for comfort. We apologised. He added "You understand? I'm adding this to your bill, " disappeared then returned seconds later, slamming 2 empty tea cups on the table & stormed off.

We took a look at the menu & realised we had missed the print stating $5/extra head. This was our mistake & had we known, we would have been fine to pay this. Instead of having this explained though, we were yelled at & embarrassed publicly for supposedly not understanding the Australian culture. This quick judgement of my background was offensive. There were multiple ways this could have been better approached - the waiter could have asked who was having the tea or told us that the set could not be shared, or perhaps just taken away the extra sets of cutlery as a subtle hint. The man could have shared his concern when he passive aggressively moved us to a tiny table. He was clearly already showing his displeasure & had he approached us with the policy/custom then, we would have obliged or could have left if not agreeable. Instead, he asked where we were from for an opportunity to highlight our cultural differences & berate us for it. When cultural differences are identified in any setting, the kinder approach is to educate the party in question, not yell at them knowing that they know no better. What more in a cafe that prides itself in having some class. No dignity or grace was demonstrated here.

Cafe policies deserve to be followed but it is important that you act first to ensure that the customer is aware & actively choosing to disobey. Oftentimes, you'll find that people are not trying to be disrespectful. The owner threw a tantrum & it was extremely uncalled for.

This was a traumatic experience. I discourage fellow Asians from coming here in fear of them falling victim to similar prejudice. Even worse if you're a young woman, God forbid.

I have visited it over the years, even before the renovations. Have always loved the quirky place and tea and scones have been consistently outstanding. This time took guests visiting from US and they were totally blown away too. Service is always attentive and lovely. We ordered Devonshire tea - with coffee though.