Marcela’s Enchanted Cottage

The best hidden place in Ridgecrest! I love coming here. The owner is always so gracious . The food delicious, atmosphere amazing!There is no better place to go and just relax. The food is great! I love it all! My faves are the chicken salad sandwich, protein salad and Quiche. The scones are nothing short of amazing and the lemon curd is heavenly. The tea selection is amazing. When you eat here, you are fueling your body with real genuine food, you leave here much better off then you came in. The paint classes are amazing even for those with zero artistic talent, like me!

We went here to celebrate my sisters and it was my first time eating here. The tea selection is beyond amazing and the food was so delicious and I loved the idea of ordering ahead so I didn't have to spend extra time trying to figure out what to order. Pro tip: order extra lemon cake at the end.. it was probably my favorite part!

IN RESPONSE TO OWNER REPLY: What a disappointing and predictable response - failing to acknowledge any of the constructive criticism or take any accountability for her shortcomings. Proving exactly how deserving this establishment is of a one star review. Original review:Had a reservation on August 24th for my mom's birthday at 5pm. I drove 3 hours from down the hill for this reservation, my mom and I were both really looking forward to getting a pot of tea, and tea sandwiches, and mini desserts.I called beforehand around 3:30pm to ask if they could do something for my mom's bday reservation at 5pm. The woman suggested they could put a candle in the plate of mini desserts (which gave me the impression we would be getting a tea package that included that).We arrive at like 4:45pm and they don't open till 5pm, so we sit in the car and wait with the AC on. We get out of the car at 5pm and knock. Nobody answers the door. The sign in the window still says closed. It's literally like 95 degrees and we're sweating standing here waiting for them to open the doors. We realized the gate was open to the side and went through there. No clue why there was no SIGN to direct people that way, that was the first frustrating red flag. Passed through a cute patio, got up to a sign that says "Please wait to be seated"... but there's nobody there. It was so confusing. I guess they saw us on the cameras and the server came out right away. Immediately I could tell she had a bad attitude, but we were trying to roll with it. Mentioned we were waiting at the front door and the server (instead of apologizing and acting like she cared at all) chose to act like we were dumb for not knowing to go through the garden. How would anyone who's never been there KNOW that??Place was pretty cute inside, but not a fan of the black seat covers. Not appropriate vibes for a tea house IMO. More like black tie wedding vibes.They let us pick the room we wanted to sit in, we picked the room with the white chairs. Fresh flowers on the tables, very cute. Server set our menus down.. and after looking it over, we were both totally dumbfounded. No tea packages on the menu? I mean kinda sorta one, but not vegetarian or pescatarian. It's literally a dinner menu, with entrees and sides... like a RESTAURANT. We are like wtf, it's a tea house during the day, and restaurant at night?We ask our lovely server and again get more attitude, and treated like we're morons. Almost everything on the menu had meat in it, and the few items that didn't sounded weird and not like things we would eat. We're pretty basic with our food - and neither of us do smoked salmon.I guess we weren't good enough for this place? That was definitely the vibe the server gave off. We ended up deciding to go somewhere else. Initially my mom felt bad about leaving when we had a reservation (and the place was empty)... but when we were leaving and told the server they might want to let people know when making a reservation that you can't get tea packages in the evening... she rudely chose to respond with "It's posted everywhere".... really?? Are you kidding me? We did NOT feel bad leaving after that disgusting response. I wish I knew this lady's name... although I'm sure the owners will know. Pretty sure there was only one server this evening. And man, this woman does NOT belong in customer service. I was a server for years, and I would NEVER speak to a customer like that.I mean seriously, in the phone call my mom made to make the reservation... AND in my phone call that afternoon about my mom's birthday... not once did they explain it's a dinner menu and the tea house turns in a restaurant?! Who would go to a TEA HOUSE for dinner? Makes no sense - exactly why the place was empty.My mom went here before and had a lovely time, during the afternoon for tea. But holy moly, the setup and service at night is awful.

Charming tea cottage with delicious food and a wide variety of tea options. The service is always friendly and personal. Marcela's is more than a restaurant, it is an experience. I always enjoy the peaceful environment and connecting with friends over the yummiest food and tea.

Just went here for dessert night last week, which they do on Thursday evenings and it was lovely. It's such a cute little place. Service was friendly and attentive. We got blueberry crumble tea which was delicious! I will be back to buy some! We got the charcuterie board for two, panna cotta with peach compote and cheesecake bites. Everything tasted really good. The cheesecake bites are covered in both white chocolate and milk chocolate. The cheddar cheese with peppers on the charcuterie was my favorite! This is the first time I've tried panna cotta and both my boyfriend and I loved it.

A nice choice for a relaxed, tasty lunch. The tea house atmosphere is really supportive of a friendly, well appointed setting. Many teas and related items are available for sale and service is first rate.

A little pricey but you are paying for the ambiance and small crowds. Very cute and their food/drinks are tasty. The owner is very friendly and personable as well.

What an amazing hidden gem in ridgecrest. The food was delicious and each order comes with your very own pot of tea. They have 130 different kinds of teas. I chose the raspberry vanilla. The hubby got the French press coffee instead of tea. I got the creamy Artichoke bagel and he got the smoked salmon. We also purchased some teas to take home as.well as their famous lemon curd spread. I will definitely come back to try their team sandwiches tower.

We have always enjoyed this tea house, until we ordered via DoorDash which is a newer option. The scone was no longer included and was very small with a more doughy texture and no lemon curd included, the Italian lemon cake had zero lemon flavor and was thrown out. The scone was a seasonal pumpkin but I would rather a traditional one with the lemon curd. The chicken salad had a much smaller scoop than in the past and no strawberries or blueberries as advertised. The cannolis were good but everything else was disappointing from someone who has eaten there multiple times. It's a much different experience in the restaurant, not sure why except you have the option to request things and we order the different high teas?

It's such a cute and delicious spot. Food is yummy!!The staff was amazing!! I can't wait to take my girls there.