The Casbah Teahouse in Tucson Arizona

While on vacation, my family and myself found ourselves at the Casbah Teahouse located on 628 4^th Avenue, in Tucson, Arizona. We decided that while visiting my husband's family in Arizona, we wanted to visit the 4^th Avenue historical district in Tucson. It seemed like a good place to pick up some souvenirs and experience the local restaurants. When we did an internet search, we came across the website, www.casbahteahouse.com . The site touted their eco-friendly, eclectic atmosphere, and the menu offered vegetarian food and specialty coffee and tea beverages. My sister-in-law had been there and enjoyed the atmosphere and food, so we figured it was a safe bet.

Arriving at the teahouse, it was much as we expected. It was small, dark, and appeared to be comfortable. We chose to sit outside under the tarps and tapestries. The eastern decor complete with short tables and chairs, and big lazy couches welcomed us.

Once we sat down, we realized it wasn't as charming as first thought. Many of the chairs were broken; the couches looked like they were throwaways from a second-hand store, and the place smelled like patchouli gone amok.

When our waiter came to take our orders, we told him that it was our first time at the teahouse. He seemed distracted, and told us, "I am at the end of my shift, but I will serve you anyway."

We overlooked his comment, because we were hot and thirsty. We ordered and after twenty minutes, our waiter showed up with my iced peppermint tea and my son's green tea latte.

Our waiter apologized for the wait and then looked at my husband and asked, "You ordered something too, didn't you?"

He then had to ask my husband what it was and said, "I will be right back with it."

After waiting another fifteen minutes, and no drink, we decided that it was time to go. My husband went to the counter and had to call out to an employee after several seconds to get someone's attention. He had to explain that we could not find our waiter, he never received his drink, we wanted to settle the bill and leave. It was only then that the waiter appeared and said to my husband, "We ran out of tea, and I didn't know what to do."

We were not sure why it didn't cross his mind to come back to our table and inform us of his dilemma. Instead, he ignored us. It wasn't that there were any other customers that he was waiting on, because the place was empty. Common courtesy and manners seemed foreign to him.

We also didn't understand how a teahouse would let themselves run out of tea.

Perhaps it was because we weren't locals or college students. Perhaps the waiter was having a bad day. I am not sure. I do know that the teahouse lost out on some business, because we were quite ravenous and were thinking of ordering some food.

You can try the Casbah Teahouse for yourself on Wednesday and Thursday from 11am-10 pm or Friday and Saturday 11 am-11pm. May your experience be better than ours!