There’s Afternoon Tea on the Veranda of a Prime Ministerial Mansion and You Should Already Have a Reservation

I don’t get out much in Ottawa, but when Parks Canada invited me to experience high tea at Laurier House Ottawa, I made an exception. Not because there’s nothing to do close to home, there’s plenty, but because when I embarrass myself here I risk running into those people again. My dad jokes have a radius and I try to respect it.

I mildly failed on both counts. More on that later.

What I can tell you is that I had a genuinely lovely morning on the veranda of one of Ottawa’s most historically loaded addresses. The food was beautiful, the china was fancier than anything in my kitchen, and I felt like I should have worn a hat. I did not wear a hat. Another regret for the list.

Welcome to Your Mansion

Walking up to Laurier House, I felt something I wasn’t entirely expecting. Pride. A surge of patriotism, a love of old things, maybe both, but pride was definitely the emotion that caught me a little off guard. Though honestly, it shouldn’t have.

This place belongs to me. To you. To anyone who shows up. That’s the thing about Parks Canada sites that I never quite get over, no matter how many times I visit one. You’re not a guest. You’re a co-owner. The deed is a little abstract and nobody is handing you a key, but the feeling is real.

I also want to know if those hunter green and cream striped awnings are original or if Parks Canada just has excellent taste. Either way, they’re doing a lot of heavy lifting aesthetically and I was already charmed before I sat down.

The Food at Tea on the Veranda

Let’s be honest, this is why you’re here.

Working Title Kitchen, helmed by Chef Michael Moffatt, handles all the food and they are not phoning it in. The tray arrives three tiers high and the 2026 menu is as follows: egg salad, curried chicken salad with apricot, Caprese, and mini quiche on the savoury tier. Dried currant and plain scones in the middle, served with jam, clotted cream, marmalade and butter. And on top, raspberry chocolate macaroons, opera cake, chocolate-dipped Scottish shortbread, and lemon bars.

I ate all of it. Every last crumb. I am gluten sensitive and I made my peace with that decision approximately one bite into the curried chicken salad with apricot on a perfectly made small croissant. It was heavenly. No notes. No regrets. Well, one regret, but it has nothing to do with the food.

The clotted cream situation is excellent, for those of you who, like me, consider clotted cream a food group rather than a condiment.

The tea arrives in a bamboo box presented tableside with eight loose-leaf options to choose from. This is not a tea bag situation. We are talking Lychee and Peony, Earl Grey, Assam Breakfast, a Rooibos Zeste Éclair, a Chinese green tea called Du Yun Mao Jian, and a few others. I went with the Lychee and Peony and it was definitely head and shoulders above my regular Tetley.

For those with celiac disease, take note: most of the menu contains gluten. The raspberry chocolate macaroons and opera cake are both marked gluten-free on the menu, though both contain almonds. If you are gluten sensitive rather than celiac, that is a personal call. I am here to tell you I made mine without hesitation and would make it again.

One more thing: if you cannot finish everything, and you might not because it is a generous spread, takeaway boxes are offered. Use them. Wasting a lemon bar is not something I am prepared to defend.

What to Expect at Tea on the Veranda

High tea at Laurier House Ottawa is not a grab and go situation. Parks Canada allots an hour and a half to two hours for the experience and I am here to tell you to use every minute of it. Sit. Eat slowly. Let the breeze do what it wants. There is something genuinely restorative about being handed permission to just stop for a while, and that is exactly what this feels like.

This is Parks Canada doing something for us because it is not just nature out here, it is nurture. An invitation to sit inside our own history, to take up space in it, to feel at home in it. That co-owner feeling I mentioned walking up? It follows you to the table.

The food is made by Working Title Kitchen, which operates out of a deconsecrated church directly across the street from Laurier House. I did not burst into flames when I visited it later, which I mention only because it feels relevant. What Leanne Moussa has built here is more than a restaurant. It is a destination, a community hub, an event space, and the kind of space that attracts talent. She knew that to bring someone like Chef Michael Moffatt on board, the space had to be worthy of him. It is. The geography of the partnership alone is poetic. Two historic buildings facing each other across Laurier Avenue East, one feeding you, one housing the ghosts of Canadian political history.

Inside Laurier House

Immediately upon entering Laurier House I couldn’t stop thinking about 24 Sussex. If you know, you know. Let’s just say our current prime minister could use a Laurier House situation because this place is immaculate. Meticulously maintained, beautifully preserved, and the kind of home you walk through thinking yes, I could absolutely live here. I would not want to clean it. But live in it? Absolutely.

The guides are stationed throughout, which I appreciated. They are there if you want them and invisible if you don’t, which means you can move at your own pace and imagine yourself into the rooms rather than being herded through them.

I lingered in the library. Also known, and I cannot stress this enough, as the seance room. There is a half height glass partition you stand behind but you do step into the room and it is genuinely hard not to imagine the conversations that happened in here, with both the living and the dead. I am not personally a believer in communing with the deceased but I can absolutely appreciate a prime minister who was. King was Canada’s longest serving prime minister and he consulted the spirit world regularly. I mean, have you seen some of the decisions that get made in this country? Maybe we should bring it back.

Then there was the bedroom. The guide mentioned, helpfully, that this was King’s bed. A twin. I looked at it. I looked at the guide.

“Oh, so it’s king-sized.”

Groans. Immediate groans. I have now put myself in a time out and will return to the Ottawa social scene when I feel less self-conscious. What can I say? I come from a long line of pull-my-finger dad jokers and it is simply in my DNA. If there is a support group I have not found it though I’m not looking very hard.

How to Book High Tea at Laurier House Ottawa

Tea on the Veranda runs Thursdays and Fridays starting June 4, with Wednesdays added from July 8 through to September 25, 2026. There are three seatings daily: 10:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 2:30 pm.

One thing worth knowing: if you book the 10:30 or 12:30 seating, your house visit follows tea. If you book the 2:30 seating, you visit the house first at 1:30, then sit down for tea. Either way, allow a full two hours and don’t rush it.

The price is $68 per person, which includes your visit to Laurier House National Historic Site. If you want the structured guided tour rather than the self-guided visit, that’s an additional $11 per person and worth it for the context.

Booking is through Working Title Kitchen at workingtitleottawa.com. Spots are limited and this one sells out, so don’t leave it to the week before.

Book at pc.gc.ca/the-laurier-tea. Spots are limited and this one sells out, so don’t leave it to the week before.

Before You Book High Tea at Laurier House Ottawa: What You Need to Know.

Disclosure: I was invited to attend Tea on the Veranda at Laurier House as a guest of Parks Canada. As always, all opinions, dad jokes, and decisions to break a gluten-free streak are entirely my own.