Through the looking glass at MadHatter’s Tea Garden

It’s always tea time at The MadHatter’s Tea Garden

Teacups on branches and Frosting on cupcakes, Bright-coloured kettles and warm little tables; A tiny tea garden where everyone sings, these are a few of our favourite things. 

Tucked away from the hullabaloo on Harrington road is a garden of great food and a lot of magic. Butter-y toasts with cheese, fluffy cupcakes with jam and hot-dogs with candied onions, sit there, waiting on colourful tables and skirted chairs. 

“Kids need to be with nature, ” says Cheryl Gonsalves, a gourmet cook, fashion designer and the brains behind MadHatters’. Sharadha Dharmaraj, who gave colour to her imagination by painting the story to life at Madhatters, believes that kids don’t get enough ‘garden time’ these days. They’re glued to their iPads and phones at home and most schools don’t even have an outdoor play area. This sparked in them an idea to have a garden for the children to unwind, look for candy and eat food that doesn’t come from a can. 

‘Home cooked Western and Indian food’ is their forte and a group of home-bakers backs them. Pastas, Roasted chicken, Cutlets, Chilli Cheese Toast, Mint Tea and Hot-dogs are some of their best-sellers. Shh. Their Magical Pink Guava Slush is a secret. 

They’ve got parties lined up for kids and ‘bigger kids’. Speaking of whom, there’s a separate seating area for the ones that don’t want to sit on the colourful benches. Their parties are filled with candy hunts, musical benches and lots of good-eats and treats. 

They’re open to breakfast/ brunch and tea parties provided you call in earlier. They deliver lovely homemade food to people in and around Nungambakkam.

“Have we all gone Mad, yet?”