"Elizabeth always has a chef that incorporates Low Country cuisine into a traditional afternoon tea," says Bruce Richardson about The Tea Room's owner, Elizabeth Ruby. In the quaint, historic city of Savannah, Ga., Ruby designed a gender-neutral tea room in the style of a famous Scottish architect, Rennie Macintosh, known for his work on numerous respected Glasgow tea rooms. The Tea Room serves new teas, blends popular 10 years ago and Victorian-age favorites, Richardson says. "It's a good marriage of food and tea together."

Wood paneling, low ceilings and a cozy fireplace give the Dunbar House a quintessential New England feel, Richardson says. In the heart of the Cape's oldest town, the tea room thrives in a former billiards and smoking room of a 1740s house. The menu is based on traditional British and European fare, with a soup de jour, scones, English crumpets and many cakes and pies. The tea menu ranges from black and green to herbal and Darjeeling. The Dunbar house also offers beer, wines and sherries. Gift shop sells loose teas and bagged, as well as teapots and gift items.

Ivy and lace define this classic Victorian tea house in Seattle. To underscore the experience, tiaras are welcomed and encouraged with a house supply for all to use. Traditional British tea fare (crumpets, scones, shepherd's pie) complements a tea list "that goes on and on," Richardson says. The tea room has been around for 20 years and has a generous number of white teas on the list. An added bonus, Richardson says, is the fact that the owner offers Pu-Erh tea. "To have it in an English-style tea room would have blown minds 10 years ago," Richardson says.

The ladies can have their lace and tiaras—St. James is a uniquely masculine tea room. There are doilies on some tables, but special events like the popular cigar tea attract the wary male tea drinkers. Savory dishes (spiced shrimp on toast, roast sirloin) are followed by scones, sweets, cigars and fortified wines on the patio. Keeping male customers in mind makes this tea room much more accessible, Richardson says.

Since 1997, this vintage European tea room has embraced the "old fashion, but applies new marketing techniques," says Joseph Simrany, president of the U.S. Tea Association. Enter into a showroom of tea collectibles from china and loose leaves to lotions and hats before entering the tea room bedecked in marble floors and crystal chandeliers. Updated selling practices like these made Vintage Tea Leaf successful before the tea boom.

Though not a conventional tea room, our experts couldn't overlook this tea bar and shop, now located in 25 states and Mexico. Teaologists help guests select and enjoy teas from their list of 110, including white, green, black, scented and blooming or even Pu-Erh and organic teas. Infusing real cranberries and raspberries into green teas inspired a traditionalist like Ju Eun Jung, a D.C.-based tea sommelier. Simrany says its uniqueness makes it appealing: "While it's not a traditional tea room, it has links to it."

This authentic Chinese tea room in D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood was a welcome find for Jung. After studying under a Chinese tea master and sipping since she was 12, she was impressed by the list of 70 teas, but the traditional service and serene setting is what made her feel at home in the city. Platform seating on pillows under skylights keep the space airy and comfortable. Author Elizabeth Knight agrees: "It reminded me of tea rooms I visited in China."

A large, light and open space in Manhattan's trendy Meatpacking District defines the gallery-type setting for Arium's afternoon tea. The venue is also used for jazz concerts, film screenings and houses a wine bar. Three courses (scones, savories and sweets) are served alongside a vast tea selection, but the experience is a fusion of tea traditions in a major city. "It's a mix of old and new, East and West," says Knight.

Assorted tarts, crepes and soufflés follow caviar, miniature sandwiches and scones on the tea menu at this French patisserie-bistro. Like a grand European café, Payard has a glamorous setting of high ceilings, rich-colored banquettes and elegant details transplant guests to "a 19th-century shop on the Left Bank of Paris," says Knight .

A stamp of a quality tea room, says Knight, is to "give you a sense of the culture from where it came." This tiny 10-table tea room in Greenwich Village rivals the classic London experience she remembers from living there. English comfort foods like bangers and mash and shepherd's pie are served alongside any cuppa.