TORONTO: Tea party!

The Red Tea Box is Toronto’s best little hideaway. It makes me trip over with adjectives: pretty, quaint, charming and delicious.You walk into a little store selling fancy teas and Alice-in-Wonderland pastries. There’s two or three tiny tables here and a chalkboard menu. Where are we going to eat lunch I wonder?

We’re led to the back of the store, out the door, down a narrow path, through the terrace and then the French doors to a converted coach house.

If I was an eccentric aunt, this is what my place would look like. Comfy chairs, rockers and low tables covered in silk runners and patterned tablecloths. Fresh flowers on country cabinets. Funky lamps in front of French armoires.

Do not come here if you’re in a hurry. This is a time and place for relaxing, giggling and playing tea party. We get a pot of Moroccan mint green tea, which comes with tiny squares of that day’s special cookie, lavender shortbread.

While we wait for our lunch, we wander around upstairs where the shop sells teapots, tea sets, silk pillows and purses.

My sister covets the lunch bento special. It changes every month. In a lacquer box arrive smoked trout salad with blood orange and grapefruit, honey-miso quail, greens stir-fried with pomegranate seeds, rice with roasted beet and a slice of dragonfruit.

My three-soup sampler that day is pureed beet with black cumin, edamame with green pea and lentil. It’s perfect. My spicy Thai beef salad is okay, but the atmosphere more than makes up for it.

Red Tea Box also does afternoon tea bento boxes, which I can’t wait to come back for on my next trip.

Red Tea Box, 696 Queen St. W., Toronto, 416-203-8882

Open Mon, Wed, Thu 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Fri and Sat 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Closed Tuesdays.