Getting tea in a Chinese restaurant

Dear Tea friends, I know a lot of people had mentioned the poor quality of chinese restaurant tea before, and I was thinking that the fact that I like it was attributable to the fact that I haven't had a lot of experience with anything other than Lipton and others of that level.

Our local chinese restaurant uses bagged tea to make their tea and it is good, so much that I usually have a pot and a half or two when I go to the restaurant. Recently there was a chinese, Japanese, american buffet restaurant opened up in our town and I went last night. I've been there twice before and the food wasn't bad, but I guess I never ordered tea before. What they brought me had no flavor at all and only minimal color. the served it in cups with dark interiors so you couldn't tell, but I poured it out on my plate to see. LOL

If you are going to a chinese restaurant how do you get good tea? do you send back your free pot of "tea"? or offer to pay for good tea or bring your own tea. the tea was hot enough to brew some Oolong in, so I could have actually brewed some if I had thought to bring some tea bags or loose tea.

Thanks, Kitty

Reply to
Kitty
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In my experience, there are very few Chinese restaurants offering diners the choice to drink high-quality tea, even for an added charge. I think the restaurants believe their customers expect tea gratis. So I bring my own loose leaves; the restaurants are always happy to contribute the hot water.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin

thanks. that's what I was afraid of. Well, even a tea bag of oolong is better than what they served me. LOL

I was tempted to tell them it was time for the Weekly tea leaf change in the tea dispenser, but I didn't want to embarrass the waitress who was cute and didn't speak english very well.

Kitty

Reply to
Kitty

Rarely does one get good tea in any restaurant, Chinese or otherwise. I actually think the Chinese restaurants do a better job with tea than the others do. Of course, the only time I drink Oolong tea is when I go to Chinese restaurants, so I have nothing to compare against.

Reply to
Pat

In Chinatown when you ask for tea in a restaurant they always bring a full pot for the table. Its usually loose leaf tea - but I'm hard pressed as to say *what* tea type - it doesn't really taste like the pu-erh I'm used to. They keep re-filling the pot with water when you take the lid off it. Endless cups of tea are an attraction to many diners for yum cha:) The tea is generally not bad, but not something you'd write home about either.

Reply to
Kathy

I can see that I have been spoiled to some extent. the Main Moon was our only chinese restaurant here for a while. We have had two others start up and close down, but the Main Moon still continues. I enjoyed the tea there enough to ask what it was and they brought me a tea bag of Oolong. So I have been buying Oolong from the grocery and it is good too.

However, I swear to you, the tea this other restaurant brought was tasteless, and colorless. I think I am going to stick to the Main Moon from now on. their food is not as overcooked either. it's probably that this new restaurant is trying to offer too large a selection and everything is getting to dry before anyone wants it.

Reply to
Kitty

I'm in Guangxi right now. It's not the same here in China, in the large restaurants, you actually have to order and pay for your tea - because they use good quality leaves. So you have to spend betweeen 50-150 yuan for a pot of tea - depending on which restaurant you go to. That's quite pricey in China, but you wouldn't go to those restaurants unless you had money to burn anyway. The free tea is usually some cold herbal tea that doesn't taste too good. So it's better to order the good tea with your meal.

But I seldom eat in restaurants here. I always think my own cooking tastes much better than what they serve in the restaurants, and I can brew the tea that I like. So I do my own cooking at home.

Reply to
niisonge

I do like my own cooking better but I haven't learned to make General Tso's Chicken. I can make a decent stirfry, but I didn't have any rice made up and I had errands to run so I went out.

I do agree with you, restaurants cook to please masses of people and don't have much individuality. Most anyone can cook as well or better with a little practice with spices.

Reply to
Kitty

I went out for Thai with my mother a couple of weeks ago. The menu had a selection of teas; I don't remember much of it but it included "Lung Ching Dragonwell". I ordered "Special Oolong" and it was brought to my table in a large glass pot with a glass infuser. Was pretty good, too.

(For those local to my area, this was at the Thai restaurant in Lynnwood/Mill Creek on 164th St. SE near Bothell/Everett Highway. I don't remember the restaurant name.)

Typically in a restaurant I will order green tea, since American restaurants are incapable of providing boiling water. Of course, I've also come to prefer green tea, mostly drinking black only at breakfast time.

stePH

Reply to
stePH

...

I'd like to try it. Please provide a name or address. :-)

Reply to
Die Spammers

Actually, some of the nicest tea I've ever had in a restaurant has been in a rural Indian place that mostly made Pakistani food. They make a wonderful Chai that takes close to half an hour to boil up on the stove. Leaves any other "Chai" I've had in Sydney for dead. Not Chinese tea I know.....but a damn good drink anyway.

Kathy

Reply to
Kathy

As Lew mentioned earlier on, bringing your own leaf to Chinese restaurants here in New York City is welcomed by nearly all waiters and owners, I suppose because they do not charge for tea. The usual Chinese restaurant tea here might be weak cooked Pu'erh, an overfloral Jasmine, or a weak and low grade Water Sprite from Phoenix Mountains of Guong Dong Provence. These are brought to the table in a metal teapot, either with or without leaves in.

On several occasions I've brought my YiXing teapot with gong-fu cups into the restaurant. These were in no way unwelcome. In fact, waiters are quite engaged.

I would not do these things in a resaurant where they charged for tea, nor would I do the later when the restaurant is busy.

Michael

Reply to
Michael Plant

thanks for these explainations. That will help. I'm going to have to start bringing Something with me for times like this. I'd never get away with bringing a teapot and cups, my husband would melt into a puddle. But tea bags he's used to, and he'd survive loose tea with less than a sneer. LOL Kitty

Reply to
Kitty

Thanks, Bill!

Reply to
Die Spammers

I've been in a lot of Chinese restaurants, ranging from the garden variety carryout to restaurants in CHinatown, to Chang's (the nationwide chain), and Chang's is the only one that--in my experience--seems to make any special effort in regard to tea. I'm sure I probably just didn't know how to ask for it in Chinatown, etc. Usually the default brew in the standard sit-down Chinese restaurant is some kind of oolong. I'm not a huge fan of oolong--I overdid it when I first discovered Chinese tea--but it is usually of tolerable quality and compliments the meal.

Only one time did the restaurant tea actually make me want to spit it out. In that instance, I could really believe in the weekly tea leaf replacement someone mentioned. It tasted like something was growing in there.

Reply to
ah2323

Yes, I've tried it. I also enjoyed it, but would have liked to taste it without the added melon flavor, which overpowered the tea taste.

stePH

-- I'll brew another pot of ambiguity.

Reply to
stePH

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