Tea and Fine Dining

by **xine** » Jun 30th, '08, 13:10

Tea and Fine Dining

by xine » Jun 30th, '08, 13:10

Have any local restaurants that offer a nice tea menu along with exceptional cuisine?

by **sneakers** » Jun 1st, '09, 01:57

by sneakers » Jun 1st, '09, 01:57

I live in the metro NYC area, not exactly a provincial area. No matter how expensive the restaurant, they offer fine coffee, but bagged tea. If they REALLY care, they offer Bigelow or Twinings instead of Lipton, or add some herbal tea bags. Pretty sad. I usually just order coffee.

Another amusing but sad story-- I shop in an Oriental supermarket, and they carry maybe 50 kinds of loose and bagged tea, every Japanese and Chinese tea imaginable. There's a snack bar and take-out dept. in front, and I ordered a cheese bun with some tea to enjoy while I shopped. They gave me Lipton. (':cry:')

by **xine** » Jun 16th, '09, 11:48

by xine » Jun 16th, '09, 11:48

one would think awesome cuisine=awesome tea/beverage choices, right? I have a favorite restaurant in my neck of the woods in hopewell (right outside of princeton) and they have AMAZING food. nouveau-american-lalalalala-bistro kind of cuisine. like real attention to local, organic, etc.

at the end of the meal, with my fabulous dessert, I can get Lavazza coffee but....tea wise? they brought out a chest of bigelow teabags. LAME.

by **sneakers** » Jun 17th, '09, 01:04

by sneakers » Jun 17th, '09, 01:04

The only place I get really fine tea with my food is at my tea shop, Silver Tips (silvertipstea.com.) Luckily the food is also wonderful.

I belief the chefs at restaurants know nothing about tea, and don't feel they need to. America is mostly a coffee-drinking country.

by **scruffmcgruff** » Jun 17th, '09, 01:23

by scruffmcgruff » Jun 17th, '09, 01:23

I have seen a few restaurants try to serve nice teas, but even if they were to get it right (which I haven't found), I can't imagine they would sell enough to be able to serve anything really gourmet.

IMO these good teas would only be worthwhile as an after-meal item anyway, like fine espresso concoctions and desert wines. Some teas hold their own against food, but not most of the fine teas that you would spend a lot of money for. Plus, a lot more people know how to whip up a solid cappuccino vs. a solid cup of yancha, matcha, etc.