London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

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London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Math » Jun 13th, '12, 09:16

In the end of this month I'm going to London. My hope is at least for one evening dine at a real authentic chinese cuisine restaurant that also serves high quality tea.

So basically I'm looking for any good chinese restaurants serving good authentic chinese food or any good restaurant serving high end tea but hopefully a place that serves both.

Any ideas?

If you know something else that I should check out don't hesitate to give me a tip. :)

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Jun 13th, '12, 09:32
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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by sriracha » Jun 13th, '12, 09:32

Do visit Postcard Teas if you get the chance, it's a nice shop. =)

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Proinsias » Jun 13th, '12, 09:53

I've not been to Yauatcha but heard good things
http://chadao.blogspot.co.uk/2009/09/ya ... ondon.html

+1 to Postcard Teas, Teasmith is another nice little teashop but neither do Chinese food, though Teasmith does have excellent chocolate.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by sriracha » Jun 13th, '12, 11:15

Oh Teasmith! I found the link a long time a go but lost it and couldn't remember the name for the life of me. Thank you Proinsias!

If I visit, do I get to brew the tea myself or is it made for me?

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Proinsias » Jun 13th, '12, 11:31

He's got a tea bar so you can sit and brew yourself or he can do it for you, which is nice.

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Jun 13th, '12, 11:37
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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by sriracha » Jun 13th, '12, 11:37

On my list for my next London visit, then.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by wyardley » Jun 13th, '12, 12:50

We didn't try any Chinese food last time we were there, but from what I've heard, London is probably not the greatest place to find authentic Chinese food (with or without good tea). I haven't been, but you could try Bar Shu, a Sichuan place.

Usually the tea served in Chinese restaurants, whether in China or elsewhere, is not going to be high quality. Usually it's 'cha shui' (tea water, vs. tea) -- something warm, inoffensive, and not that strong, which is probably a good thing, since drinking much caffeine during your meal can make you lose some nutrients. I usually drink hot water instead.

Most Cantonese seafood / dim sum places will have set options for loose leaf tea (jasmine, ripe pu'er, chrysanthemum, pu'er and chrysanthemum mixed together, maybe a green tieguanyin, maybe some kind of roasted oolong), and often a small, per-person tea charge as well). These teas will be decent, but rarely excellent. Anywhere other than that, you're probably looking at cheap teabag tea, oolong or pu'er if you're lucky, but most often, scented jasmine. Even in the area where I live (in Los Angeles), which has thousands of Chinese restaurants, mostly catering to ethnic Chinese clientele, the tea is invariably from a teabag, except at the kinds of places mentioned earlier.

Maybe we have a different idea of what constitutes high end, but IMHO, kind a waste to have "high end" tea at a meal (before or after, maybe, but few restaurants have good facilities for that). Sometimes I'll get hot water and add my own tea, but here, you're looking for something that's "good enough" without being "too good", and something that will tolerate a range of temperatures, and long infusion times. Another thing I'll do sometime is take the spent leaves of tea that I brewed much stronger earlier in the day, and put them in the teapot at the restaurant. This is a good way to avoid waste, and since the tea has already been brewed several times, it won't get as over-extracted, and there isn't as much worry about the leaves not opening if the restaurant's water isn't hot enough..

Edit: Hadn't heard of Yauatcha - does sound interesting, and looks like they have a good tea list.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by David R. » Jun 13th, '12, 20:59

Teasmith is a very relaxing place where one could let his/her mind wander while drinking a good cup of tea... For high end teas (but no food), Postcard Teas is definitively the place to go.

If by any chance you are into Chinese ceramics, go to the British Museum to see Sir David Percival's collection, one of the greatest outside China. Incredible.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Tead Off » Jun 14th, '12, 12:59

It's Sir Percival David. I know your partial to David. :D

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by the_economist » Jun 14th, '12, 15:06

David R. wrote: If by any chance you are into Chinese ceramics, go to the British Museum to see Sir David Percival's collection, one of the greatest outside China. Incredible.
Second the recommendation of the Percival collection.

As for tea in restaurants, Wyardley is right, don't bother with most of them. If you really want it, your best bet is in a high end dim sum restaurant. Yauatcha is very good but quite modernesque, not sure about their tea. You can try Royal China or Imperial Palace, both excellent choices for dimsum. In all of these you will not get to brew tea, but you will get to choose from a much better tea menu than the generic Chinese restaurant.

The specialized teahouses mentioned above might serve you better. I'd rather brew at home personally!

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Oni » Jun 15th, '12, 02:27

I think good teashops and good restaurants are not one and the same, I would visit a good restaurant, and after that go and visit postcardteas or essenceoftea, and have a nice tea session.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Math » Jun 15th, '12, 11:39

Thanks everyone for your advice! There are some great suggestions here.

Yauatcha, Royal China or Imperial Palace sounds ace!

The Perceval collection exhibit and Postcard teas would also be nice to see. If not this time then definitely next time I am in town!

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by David R. » Jun 17th, '12, 20:24

Tead Off wrote:It's Sir Percival David. I know your partial to David. :D
My mistake... :lol:

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by Math » Jul 9th, '12, 16:09

I went to yauatcha and had a great dinner. However we ordered tea afterwards and I had high hopes of getting served gong-fu style and getting the chance to refill the pot. So was a bit disappointed. I think you should go there for the 5 o clock afternoon tea, but for dinner skip the high end teas.

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Re: London Restaurants: High quality chinese tea?

by the_economist » Jul 9th, '12, 22:31

Haha I did warn you. I don't think the 5 oclock service is gongfu either.

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