Tea House
| Address: | 2425 University Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414, USA |
| Phone: | +1 612-331-8866 |
| Site: | ourteahouse.com |
| Rating: | 4.2 |
| Working: | 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–9:30PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–10PM 11AM–9:30PM |
Location
Photos 100
Reviews 7
A
A Private User
Ive lived in NYC for 11 years and have never experienced worse service at a restaurant in my life than I did at Tea House on University in Minneapolis. My qualifications for this assessment? Ive worked as a hostess in quite a few restaurants (from 24-hour diner to 5 star Zagat rated) and have been to many around the world as well, from Mexico and South America to Europe and China. I can confirm that this was the worst experience (and Ive gotten food poisoning from others!!!). Why? The service was superiorly subpar. Upon checking in for our 6:00pm reservation of six at 5:45pm on a Thursday night, we were amazed to find an almost empty dining room, and thrown off when the host gestured to (not seated us at) a table for six, right next to the host stand, right next to the bar, and closer to the door and frigid winter nights air than any other table in the restaurant. Upon requesting if there was another table available, the host said "no", to which I replied, "What about any one of the other five tables sitting empty at the moment for six people". His reply spawned the following interaction that pretty much went like this: HOST: "Um, those are for people with reservations." ME: "We have a reservation, too." HOST: "Yeah, but we have to keep the tables open for the OTHER reservations." ME: "Are all the other parties of six arriving within the next 45 minutes? Well be out by 6:45 because we have a show to attend." HOST: "Um, well, I have a reservation coming at 7pm and they specifically requested a certain table, so...." (Awkward pause. ) ME: (breaking awkward pause) "But if theyre arriving at 7pm and well be out by 6:45pm, doesnt that give you enough time to turn the table?" (in my head, what restaurant books ALL of their large tables at the same time on a weeknight?!) HOST: "Well, I mean, they might show up early, and if they show up early, well need to give them the table, so…." ME: "…So…their reservation is more important than ours?" Host: "Yes." ME: "So their money is more important than ours?" Host: (with a sigh of relief that I was finally understanding his point of view) "Yes." ME: (inner monologue: WTF?!?!) This was just the first two minutes of our time at Tea House. We sat at the crappy cold table next to the bar and had our meal. We had to ask the server to remove the empty drink glasses that were cluttering the table by the time appetizers arrived, the food was decent for the midwest version of "Chinese" food - but subpar for the price, our appetizer of dumplings arrived AFTER we had finished our meal, and to top it all off, 20% auto gratuity was added to our bill. By the time we left, 4 of the 5 six person tables in the restaurant were still as empty as they were when we arrived an hour earlier. Guess those other reservations were late...
XI
xinshuo zhang
There are two things that I will focus on when making restaurant selections: 1. Is it authentic? 2. Is the environment good and representing the culture? 1: As a Chinese, I am being 100% honest to say that Teahouse offers authentic Chinese food, some dishes are even better than what Ive tried in China. It is not your "American-Chinese" food restaurant , so it might not be a good choice if you are only looking for "orange chicken" or "kongpao chicken" etc. If you dont want to try anything that sounds weired like pork chitterlings, pork feet, or couples beef slices, that will be a pity because thoses dishese definitely tasted way better than it sounds. However, I will recommed a dish that sounds really normal but tastes surprisingly good-- "Meizhou Fried Rice", proven by all of my American friends. 2: The environemnt. This the place where I will choose when I need to host a meal for my friends, boss, guests etc. It is well decorated and has lots of interesting details. The curtain to give your privacy; the names above the rooms are real locations from Beijing; historical Chinese costume piece like chairs, room decorations and even the restrooms. In a nut shell, it is a restaurant I will highly recommend for everybody. This is the place where you could have a taste of Chinese culture or carry on those memories in China.
KA
Karen Wang
Decor is nice. When we were seated, they asked us if it was okay that the server would take maybe five minutes to get to us. I thought it was strange since five minutes is not considered absurdly long to let people look over a menu. But perhaps management has been reading some of the other reviews on this page... Our server today was fine, in my opinion. We ordered the sliced pork belly, Shanghai soup dumplings (小籠包), and pan-fried pork buns (生煎包). Soup dumplings had thick skin, but flavor-wise were pretty good. The pan-fried buns were yummy, but had a lot of liquid in them as well, similar to the soup dumplings, which surprised me. Pork belly was very nicely cooked, although I didnt personally prefer the vegetable mixture that was served underneath the meat. 30$ for two people, we were full and we took home about 1/4 of the pork belly dish. Id come back. *shrug*
MA
Mary Guy
Awful experience yesterday. I have eaten here several times but yesterday was pretty terrible. I stopped in after work and placed an order to go. My meal was nine dollars and change. When I tried to pay with a $20 bill I was told they didnt have change. I went out to my car and got a $10 bill. I was not given change in return. I took my food home and when I opened the side of steamed rice I was hit with the odor of smoke. I have been in a building after a devastating fire and thats what it smelled like. Disgusting and inedible. The General Tsos chicken entree was horrible. It looked like a dish of chicken golf balls rolled in breaded dough. Yuck. Thanks for treating customers like your crappy food. I wont be back.
SA
Satoru Asato
If anyone asked, I would have said that both Tea House restaurants, on University Ave near the U and Golden Valley, are one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in town. That is until this week. Over the past ttwo years, my taste buds may have changed, or it could be beacuse I didnt have any alcohol, I found everything I ordered (Sweet & Sour Chicken, Ma Po Tofu, and Pea Tips) this evening at University Ave location to be subpar. Ive felt that quality of cooking at Golden Valley location has been on the decline for at least for the past year and thought University Ave was better. After tonight, I think I will be frequenting both restaurants less and veturing out, exploring for a better Chinese restaurants.
JA
James Vang
Only thing that was good were the steam buns. Ordered dumplings and broccoli and beef, both were inedible, meat tasted rotten but Im sure they were just from a up close smell. This seems to be a common problem with a lot of Chinese restaurants using rotten meat. Hopefully FDA checks Chinese restaurants more frequently. Besides this they give small portions for their price and are extremely stingy on adding more meats/proteins to their dishes. Overall, I would stay away from this Chinese restaurant and really any who has a lower rating than 4.
FL
Florence tran
The Tea House is one of my favorite places to go when Im on the University of Minnesota campus. Its a nice place and there is plenty of parking for those of with cars! The food is also really good! Every time Im here I always get the Scallion Pancakes and the Dan Dan Noodles, both are great! The lunch dishes are also pretty good as are the juicy buns! Seeing as this is the Tea House, I would also like to recommend the tea! They have several different kinds but they are nice to combine with all of the yummy food!
