Cha for Tea Palace

In a bid to be more diverse in our Chinese dining adventures, Hubbs & I decided to take our family out to Cha for Tea Palace for dim sum. Due to weird church schedules, Hubbs & I arrived there first, and had to wait for over an hour before the rest of the family came. That was fine, since the restaurant had informed us previously that we needed to be there by 12:00 (which we were) if we wanted a table, as they did not take reservations and by 12:30 their restaurant would be full and we would need to wait. We figured we were table-saving, so we waited, smug in the knowledge that our prompt arrival secured us a sweet table near the window.

However, at 1:10 pm when Vanilla Con and my folks finally arrived, there were nearly a dozen large round tables still empty in the restaurant. Our wait was needlessly long, thanks to the misinformation I had been fed over the phone.

During our lengthy wait, I had lots of time to admire the East-meets-West decor of this restaurant. The bathrooms were immaculate and smelled of lavender air freshener, the seafood tanks were stylishly built into the stone-textured display wall, and the dark wood bar was funky enough to rival the bar at Joey's Grill in South Common. The decor of the rest of the restaurant was simple and somewhat "elegant," although perhaps a tad overdone in the case of the ornate glass chandeliers hanging from the middle of the ceiling. The chairs were upholstered in a soft yellow brocade-esque fabric, and were very comfortable to sit on. Although our table settings were definitely Chinese (chopsticks, bowl, plate, and tea cup, plus a Lazy Susan in the middle of the table), perched on the Lazy Susan was an all-English placard advertising the special alcoholic cocktails served at Cha for Tea. Hubbs remarked to me that this reminded him slightly of our Lingnan experience. *shudder*

As usual, we ordered our standard har gow, siu mai, chickens' feet, and pan-fried pork dumplings (waw teep). We also tried out their house specialty, the pineapple-BBQ pork-bun (baw law bow). I must say that in spite of the impressive setting (it was impressive as far as Chinese dim sum places go), the food was not all that memorable. It tasted good and fresh, but none of the dishes we sampled were particularly great. As well, their selection was not nearly as extensive as I would have liked to see. For a restaurant that boasts 24-hour dim sum, one would think that they would have made an attempt to at least match rival restaurants' menus as far as selection is concerned. Apparently, this was not a concern for them. Instead, Cha for Tea stuck with the standard dim sum items and added just a handful of their own specialties. We found this a little disappointing.

The service was excellent, however. The cart-pushing ladies were friendly and accommodating, and the other "runners" were also pretty prompt and on the ball. In fact, I think this was the best dim sum service I've had in the last 3 years.

The host and hostesses were another story. These young people (who looked no older than 20) were dressed in the least professional attire I have ever seen at a Chinese restaurant in North America (and I've seen quite a few). One girl wore a super-short skirt that literally offered only an inch and a half of coverage below her butt cheeks. Another girl wore a shirt that bared one of her shoulders, plus skin-tight jeans and black boots. The boy-host sported a t-shirt with a pattern that looked like blood stains on the right side of his back and the left side of his front torso. I'm not sure what sort of image Cha for Tea was going for with their hosts, but it certainly left an unpleasant taste in my mouth.

The cost of the menu items at Cha for Tea was a tad high for our preferences as well, considering the quality of their food. However, it wasn't unreasonably high, and of course we all know that brocade-covered chairs don't pay for themselves!

All in all, Cha for Tea is a good dim sum restaurant for the first-time Chinese brunch diner, or for non-Chinese people who would rather pay a few extra bucks for a newer, more stylish atmosphere than for great dim sum. It's not a bad restaurant to go to, especially if you only like the most standard dim sum fare; however, if you want an extensive selection of unique and funky brunch dishes to choose from, you may want to go elsewhere.


Rating: 7.5 / 10