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What is a "Tea Restaurant" and Why Are They In Chinatown?

A legendary Hong Kong-style cafe in Chinatown, Washington Bakery & Restaurant, has closed its doors for good, after 27 years in business. But what exactly is a Hong Kong-style cafe? 

Washington Bakery & Restaurant, circa 2019?

A "Hong Kong-style cafe", better known by its Cantonese name cha-chaan-teng 茶餐廳 literally translates to "tea restaurant". I use all three interchangeably. It was exported from Hong Kong during the mass exodus from Hong Kong during the 1980's. It serves casual Chinese food as well as casual Western food with Chinese influences, and often offers combo menus with tea or coffee, thus resembling a Western cafe.

In fact, at a tea restaurant, you should not be surprised to see macaroni and Spam (tm) and breakfast sausages on the menu, as breakfast items, alongside Chinese breakfast staples like rice congee, rice noodles, and instant ramen, plus ham and cheese sandwiches. For drinks, you can choose plain tea, plain coffee, soft drinks, or more HK-style drinks such as hot milk tea, cold milk tea, cold lemon + coke, or lemon ice tea. Some may even offer Horlicks, Ovaltine, and similar hot chocolate drinks (but no marshmallows). 

In Hong Kong, Cha-Chaan-Teng had been slowly replaced by chain restaurants that can operate on lower budgets with fixed menus, but generally, they continue to be popular with the Chinese diaspora, esp. the Cantonese-speaking parts such as San Francisco. 

Unfortunately, COVID has hit the cha-chaan-teng hard, and many were forced closed even before this. Those that know about Sam Wo (reputed the oldest restaurant in Chinatown) may or may not know their currrent spot on Clay street used to be a cha-chaan-teng called "Anna Court".  Sam Wo was forced out of their old location back in 2012 and reopened after a few years at their current Clay location. But that is yet another Chinatown story. 

P.S. Spicy Shrimp, which I reviewed in the first post, is a Tea Restaurant. 


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About the author

Kasey is a professional tour guide and amateur historian who specialized in Chinatown History and Tours. You will often find him guiding groups sampling delicious food and learning interesting historical tidbits about Chinatown most weekends.

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