Tea Leaf Restaurant

Consistently awesome food every time! We especially enjoy their Rice Sizzling Soup, and Tea Leaf Chow mien. Both are unique, very delicious dishes unlike any we’ve had at any other restaurant. Prepared fresh & served very hot. Servers are very warm & friendly. Our most favorite Chinese food restaurant in Pierce County.

Great food and service. Every time I have eaten there the food was amazing and I loved their chow meine so yummy

I finally discovered a full functioning Chinese kitchen in my neighborhood!
The review I’m about to give isn’t so jolly though… I came for the first time about a month ago near my home. I ordered their Kung Pao Chicken and it was just barely too spicy and the blasted dish was sweet!
I had tons of Chinese food in my day and I swear to god I never tried a sweet and spicy Kung Pao Chicken!!! I really want to like this place but due to the bizarre flavor trip I’m afraid I’ll end up dodging this Korean ran Chinese kitchen.

i remember coming here 30 years ago, when it seemed like decent chinese-​american food. i decided to try it again today for lunch, and it was just not good. maybe my tastes have changed, or i’ve just experienced better chinese cuisine since then. either way, you’d have a hard time telling this stuff apart from safeway or a frozen chinese entrée. not very flavorful, kindof soggy, and nearly impossible to tell the difference between sweet & sour and kung pao. good luck.

Our family has been coming here for years! We come here for two things. They have the BEST Korean/​Chinese seafood noodle bowl soup called JJam bbong and the BEST special chicken which for Koreans is Korean Chinese chicken called kkam pung ki.
The noodle soup is a huge portion filled with different types of seafood like mini scallops octopus shrimp and vegetables like cabbage and onions. Me and my sister usually share and if you ask they put it in two different bowls for you which means more soup if you need it! It is quality.
The chicken is sweet and spicy and super crunchy on the outside! It will be the best chicken you have ever tasted-​we are kind of addicted.
Although it’s kind of a hole in the wall I know the owner takes pride in his seafood broth that he makes fresh everyday and his recipe for the chicken that people keep coming back for. One time we left a lot of soup left over and he was sad! You can expect to be blown away. You can also choose the level of spice because they can make it really really spicy!
It is right near pacific Lutheran university and we usually street park-​and since its Tacoma it’s free!

Fried rice has meat in it, good but a little too mushy. I ordered the lunch special B spicy. Has too many seeds. Sweet and sour pork tastes a little coconutty. Overall a good meal with quick service. Of you order to go you will not recurve the egg roll or soup.

It looks like a shabby place for outside, and when we walked in on a Thursday night there was no customer inside, which makes us more skeptical. And when we got the menu, we are surprised to find there was no Chinese on the menu but Korean! Later we found out it is run by a cute Korean couple. They don’t speak very good English but they are really friendly and their food is great. The food is like Korean home cooking. More on the sweet side than authentic Chinese cooking, so I guess more like Americanized Chinese food, but they taste good so I don’t mind them not being authentic Chinese. A pleasant surprise found on our way to Seattle.
By the way I recommend their egg flower soup. It’s loaded with tofu and veggies!

I saw a 4 star rating for this place and thought I would give it a try. A small and very simple (below standards) place that is not even close to real tasting Chinese food. My mother and I ordered Won Ton soup (this is the most basic of all Chinese dishes from which I judge if any other dishes might be good!) It had so much small sliced cabbage in it that you could barely see any broth! Secondly, when you don’t see any authentic Asian vegetables in your soup, 9 times out of 10, the ingredients are probably from a can. Lastly, the won tons tasted like they from frozen packaging. Real Won Ton’s are always hand made and fresh!
I won’t go into any more details from the other 2 dishes except that if your really hungry and don’t care too much about the quality of your food, your portions are generous!
Enough said! Poi Boy
I, myself and especially my mother are serious cooks and enjoy going out to restaurants that do the public real justice with their fine foods served as we both try to duplicate their dishes that we like (even if we don’t get their secret ingredients from them!)

Some of the best chinese food I have had in the area or out. The house special chicken was ridiculously good, though spicier than expected (but not enough to detract from the flavor). The sauce for the almond chicken was perfect, and the pot stickers came out great. Will definitely be back to show my girlfriend.

I’ve been coming here forever because it’s so good! I always get the house special chicken wings. They are the absolute best!

This place is the BEST! I have been coming here for years and it just gets better and better. It’s a small family owned Asian restaurant with an adorable couple running it. I always get the curry chicken lunch/​dinner special when I come here. That includes egg roll, egg soul, and curry chicken as the main course. It’s inexpensive and delicious! A must try!

I have been going here for over 20 years !!! Some of the best food around. esp their special chicken, egg flower soup and chicken chow mein !!
The lady working there is always so nice and attentive. But also leaves you alone to eat and enjoy ! The décor and food hasn’t changed for as long as I remember ! Its a great spot check it out !!

I have been going to the tea leaf ever since I moved here from Wisconsin. Incredible service with a smile, the best quality food, warm and delicious. I have literally ate there over 100 times and never had a bad meal. I do not understand how these bad ratings came about, but I think it’s a happenstance. I recommend this place to everyone I talk to about Asian food. Definitely 5 out of 5 stars

Terrible. Went in this evening around 8:15 for take out. We ordered the happy family, braised bean curd and egg rolls. I’m not sure what their hours are since none are posted, but there was a lot of yelling in the kitchen when we placed our order. I don’t know if they were angry which might explain the rest.
First of all, the menu did not indicate that these dishes were spicy. Now I very much enjoy spicy food, but this was unexpected. They weren’t just spicy, they were ridiculous. There was no flavor, just burning. They ruined the food essentially and I couldn’t even eat it, it was disgusting. The egg rolls were the worst I’ve had. They did not have any other sauce accept sweet and sour sauce, which tasted nothing like it. To top it off my boyfriend found a rubber band in his food. Will never return.

I am not rally sure what type of soup it was I had, but it was loaded with lots of cabbage, carrots and onions plus what I think is tofu (haven’t had tofu before). It was awesome! The Mongolian beef was tender and perfect seasoning, not too spicy. The Chicken Fried Rice was the best I have had in years with huge chunks of chicken. The egg roll was the only non-​wow for me, a little dry. Overall, the cook/​server was very sweet and my food was ready pretty fast. $ 11 after tax isn’t bad for ordering it as takeout.

This restaurant is an optical illusion. From the outside you’re probably going to think, «should I eat there?!» The answer is yes!
This is a family owned restaurant with a wife as the waitress and host along with her son and daughter, with her husband as the chef! It’s also wonderful to see the chef come out from the kitchen to see how everyone is enjoying their food. And he does this every time I go there!
But to the point. The menu and the food are consistent. The taste is authentic!
I’ve been going here for over a decade, my family claims it a traditional place to celebrate all occasions. Here is what I would recommend:
Special chicken (crisp, moist on the inside, and sweet and spicy).
Mongolian beef (good flavor and texture, not too chewy)
Braised tofu (delicious! Even for those who don’t usually enjoy tofu! A lot of flavor packed into this dish and it’s vegetarian)
Sweet and sour chicken, wonton soup, and if they have bananas their glazed bananas are too die for!
They give plenty of rice! And their kimchi is always good! It isn’t sour or too spicy. It’s just right!
Please if you are curious don’t over look this place. It has good vibes and it’s never too loud.

Delicious food. The lady is super nice and funny. I just want to put her in my pocket and take her home with me. Chicken chowmein is to die for!

I wish I could say there has been some improvement. But I can’t. In fact, I’d have to say that the food quality has gone down since our last visit. I especially can’t stand their Tea Leaf combo fried rice. It was terrible. The rice was all stuck together. It had large chunks of chicken, not little tiny pieces like they serve in most other restaurants. The rice was not fried. It tasted terrible. The prawns were soggy. The Mongolian beef was spicy but that was about the best thing I can say about it. I doubt if I will be going there again.

House Special Chicken is sweet, spicy, garlicky goodness. Almost every table ordered it. The egg flower soup was savory and full of veggies instead of just broth and egg. The house was packed and with only two servers they kept our water and hot tea full and the food rolling in. Prices for the lunch and dinner specials are great, about $ 8 for soup, egg roll, and entrée served with fried rice. Our new Chinese favorite in Tacoma.

Lady was nice but the food was just what you expect from those Chinese lunch special menus. Very little difference from that each chicken option. The wonton was tiny not much in it.
The best thing about it was that soup. But other than that it was pretty bad. I’m working in Tacoma for the week so I’m just convinced that there isn’t really good Asian food here. I also think my body thought it was horrible because it flushed it immediately out.