Speaking of Chinese....

Speaking of Chinese cuisine...The lovely bride has been craving "Kung Pao" Chicken, so we used that as an excuse to make our first visit to The Tea Station Chinese Bistro in Norton Commons (right next to Karem's Grill and Pub and right around the corner from Verbena). WOW !!!....what an awesome meal. My bride had two spring rolls and the previously mentioned Kung Pao Chicken, I the "Tea Station Roll" and the Kung Pao Beef. Everything was prepared wonderfully and the flavors were awesome. While they don't have a particularly large selection of Sushi rolls, I enjoyed my Tea Station roll tremendously.

While I enjoy Asian cuisine a great deal (at least the -Americanized- version/s) I typically don't make a beeline for this type of thing when dining out...So I have -no- idea how the place stacks up to some of the more popular places in town...but I can report hands down that the atmosphere, service and food at the Tea Station was everything we were looking for.

As a side-bar...Karem's was rockin' to a full house (they had someone singing/playing guitar) and Johnny Bruscos seemed to be doing a darn fine business when we drove by (and it did -not- appear to be particularly over run with the diaper wiper crowd which has ran us off on our two previous visits).

All in all a good "scene" for we east-side suburbanites.

Tea Station also has an "authentic" menu . . . you'll have to ask for translations, as it's only in Chinese, but it is awsome!

Plus, if they aren't slammed the chef or owner can talk to you about your likes & dislikes, and create something that's exactly what you want.

Plus Plus, they are nice people . . .

So happy to hear of this positive report for Tea Station and that Karems is packing them in as well. I would really like to see the Nortons Commons concept succeed . The idea of a self contained neighborhood appeals to me even if this one is artificially created.