Discussion of Robin Garr's Tea Station review

[Robin Garr]

Tea Station’s simple pleasures warm the heart and tummy
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr



We rolled up to our destination in the gathering darkness, and I found a parking spot at the curb out front. I turned, looked up, and ... wow! This looks just like our old neighborhood in New York City!

It's a sturdy, three-story block of brick, not brownstone -- visualize Queens, not Greenwich Village -- with cozy lights in apartment windows on the upper floors, and busy storefronts opening on the street: a meat market, an Italian gelato shop and a family-run Chinese eatery.

OK, it's not quite the same. There's not much traffic, not a yellow cab in sight, and the street is litter-free. There's not a speck of graffiti around, and no heavy burglar bars pulled down over dark shop windows. Then I turned and looked the other way and saw rows of modern subdivision colonials stacked into a slightly too orderly planned urban-look streetscape. Oh, yeah. We're in Norton Commons, aren't we?

Still, it made me feel good for a minute there. And the simple Chinese delights within Tea Station made us feel pretty good, too, warming our hearts and tummies on a chilly night.

Tea Station, which bills itself as a "Chinese bistro," represents an Asian genre that was once common in our town but has largely disappeared from view: a quality Chinese restaurant run by a friendly Chinese family that offers a good selection of Chinese and Chinese-American fare in an attractive environment where you are more likely to dine in with china, flatware and cloth napkins than to grab Styrofoam boxes for takeout.

Tea Station differs a bit from the current crop of chef-driven Chinese destination eateries where chefs boasting old-country credentials offer even Westerners an "authentic" menu featuring goodies like sea cucumber and fish maw.

Chef Paul Yang, rather, limits his bill of fare to the gently adapted Sichuanese and other regional dishes like those that Louisville considered cutting-edge when it first arrived here back in the '70s and '80s. But Yang doesn't need to brag about culinary credentials; his craft shows in every dish.


Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/tea-s ... -and-tummy

And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/tea-station ... -and-tummy

Tea Station
9422 Norton Commons Blvd.
423-1202
http://teastationbistro.com
Rating: 85

Sorry, Robin. But I can't finish reading your review as the embed urls take me to your reviews for Mussel and Burger Bar.

[Robin Garr]

Sorry, Robin. But I can't finish reading your review as the embed urls take me to your reviews for Mussel and Burger Bar.

I'll get right on that, Gayle! Sorry! Meanwhile, remember you can always go to the reviews from the front page, http://www.LouisvilleHotBytes.com ...

Links fixed now ...

Id forgotten about the reviews being posted in another section of Hotbytes. Thanks for the "heads up."

One of our favorite restaurants...We've never been disappointed.

Note that if you ask, they do have an "authentic" menu . . . it's in Chinese, but they will translate it for you, and if you convince them that eating chicken "on the bone" is fine for you there are some interesting items!

Also, if it's a quiet period, they will work with you. For example, we went with a friend who was on a salt-free diet and expected just to keep us company, and they designed a wine/ginger/scallion steamed fish dish that fit her dietary requirements.

I would highly recommend . . . they are nice people, and really try hard.

[Robin Garr]

Note that if you ask, they do have an "authentic" menu . . . it's in Chinese, but they will translate it for you, and if you convince them that eating chicken "on the bone" is fine for you there are some interesting items!

Andrew, I thought you had said that before, but I came in as a consumer, did not out myself as a food writer, and asked the friendly, young English-speaking server if they had an "authentic menu" available as an option. Absolutely not, he said, handing us the regular menu as the only choice. Your mileage apparently varies, or at least has done so in the past, but it wasn't working for us. so I wrote down what happened for me.

I agree, however, that they are very nice, try hard, and turn out a quality product in an attractive setting.

I thought I recognized the gray-haired, older Chinese male host from the Chinese restaurant that was in Springhurst for a while - not Peking City but a successor - but couldn't be certain.

Note that if you ask, they do have an "authentic" menu . . . it's in Chinese, but they will translate it for you, and if you convince them that eating chicken "on the bone" is fine for you there are some interesting items!

Andrew, I thought you had said that before, but I came in as a consumer, did not out myself as a food writer, and asked the friendly, young English-speaking server if they had an "authentic menu" available as an option. Absolutely not, he said, handing us the regular menu as the only choice. Your mileage apparently varies, or at least has done so in the past, but it wasn't working for us. so I wrote down what happened for me.

I agree, however, that they are very nice, try hard, and turn out a quality product in an attractive setting.

I thought I recognized the gray-haired, older Chinese male host from the Chinese restaurant that was in Springhurst for a while - not Peking City but a successor - but couldn't be certain.

Yes, Liang (of Liang's Chinese Bistro in Springhurst and before that front of house manager at Emperor (?) of China in Holiday Manor for years) is there.

When we got the authentic menu, we were with friends of the owner. She came up to greet our friends, and I asked her about authentic menus. She gave me the menu as a joke (since it's in Chinese), and then when I asked for translations didn't want to serve me any chicken dish (Americans don't like chicken on the bone according to her). It took a lot of persuading to get it, and even since then regular wait staff won't give me the menu unless I ask for the owner.

I have tried only two dishes from the "authentic" menu, as I think the normal menu is good, and appreciate the food and people!