Van Tea Cafe

Reviews

• Shanon L.

  star star star star star_border 13 June 2026

  Great hk cafe in the Oakridge area. Very clean atmosphere and good food aswell! We went here for dinner on a Thursday night and it was quite empty. Main dishes came with a complementary daily soup which was nice but overly salty. I would recommend the chicken with ginger and green onion. It's nicely seasoned and the meat is so tender. The only slight inconvenience is that they only take cash and debit.

• Chris L.

  star star star star_border star_border 2 June 2026

  I'm a sucker for Hong Kong style cafes, so whenever I get to try a new one I'm always pretty excited.
  
  Came on a late night after some exercise. They had a happy hour menu available, which is a pleasant surprise as not every HK style cafe offers one anymore. Basically a smaller size of their main dishes served with your choice of a hot drink, at a discounted price. The restaurant was still fairly busy, with two large groups of patrons and a sprinkling of couples and singles throughout. I ordered a Baked Ox-Tongue Rice (it's good, trust me!) with a hot almond milk drink.
  
  (Aside: I tend to order the Baked Ox-Tongue Rice a lot at HK style cafes. Why? Because it's a staple in HK cuisine, and it can quickly give me a pretty good idea of the quality of food at the establishment)
  
  The food took a little longer to come than usual, but it is to be expected for a baked rice dish. First impressions of the dish are great - very clean appearance (even the ceramic dishware was fairly clean, which was impressive as they usually are pitted with burn/char marks throughout), not overloaded with cheese, and a healthy portion size.
  
  First bites however left more to be desired. I immediately noticed that the rice was just plain white rice, rather than the typical egg fried rice - which is a total game changer when it comes to flavor. The dish was also heavy with undercooked onions, and the ox tongue pieces were small and barely distinguishable from the rest of the dish. The tomato sauce itself was fine, but the rest of the constituents made this meal quite underwhelming. Overall, I found myself disappointed with the food considering how photogenic it was. The almond milk tasted OK.
  
  However, there are some other strong redeeming qualities for this restaurant.
  
  The first thing that struck me about the restaurant was that it is...unusually clean. The dining area is well lit, the menus aren't wrinkled and falling apart, the tables are relatively unmarked and the upholstery shows little to no signs of wear. Almost every other HK style cafe that I've visited has issues with at least one of the above, so it was very pleasant to find one that didn't have any of them whatsoever.
  
  Service here is also fairly good. The servers I found to be friendly and polite, responsive to requests and just overall pleasant. This is again another departure from my typical cafe experience - which makes me wonder if the level of service is inversely proportional to the tastiness of the food. One may never know.
  
  Pricing here is also slightly higher than average, but still relatively reasonable. There is ample parking from a small lot in the back as well as plenty of street parking.
  
  Overall, I wouldn't resist coming back here. Not my first choice for a HK cafe, but if you're looking for a good clean location to introduce someone to HK cuisine for the first time, it's not a bad place.

• Priscilla Y.

  star star star star_border star_border 26 May 2026

  I have wanted to try out this place for awhile after seeing some pretty good reviews and it was okay but I personally do not love Chinese food for dinner unless I make it myself.
  
  First I ordered the noodle since it was a good price and they let you choose 3 topping choices but unfortunately, the mix and match noodle was too msg filled and salty for my liking. They gave an ample amount of fish slices and the tendon was very soft plus my dad loved their stuffed fried tofu. My family also ordered the hainan chicken half size and it was quite bony with not much meat for the price. It was well donee though with free range chicken and tasty meat.
  
  We also got the red wine braised ox tail and a mix plate combo with three choice of meats. Both were a very large portion and came with soup, garlic bread and a choice of spaghetti, rice or fries. The braised oxtail had some veggies in a slightly oily sauce but was plenty flavourful. The mix plate was standard with a large portion of fish, chicken and pork. Fries were also good but again, the sauce was quite salty.
  
  Overall not a bad place to go for Chinese style eats for a reasonable price but I found the food heavy on msg and a little bit salty.

• Odie O.

  star star_border star_border star_border star_border 16 May 2026

  Service has gone way done one waitress we had didn't understand our cantonese order and still wasnt sure what i ordered after we told her 4 times i wanted plain noodles
  next time i paid with a hundred at the till for a small bill and the cashier rudely said that doesn't include tip i said i'll put it on the table but i wanted to say f u   bitch if she wasn't such a total hag i would have tipped more as our server was actually very good
  ruined my experience so i will avoid going there
  hopefully she wont work there in a year or two and i can go back then
  
  Wonton soup Noodles were overcooked egg noodles not the firmer wonton soup noodles one is supposed to use

• Lisa S.

  star star star star_border star_border 15 May 2026

  My family came here for dinner and it was alright.  The food was not bad.   It's average and edible.  Prices aren't that cheap though for east Van.   It's a pretty busy little restaurant.  It is located where the penny lane pub used to be.   They renovated it and it's much brighter and cleaner.  The decor is cute and feels clean,  and the service is not bad.  You can order noodles,  rice dishes and dishes to go with rice.  If you order dishes to go with rice, you automatically get the daily soup.  I would go back if I want Chinese food and don't want to drive far.  There's parking in the area which is a plus.