Oriental Tea House

Damn good place to go if u want actual Chinese food! The reason why Some give this place a one star is because they haven’t go to other Chinese places around the country, I personally been to the places in Los Angeles, in New York, in Detroit, in Utah, in Arizona, in Las Vegas and other places in SF, this place is the best so far. Especially the soy sauce chicken, the best I have ever taste since I came to the state. Exactly the same taste I got in Canton, China. The texture of it was a bit too rough, but I know it was due to the frozen meat that requires by law, is not the fault of the chief. The price are reasonable compare to other Chinese restaurant, while the amount of food are way too much for Asian’s stomach. The waiters are friendly to us as well, please forgive them for not speaking perfect English, they are trying their best already!

Disclaimer: This rating and review is based on years of visits and overall food quality and service; as a regular here, this review may come off a bit biased, but is written in all honesty and based on true personal experiences.**
My family comes here for dinner for almost every occasion; family outing, birthdays, holidays, etc.
Yes, the building (exterior and interior) isn’t fancy and looks run down, but for me what matters most is the food and the service.
Depending on the day of the week and time of the day, you may encounter large crowds or a fairly empty restaurant.
It seems like many come here for their dim sum and afternoon tea, but they’re best at their dinner dishes. Even as regulars, we hardly come for dim sum.
For dinner, come early before they close at 9pm. You will be greeted with tea and complimentary soup of the day. No it wont be the usual hot and sour soup that «Westernized» Chinese Restaurants serve; we’re talking delicious Papaya and Spare Rib Soup, Green Radish, Carrots, Pork Bone Soup, etc. Although they aren’t too keen on the presentation of the dishes, the proportions are huge and the taste is very authentic (similar to home style cooking). Definitely try many different dishes while you’re here, but some of our go-​to dishes are: their well-​known soy sauce chicken, sweet & sour pork, stir-​fried clams in black bean sauce, (occasional honey walnut prawns), seafood like their crabs, lobsters, and steamed fish, etc.
For dessert, we usually get their black sesame mochis, sweet soup, and mango pudding!
The servers and owners are actually really nice people, but it definitely take time to build up the relationship. Don’t pass over this restaurant due to its décor or appearance. Its food is definitely worth the drive over!

Great food, cheap price, short waits, easy parking, what more could you want?

If you are looking for very good customer service and decoration then this is definitely not the place that you want to go. They serve a good variety of Dim Sum here with cheap prices. If you think about all the cost factors, then you would realize why they don’t remodel the place to make it look nicer. Cost control is an important thing. If they want to keep the price as lower as they can then they will have to cut some other costs such as employee cost and decoration or remodeling cost etc. Keeping the prices low is the typical way of many Chinese business especial the family own business.
If you can ignore or tolerate the place then actually you can enjoy some good delicious food. I am a seafood lover and I like their spicy salty shrimps with shells, spicy salty crabs, and lobster with ginger and green onions. Also when the king crabs are in seasons, and if you are lucky they serve then you should definitely order it. I am pretty sure you will love it as much as I do. The last time when we had the king crab it was in Oct of last year. We ordered one whole crab and had they made it in three different ways. Steamed the legs with egg whites, cooked the body with ginger and green onions, and cooked the top shell and crab butter with egg noodles. I am already having a craving for it as just thinking of it…

Everything I expect from dim sum. Good food, good price, short wait, mostly good service. We did have a hard time getting them to give us water and refill it. I’ll just have to bring a water bottle next time and it’ll be perfect.

Went back, 2^nd time was awful. Tasted not fresh and the floor was dirty. DONE.

I came here for a banquet style dinner. The building itself looks really run down and the service was as expected for a Chinese restaurant, but that’s not what my ratings are usually based on. My bf’s aunt who we came here for said she usually comes here for dim sum… so hopefully the dim sum is a lot better than the dinner service. For dinner, we had cold cuts, peking duck, duck wrap ?, bok choy with mushroom, beef and tomato chow mein, sticky rice stuffed chicken, pork and taro, fried fish with cream corn, and almond jello. Usually, there’s something I like at Chinese restaurants, even if it’s just the dessert or the fortune cookie you get, but I did not enjoy too much. I think there is potential and maybe we didn’t order the right things… that’s why I gave this place 2 stars instead of 1. It wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t good.
The cold cuts were thickly cut and there were only 3 types of cold cuts. The peking duck was roasted well, but it was cut wrong. Usually the meat is cut thinly so you can put some with the skin, but this time you were only able to put the skin and eat a big chunk of meat separately. They were also missing the green onion and the sauce was given with the wrap. The group I went with were not Chinese, so I don’t think they knew to put the hoisen sauce on the buns to eat with the duck. The wrap was interesting… I think it was some of the duck stir fried with cabbage and served with a tortilla and hoisen sauce. I was very confused by this. It was oily and didn’t have any flavor. The bok choy with mushroom and beef tomato chow mein had flavor, but it wasn’t amazing. The sticky rice stuffed chicken, pork and taro, and fried fish with cream corn were all oily and not appealing. The chicken looked like a turtle and I was afraid, but then I saw the chicken head and I was like, ok, maybe. The sticky rice had no taste. I was expecting more of a 5 spice flavor or at least the taste of mushroom and Chinese sausage, but it just tasted of sticky rice, unfortunately. Then the almond jello at the end had a very mild almond taste. It was almost unrecognizable…
I’d come back to try their dim sum, but from what I’ve had so far… I’m not sure if I’d ever come back.

I give this place 5 stars for one reason. The spicy won ton soup has healing powers! Lol
Whenever I have a cold or sore throat this soup brings me back! So if you are sick and need some healing GET THE SPICY WONTON SOUP!

In celebration of the traditional Chinese New Year Eve dinner, we made reservation with Oriental Tea House (San Leandro) for a party of 22 for January 31, 2016. After waiting for about 20+ minutes, we were directed to go to the cold empty room on the other side along with another party of 10. The restaurant was not able to handle the business it received that evening; no staff came to check on us after tea was served and order taken. We refilled our teapots the entire evening since hot water dispenser/​boiler was in the same room.
Our reservation was at 7 pm; we arrived at the restaurant before 7 pm. No food was served until AFTER 8:15 pm. We were ready to walk out of the place. When asked about whether a certain dish was part of the set menu, or the extra dishes we had ordered, the server (also the owner) was annoyed. If only he had named the dish as he served it, we would not have wondered which dish was the additional dishes we had added. At the end, a 15% tip was included to our bill for the lousy service and the owner’s bad attitude. If the owner could not handle the business, why not hire more staff, or simply turn away the business?
We (the usual four) have eaten at this restaurant every now and then in recent years, and found the food decent and service a little below average. After how we were treated and charged on January 31, we are customers of the past.

Oh, how far the mighty have fallen…
After not having been here for a couple of years, we dropped in for some dim sum on a weekday. They weren’t very crowded but that’s not unusual, weekends is when they usually get packed. Michael and his sister were there. She greeted me in Cantonese saying that it had been so long since she’d seen me. Michael, in his typical «I’m so very busy» attitude never acknowledged us. But as stated before, customer service is not his specialty.
There was a funky smell as soon as we walked in the front doors. In general, the entire restaurant needs a good scrub down, some fresh paint, and other TLC. During our meal, my lunch companion wanted to go to the restroom. I suggested that she wait as my previous experience with their restrooms were less than satisfactory.
We were noticed quickly when we walked in and pointed to a table. After we sat, a pot of tea was put on the table that I had not ordered. For those who don’t know, when having dim sum, since you’re going to be charged for the tea, you can order the tea that you want. If they just put a pot down, it’s most likely Jasmine Tea from teabags rather than a Loose Leaf Tea. I had the young lady who brought the tea, take it away and bring one that I chose. In Cantonese, it’s called Gook Bo, a combination of Chrysanthemum (Gook Fah) and Pu-​er (Boo Li) Teas.
We had a variety of dishes. Amongst them Shrimp Dumpling (Hai Gow), Pork & Shrimp Dumpling (Siu Mai), Hai Cheung Fun (Shrimp Rice Roll), Sticky Rice (Naw Mai Fan), Steamed BBQ Pork Bun (Cha Siu Bow), Steamed Chinese Sausage Bun (Lop Cheung Bow) and Fried Taro Cake. Everything was passable except the last two. The Chinese Sausage was a bit dried out and the Taro Cake was either reheated from the day before or left on the flat top way the heck too long.
I know it’s difficult to run a business well. Especially when you work 6 or 7 days a week but once in while, it’s a good idea to get out and see what the competition is doing or you’ll get left behind.

I have a soft spot for this restaurant, so even though much better dim sum places exist, my husband and I still return to Oriental Tea House every once in a while.
AMBIENCE: Tired. Cleanliness questionable (why was my chopstick so sticky??). Usually full on the weekend. When you get there, go straight to the front desk to get yourself a number.
SERVICE: Servers come by with food on trays, rather than in carts. Prepare to wait for a while if you want tea, water, or anything else aside from the food going around. You may get lucky with one of the nicer, more efficient servers.
FOOD: Keep an eye out for steaming dishes, lest you get stuck with completely cold food. Siu mai, XO rice rolls, and deep fried minced meat dumplings are reliable picks.
VALUE: Cheaper than most dim sum spots. Probably the best part about this restaurant.
DRAWBACKS: Aforementioned cleanliness issue. Food quality not up to par with other East Bay dim sum restaurants.

Food: decent, nothing special
Service: Terrible, servers don’t pay attention to you and it takes them a half hour to get you water and then spill it all over your brocolli
Location: Ceiling looks like it’s covered in a thick layer of what looks like hardened asbestus shaving cream. Dirty fish tanks with depressed fish. Ugly dark bathrooms.
Update: originally gave 2 stars, but then when we left the restaurant (after leaving no tip given the bad service) the guy from the cash register waved us down and forced us to tip — I gave him 10% just to get rid of him. Never coming back.

The quality of the food here is poor. We ordered the chicken feet, pan fried turnip cake, beef balls, shrimp rice noodles, egg rolls, and chiu chow dumplings. For the most part, the food looks pretty standard except for the shrimp rice noodles. The noodles did not look appetizing at all. It was a mess. The turnip cake was flavorless. It was basically just a piece of dough… The chicken feet was also lacking flavor.
The look of the place is not pleasing either. It felt dirty especially since the chopsticks felt sticky. Ew…
The people that worked here were nice and checked in on us.
There is a parking lot which makes parking easy.
Dim sum is served until 3pm!

My BF and I came here with my dad on a Saturday and there was hardly any wait. But if you come on a Sunday this place is always super packed and you’ll forsure have to wait. When we got there were waiting for a while at our table because there was no food coming around. It took a while for the steamed stuff to come out which is our favorite. Other than waiting a while, their food is really good here. It’s good quality, tastes great and isn’t expensive.
The atmosphere here is kinda poor. It’s pretty dirty. As we were eating a spider literally fell onto our table from the ceiling. My plate had a shrimp tail on it. The bathrooms are gross. It’s pretty typical for a place like this though so I choose to ignore it and concentrate on my food.
All in all, this place is good for cheap dim sum. Expect to enjoy the place for the food and not how the restaurant looks.

Three words to describe the food and experience here; dis-​gus-​ting.
Terrible service, inedible food and they overcharged us.
I’ll stick with The Panda and eat guilo-​chinese instead.

We met a family friend here for lunch and you can order for a checklist which makes things easier. Each of us ordered at least 2 items. All were tasty but after a few hours, I felt heavy headed. Not sure if it was the food or the heat as Monday was a hot and humid day. We had chicken feet, green pepper with shrimp, shrimp dumplings, fried taro which was crispy, beef cheung fun (long rice roll) and pork siew mi

I’ve been coming here for dim sum all my life. I’ve tried MANY different spots but no other beats the cheong fun here. It’s super soft and fluffy. I always order 2 plates JUST for me. It’s that fucking good.
REALLY GOOD DIMSUM FOR A REALLY GOOD PRICE! It gets pretty packed after 11/​1130am though.
I feel like this place only has 3 stars because of the language barrier which equates to shitty service for some people. They get super busy though, cut them some slack!

Oriental Tea House is located in a pretty sketchy part of San Leandro, right off the freeway, you will see the run down looking type restaurant. The parking lot is very sketchy as well, so be careful when coming here and parking.
My family and I came here on a Sunday for lunch at around 1:30, and boy it was full house. We had to wait I would say about 10 minutes before we could get a table, and that’s table for 3. As we were waiting for a table inside the restuarant, you could tell it has not been remodeled or renovated in any way in such a long time. Even the outside is not really good looking at all, the waiting area is not appealing either.
While waiting, we could see all of the dim sum dishes circulating around the restaurant. Some looked better than others. After all that, we finally got a table. As soon as we sat down, a dim sum cart was next to us, so we ordered a few things off it. We couldn’t eat right away because we had to wait at least 5 – 8 minutes for someone to bring us plates and utensils. When brought, my plate had something pretty big on it and the waitress noticed and tried taking it off… but then went and got a new one. Whew…
There were quite the variety of dim sums being offered here. Many tables got a lot of BBQ Pork Buns togo, probably because of the cheap price of $ 2 for 3 BBQ Pork Buns, one order. So we got 2 orders of those, seeing as they must be good, either that or the price point was good. The BBQ Pork Buns were okay, they were extremely sweet, where much on the sweeter side of things. Much more sweet than most typical dim sum places.
They make a lot of Baked Dim Sum goods here, every second you see them carrying trays and trays of freshly baked goods, compared to many other dim sum places. They keep em comming here.
The kicker, was that when I got home to eat my Dan Tat, while eating one, there was black looking thingy in my Dan Tat! I couldn’t really tell what exactly it was, it could have been a bug possibly, or something else. But it was definitely black and not appealing.
The customer service here was okay, it wasn’t anything special, nor was it worth mentioning. The guy runs the front and cashier. They also sell Sing Tao Sunday Newspapers here.
Overall, the expierence here was meh, average, but i’ve definitely experienced better at other places. I’m not sure I would return.

This is a major go-​to place for my boyfriend and his family. They occasionally come here for dinner, but they are definitely VIPs for dim sum. It’s the prime location for the family to get together and have a meal once a week. They frequent Oriental Tea House so often, we just show up, and a table is free for us. I didn’t know people could love dim sum this much.
I can’t say it’s the best dim sum I’ve had, hence the 3 stars, but it’s probably one of the rare places where we get to sit so close to the kitchen that everything arrives at the table hot! There’s nothing more disappointing then watching a dim sum cart go around the room, only to arrive at your table with lukewarm food.
Only at my most recent trip there, I discovered their meat and cabbage buns. I absolutely loved it. The meat and cabbage to bun ratio was perfect for me. And the best part about it was the deliciously crispy bottom!

Likes: delicious Chinese food, great portions, decent prices
Dislikes: slow service during holidays. sometimes cups aren’t completely clean. I recommend wiping it with your napkin before pouring in tea.