Om Shan Tea

Great ambiance, really tasty healthy food, and in interesting clientele to talk with. They also bring a tent to some festivals, and create great community spaces. Went there a few days ago and found it closed, seems like unfortunately the owner got jailed for a victimless crime.
I send from here my best wishes to him, and hope that the laws change so that blatantly unfair circumstances like this one stop occurring.

(This review is for its food and not for its tea service)
I like the concept of this place and really wanted to love it, but it fell short of my expectations as a place to enjoy a meal.
First, if you’re seated at one of the communal tables, the table is really low and it’s difficult to eat there — it might be okay for drinking tea, but for eating, it is at a really awkward height.
I like the simplicity of the food — and yes, the food is really fresh — but it’s also overpriced. With the exception of the soup, the grain and salad bowls are simple dishes that you can whip up easily at home. And if you want any kind of extra condiment like almond butter or tahini dressing, it will cost you an extra $ 2. The monk bowl is tasty and filling but again, it’s overpriced for what it is. I actually loved what was in it, but when you’re looking at the price point for the base ingredients, it’s difficult to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.
The waitress was really nice but this place is understaffed so the service suffers as a result.
I wish there were more places like Om Shan Tea around that served really healthy and fresh food — but the concept itself could be refined to produce a more pleasant and cost-​efficient experience.

This place is overrated for tea. The teas are not only overpriced but the staff didn’t seem to pay particular attention to brewing, and other nuances in tea or tea service that you would expect a teahouse to emphasize. (If you are looking for this type of service I recommend «Taste» in Hayes Valley.)
Instead, the reviewers must appreciate Om Shan for the communal experience. The majority of the seating surround two large rectangular tables. It reminded me of a co-​op or the communal space in a hostel. Not particularly zen, but conducive to conversation.
This is definitely not a place to bring your laptop to get work done. The seats are uncomfortable if you plan on typing on your computer (no back support). But I think that may be the idea.

I want to like this place because i’m on a mission to frequent every tea house in the city. but man. i had to give it only 2 stars
pros:
obviously they are trying to provide delicious, quality food
yummy avocado, olive open faced sandwich
delish cookies and chocolates (ordered 1 cookie $ 5, and three chocolates $ 12)
yummy apple butter and almond butter
cons:
*For two of us … $ 65 !! — not worth it!
*My tea consisted of two rosebuds and a few sprigs of peppermint. * $ 9!
*the staff is nice, but was all over the place. (not focused). our waittress was hanging out at another table talking about «chakras». it took forever to get anything we asked for. napkins, more food, the bill, etc etc.
* food was delicious. but goodness, WAAYYY too expensive for what it is.

my husband said he was taking me to brunch, but he wouldn’t say where we were going. all he said was that the place was near 14^th and mission and had awesome tea. of course, i am too curious for my own good, so i looked up google maps for restaurants around the area. i came across om shan tea, went on Unilocal,and saw that there was a Unilocal deal! hubby was upset that i ruined the surprise, but i was quickly forgiven when i told him i got a Unilocal deal. :)
we ate sooo much here. we started off w/​the cinnamon plum tea, and it was delicious… naturally sweet w/​o sugar. for food, we got the om soup, the monk bowl w/​2 extra sides, and a sandwich. even tho i ate a lot, i felt super clean and want try replicate all the food back home. i loved all the whole grains, sweet potatoes, and beets that came w/​everything. yum!
we will definitely be back.

One and done.
DF and I came for tea one evening and I was very disappointed. I ordered the hot chocolate. It was bland, overpriced ($ 6 a cup!), and wasn’t served with coconut sugar on the side as advertised. DF initially ordered the mint tea, which I immediately switched to chrysanthemum tea. Our waitress then told me, «I knew you were going to do that» (how creepy), yet she still brought out mint tea (how irritating). The mint tea was $ 6, and it was literally water with a sprig of mint! The waitress also charged us $ 3 for an extra cup to share the mint tea, even though I ordered my own cup of tea. What the heck! I absolutely loathe her.
DF also had a monk bowl with quinoa, beets, sweet potato, and butternut squash. He liked how light yet filling it was, but it was also overpriced at $ 8. I can’t believe how highly rated this tea lounge is. I’m Buddhist and I dislike it. Not sorry.

Namaste.
Appropriate salutation after the:
— Monk Bowl. Quinoa with steamed beets, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Customize with additional items, or just eat this delicious dish as is.
— Dark Guayusa. Latin American tea full of caffeine, antioxidants and flavor. Served Chinese ceremony style. Product and process were excellent.
— Laptop stand. Useful and appreciated while using the free WiFi.
— Service. Welcoming and relaxing.
Stress diminished and a sense of peace and calm took over throughout my stay. Namaste indeed.

Their house herbal is beyond what’s up. It’s a blissful brew of blessedness. A heavenly assortment of of herbs, intermingled together — creating a soup like sipping concoction that just invites you to relax and be.
Om Shan Tea is always the highlight for me at any festival or music event that they partake in. It’s such a uniquely beautiful part of the Bay Area. I love the fusion of tea and social gatherings being melded together.
Om Shan — please never leave San Francisco. We need your Tea-​riffic energy here.
Trust.

Excellent peaceful space to relax.
There are board games and books, and lots of kinds of tea.
The only non-​relaxing thing is the chairs, which are just little stools with bean bag type cushions on them (probably buckwheat or something similar).
The food is excellent. Om Shan advertises vegan hypoallergenic food, using no canned goods, or fried foods. It was a lot like being in my home kitchen, but having someone else do all the shopping and cooking.
There isn’t much variety in the food menu, but you can customize the quinoa bowl with numerous options. I tried shiitake and collards, they also had black eyed peas, a wide variety of nuts and seeds, pink lady apples, and numerous other options.
The adzuki rice vegetable soup was excellent, and I wished I had ordered more of it.
San Francisco usually feels too frantic, crowded and dirty for me. Om Shan was a really nice change of pace.
Note: Service can be slow, including cooking your food fresh for you, so don’t come here expecting a fast meal. Dinner took about 2 hours from start to finish. A fellow nearby came later and left earlier, so 1.5 hrs is probably doable.

I went here on a limb before a show at Public Works because the lymph nodes in my neck were swollen, making it really hard to swallow and I was super uncomfortable. I told the lovely hostess/​server my problem and she recommended the House Blend. It was delicious, and I don’t ever drink tea.
We each ordered the bowl with Japanese sweet potato, beets, and quinoa and the lovely server/​hostess had run out of quinoa and had to make more so it took about 30 – 45 minutes. She gave us some delicious nuts and stuff to snack on while we waited. The food was all amazing. All healthy stuff that you can eat a ton of and still feel good. I drank the tea for about 45 minutes and it cured my throat almost completely. Since we were the last people in there just before close, she even gave us some delicious lentil soup that was gonna go to waste. This place is a blessing.
Also, I didn’t notice a high price like some of the other reviews mentioned. They gave us a ton of tea and food and we got the Unilocal deal so it only cost us about 15 bucks total between the two of us.

I’m wobbling between a 3 and 4.
The tea was wonderful a fresh decadent mint and my bowl of sweet potato was just right, but the price wise a tad high for the size/​amount you get.
The space is very woo woo (which, if you’re in the right mood, could work for you) but the seats are really quite awkward (frankly I’d love it if they offered pillows on the floor). I think if the space were in Japantown or close to a spa they’d make a killing, but as it is much of the ambiance is lost since it’s in the Mission.
I loved their tea tables and the service was great, I just don’t know if I ‘d come back.

The first time I came here– the place was close to empty, but it was early on a Friday morning. It’s a mellow and relaxing place to meet someone if you plan to do a lot of talking. There are wide variety of teas to drink.
They host a lot of events and/​or cater to lots of festivals and shows– this is where I’ve experienced them the most. I love their teas and their always loving and helpful hosts that pour it for you. Om Shan tea is a unique San Franciscan experience– It’s a laid-​back, earthy place that is like no other place I’ve ever been to.

Walking into Om Shan is like walking into someone’s living room — someone who happens to make really really good tea. Om shan is a cozy, mellow place with friendly people and a wide array of loose leaf teas. Their herbal selection is particularly impressive. They also have yummy food, all prepared vegan. Try the Chickpea Miso soup or the Monk Bowl.
Om Shan is a cheaper and more laid-​back alternative to Samovar — another great lounge. It’s basically a perfect place to relax and sip excessive amounts of tea while pondering what a great city we live in.

We came here looking for a place to relax, drink tea, and catch up with some world traveling friends. What a fabulous find! We each got a different pot of tea and we passed it around and enjoyed ourselves. We also ordered a few of the chocolates (get the Mayan Chocolate, fantastic!) and just had a beautiful evening together.
The atmosphere is great, non-​judgmental, relaxing, and just calming. The service was great, the guy was very nice about explaining things to us and didn’t give us any attitude. The boyfriend and I don’t really drink tea, so this was a lovely find for us and we may have to come back!

I was feeling terrible after a massive sandwich at noon so, for dinner, I thought I’d go out for something a little lighter. I REALLY craved something healthy and WITHOUT meat (kind of compensating for noon). Since this place was described as the highest ranked vegan restaurant in San Francisco, I gave it a shot and, boy (oh, boy !), was I glad I did so !
— Awesome atmosphere, real zen (which makes it a good place to conversate with super cool, open-​minded strangers)
— VERY patient and friendly staff which, even though I was an absolute alien to vegan restaurants before I ate at this place, helped me through the entire menu (food and tea alike) and made sure I chose something that would suit my tastes.
— GREAT FOOD ! Absolutely perfect. I took a bowl (which is the largest of two possible portions) of Om Soup along with a cup of tulsi tea and both hit the spot. The best part was that the owner knew the effects each and every plant listed on the menu has on the human body so, when I was finished eating, I felt the relaxation from my tea and all that good, healthy energy I had just put inside my body thanks to that awesome bowl of soup (I wasn’t tired AT ALL afterwards, au contraire !).
And all that goodness only cost me $ 15 :)
In other words, GO THERE, it’s a place for both vegans and curious non-​vegans such as myself !
THANK YOU, Om Shan Tea !

My friend Tim kept raving about this place for months before I finally visited it. He knows I love tea, especially Chinese tea, so that was the draw. Once I got there though, I realized why Tim had been so insistent. This is not just a place like Imperial Tea Court or Samovar where people go once in a while to buy and drink tea, eat a little something. This is a warm friendly community space; everyone I meet there is a wonderful human being doing great things in the world. All of the staff bring knowledge, cultivation, and kind friendly service to the experience.
The food is exactly what I wish other restaurants would serve, organic ingredients, lightly cooked, preserving the integrity of the flavors. I could eat here every day. My favorite is the Om Shan Soup. It has beans, grains and root vegetables, and some light curry spices. It tastes delicious and very nourishing. Very few places in the city offer a large amount of cooked greens every day. I also love the beets, turnips and sweet potatoes. Another favorite offering is on the Small Sides menu. They offer sliced pink lady apples. So simple, but just the thing I’d want to snack on. I get mine with the almond butter or the dried mulberries.
On the drinks side of things, I almost always order the Cooked Puerh tea, but I’m starting to branch out. Tim always orders the house herbal, which is delicious and very balancing. I think it has Huang Qi, Astragalus Root, and something like seven other ingredients. There is also Tulsi Tea, which has a plethora of healing properties and is very tasty. My favorite new item is the Raw Hot Chocolate. It’s made with hemp milk and coconut milk, really good cocoa, and a few secret ingredients. AMAZING! You have to try it to believe it.
One of the best things about Om Shan Tea is that it’s open until midnight most days, and it has good free internet. It’s a perfect place to work or read, or just enjoy a beautiful space with friends drinking tea.

wow this place is a great fine. I loved having tea time here
i brought a few friends here and they were blow away on how great the tea is. the staff was super helpful and nice telling us good thing to try and show us how to pour the tea.
people keep saying this place is expensive when its not. if you been to Samovar tea than u know that place is expensive… om sha does charge and extra 3 for a cup but that’s nothing compare to the priceless of Samovar. also this place is less touristy
i will be comeing back to Om Sha
.

I love Om Shan tea. It’s quiet and unpretentious, and I’m so glad that it’s open late, so that if I’m craving thirty tiny cups of tea, I have a place to go. I usually get one of the pu-​erhs, and I love that it *never* fails to make me feel good.
The vegan food is so amazingly flavorful, which I didn’t realize was really a thing until I tried it. Their snacks and chocolates are also very very tasty.
I do miss the tea bar and hope they bring it back, but such is life.

Om Shan Tea does a good job of replicating the feel of an old world tea salon with lots of dark wood, teak and wall decorations. This is not a place to bring your laptop. It’s also quiet and serves an entirely vegan menu. For these reasons, it blows away Samovar.
On the other hand, Om Shan Tea suffers from the same affliction as Samovar in that it turns tea-​drinking into an expensive touristy affair, and accordingly charges absurd prices for its products. San Francisco should be ashamed of itself for producing this type of money-​driven tea culture (the tea shops in Chinatown are even worse).
Om Shan Tea has many problems, aside from pricing. To start, the tea selection is highly limited; there’s only one black tea available, for example. I almost thought it was a joke. How can a tea shop only offer one type of black tea? Granted, they have a couple oolongs, and a number of green teas. In any case, they were also out of stock of the black tea when I asked for it.
Onto an oolong. A pot cost $ 6, but an extra cup costs $ 3. As such, this place is pretty damn expensive, just like Samovar. Granted, you do get multiple steeps out of each pot.
This is a shame. I’ve been to far better tea shops elsewhere in the US (Minneapolis, Chicago and New York come to mind), which offer better variety and ambiance, but charge more reasonable rates (say $ 3 – 5 per pot, and don’t charge for extra cups). Tea is a shared experience and Om Shan Tea apparently wants to capitalize on that, much to the detriment of its customers’ wallets.
We wanted some sweets to go with the tea, but all of Om Shan Tea’s raw chocolate desserts were out of stock. Instead we ended up with a small plate of dates for $ 2.
Om Shan Tea has other food options as well, but they’re of the «steamed vegetable and quinoa» variety, which not only sound horribly bland, but also don’t go that well with tea. Why not offer savory vegan dumplings, Middle Eastern snacks such as hummus and pita, or a wider array of vegan desserts?
The service was friendly, but not particularly attentive.
There’s also a sense of decay and grubbiness about the place. It definitely needs a good scrubbing, and the grated tables need to be cleaned as well (lord knows how much tea has spilled through those grates).
If you like tea, or if you are vegan, you shouldn’t go out of your way to try Om Shan Tea. It has a lot of room for improvement.

(See pics)
Needing a zen state of mind to cleanse and away from the outside world? Om Shan Tea is the place.
You will walk by and find the curtains down, doors closed but the lovely stand outside will welcome you.
The warm temperature inside will not make you sweat and you would want to order tea, listening to the calming music, sitting on the low bamboo chairs while having something to nibble on. They have a shelf of books if you want to browse, or simply chatting along. The high windows have the sun coming through like rays of life, inviting you to linger a little longer and ponder thoughts that were once forgotten.
I love monk salad that was with beets, warm sweet potatoes, quinoa, added raisins and seaweed. It was very delicious.
Service was beautiful and this local tea house is totally different from the modern ones you see. This place, on the other hand, is more like you actually traveled to far east Asia.