We came here during the Grand Opening day. It was very busy but the restaurant had a system to keep things organized and moving along. You can submit your name and mobile phone # into their touch-screen system inside the restaurant, and they'll text you when your table is ready. You need to present yourself to the host within 5 minutes of being texted, otherwise you'll lose your table. We came early for dinner on Friday night, and it was a 30 to 40-minute wait. Despite the long lineup on Grand Opening, service was still good and attentive. Food came out fast and everything was of good quality. The menu has some special items that are unique to the Hangzhou region of China, not commonly found in other Chinese restaurants. The menu is divided into: Signature Items, Appetizers, Hot Dishes, Cold Dishes, Soup, Staple Food (carbs), Desserts, Drinks. The prices displayed are for regular vs. VIP membership (discounted if you hold a VIP membership card). Review of the specific items we ordered: 1) Century-old Egg & Tofu - I loved this dish! It was unique, smooth, and the century-old egg layers added a nice subtle flavour to the soft velvety tofu. 2) Braised Bamboo Shoots - Too sweet with an odd flavour. Not recommended. 3) Steamed Scallops with Garlic, Green Onions, and Vermicelli - One of our favourite dishes of the night. Highly recommended, especially if you like garlic. 4) Braised Abalone with Broccoli - Each order comes with one abalone. Nice and tender. 5) Teppanyaki (Grilled) Sea Bass - Great flavour, crispy on the outside, with good amount of fish meat. Be careful of the small bones. 6) Pea Sprouts in Golden Soup - Great portion, fresh greens, nice flavour without being overly salty. 7) Pumpkin Stuffed with Sticky Rice, Honey, and Red Date - The rice wasn't too sweet. It was great mixed with the pumpkin that you can scrape off the inside. Despite it being a 'small' pumpkin, there was a good amount of pumpkin inside. Overall it was a great dining experience. Kudos to the staff for managing the crowd despite the super busy opening day, and for the delicious unique menu items. We wouldn't hesitate going back again. read more

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Walked around Chinatown on a weekend afternoon and decided to try Green Tea, which is located right by Dundas and Spadina and specializes in Southern Chinese cuisine. Even though the restaurant is currently in soft opening, it was pretty busy when I got there late in the afternoon with the majority of the tables occupied. I would recommend getting a reservation to avoid waiting in line. They have an extensive menu full of unique dishes which can get a bit overwhelming so I recommend trying some of the dishes under the Green Tea Signature section of the menu. I really liked their barbeque chicken which came with pepper and two different types of sauce - pumpkin sauce and sweet chili sauce. The chicken was beautifully presented on top of a hot stone plate to keep the chicken warm. The skin was crispy and came in a decent portion size. read more

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Amazing Chinese restaurant! Their interior is very aesthetically pleasing, like a modern take on old tea houses. We were a small party and luckily a table was available immediately. They're quite busy most of the time--even outside of usual meal times--so reservations are recommended if you plan on coming in larger groups. The food selection here is all very extensive, but many are also unique--compared to the usual Chinese restaurant dishes. Their food is all very delicious! Everything comes out nice and hot, with great quality ingredients! The price point is a little higher than usual, but with their unique selections, I think it's worthwhile. read more

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Popped in at lunch time to check it out. When you enter, you have to go up a set of stairs to get to the dining area. They have tables in the middle with booths along the sides. It was clean and has nice decor and ambience. We ordered the beef temptation, fried chicken wings with salted egg yolk, sweet and sour pork ribs, and steamed rice. We originally ordered the steamed pumpkin with sticky rice and honey but they were out of pumpkins. (Which is surprising since it's the start of the weekend and they're smack dab in the middle of Chinatown. Plenty of pumpkins around to purchase locally.) The food came out very fast. First up was the sweet and sour ribs. The flavour of the sauce was okay (could be more tangy) but unfortunately the ribs were pretty dry. You needed to douse them in the sauce to make it easier to chew and swallow. Next were the chicken wings and wow. You could smell them coming from the kitchen to the table. It was very pungent! The taste wasn't as pungent but it was a very intense salted egg yolk flavour. I personally wasn't a fan but I can appreciate why someone would like them. Especially since I've never seen any other place make them like this before. Lastly, was the beef temptation. It was the best dish out of the three. Fresh vegetables (zucchini, bell peppers, and onions) stir fried with cubes of sirloin in a nice black pepper sauce. They also offer a membership program. $20 for 2 years and you get discounted prices as listed on their menu. (See pics). I'm not fond of restaurant membership offers. I feel there are other ways to entice loyalty without making your customers feel like they have to pay for fealty. The service was fast and courteous and overall the food was okay. For the prices they charge, I feel like it's not really worth going here. There are tons of Chinese restos with better food and better price points in their neighbourhood and all over the GTA. read more

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**3.5 rating** I had made reservations for 6:30 and was surprised to see that it was already super packed and busy. Unfortunately they did not have my table set aside...but luckily they managed to put some tables together for my small party of 3. The service here is pretty nice and they always checked up on you and made sure the food was good. Price point for the food I found a tad high compared to other Asian/Chinese cuisines. There are some dishes that are specifically tailored to this location including the Abalone and Braised Pork Belly, which for me was a must order. I like the sauce as it yummy with plain rice and came with 6 abalone. The pork belly was alright but a bit too fatty. I believe the price was ~$36-$37. Their famous BBQ Pork was good, although some were just complete fat. I did however, really enjoyed the seasoning that came with it. This was ~$15-$17. The favourite for me was the Scallop Vermicelli! I REALLY enjoyed the flavour that soaked the vermicelli, but the scallops were so small I actually thought they were mussels... it came with 6 pieces but for $17-$19 I thought it was pretty expensive. Based on taste alone though, I would still get it as it is my favourite dish of the night. You really can't go wrong with your pea sprout with golden sauce! Price was less than $10 (?) and I found the portion size bigger than other places. I also saw a lot of people ordering their Chicken with Pork Tripe White Peppered Soup so I decided to give it a try. It was okay, but I found it too salty and not enough pepper taste. Not worth the $22-$23. Lastly I wanted to order the sticky rice in lotus root but by 6:45 they already sold out... For drinks, I was really surprised that they had a jug of sugar cane juice! Loved it! For $9.99 it was the highlight of my night. Now I wished more places would sell the drink as well. Also note that they don't accept debit, charge +$3 for credit, and 10% off discount when paid with cash. It was a good thing I had brought cash with me as the only other method of payment I had was debit...it would have turned into an awkward situation. read more

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My experience here was mainly positive. First off, I was very impressed with the restaurant's clean and beautiful interior. The wooden chairs and tables were very modern. The servers prompted us to our seat at a booth. Booths are my favourite seating style as you are given plenty of table space for eating and food. On to the food... Menu items here are a tad bit pricey but I'd say that you get what you pay for. We ordered the BBQ Chicken, the Abalone with Marinated Pork, Noodles Mixed with Fried Onion and Soy Sauce, Galaxy Peach Gum, and HK Style Milk Tea. The BBQ chicken was served on an iron hot plate with sweet chili sauce and salt and chili powder. The chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. I loved dipping it into the sweet sauce. The noodles have to mixed at the table since the sauce sits at the bottom. The noodles had a fragrant onion aroma which I loved. The star of the show was the abalone and pork dish ($37). It was my first time trying abalone. The abalone had a slight chew and a clean taste. The pork belly cubes were very tender and was covered in delicious brown sauce. There were also quail eggs in the dish so it's quite a hefty plate of food. I highly recommend ordering rice with this dish. The peach gum dessert was a mysterious sweet slimy dessert consisting of some sort of jelly-like item. It was served warm. I wasn't a huge fan of the dessert. The HK Milk Tea was a bit too sweet for my liking. It had a lot of condensed milk in my opinion. I would definitely return to this joint to try other items on their menu. Overall, I was very satisfied with the food I ate here. read more

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Visited on the Monday night after its grand opening weekend, hoping to avoid the crowd since there was no more discount, but the restaurant was still packed. Luckily I made a reservation and the three of us were seated right away. The restaurant was so busy, the tables and chairs were still dirty. The prices of the dishes are on the higher end, so I opted for the $20 two-year VIP card which offer $1 - $3 discount off each dish immediately. Most of the dishes we ordered were recommended signature dishes: Rice Wine Pickled Duck Tongue, Edamame, Pig Tripe - nice little cold appetizer, my favourite was the duck tongue Barbecue Pork - served on a grill with candle to keep the meat hot, surprisingly dry and bland for pork belly, chilli spice on the side helped add a bit of flavor Fire Shrimp - skewers of shrimps wrapped in tin foil, sprayed with rubbing alcohol and lit on fire at the table. Wish they use drinking alcohol instead, the smell of rubbing alcohol was not too appetizing. The dish was a bit gimmicky and troublesome to eat, taste was ok Boiled Shrimp, Chicken Chunk, Pig Skin, Meat Ball, Fish Ball and Bamboo Shoot in Broth - lots of goodies in one pot, felt like a mini hot pot Boiled Chicken and Pig Tripe with White Pepper in Broth - peppery and warmed my belly, it got spicier near the bottom Fried Chicken Wings with Salted Egg Yorks - flavorful and juicy Stir-Fried Chinese Yam with Black Agaric and Celtuce - the only non-recommended dish on the menu, simple bland vegetarian dish that offer different levels of crunchy texture The restaurant was still new and did not offer free wifi yet. The staff seemed to be inexperienced and inattentive to details, did not mention beforehand about the $3 extra charge for paying by credit or the 10% discount if paying by cash. A simple sign for payment methods and the VIP card would help save time and questions. We were served by many different servers throughout the meal, and two of the dishes we ordered were missed. One was forgotten and one was sold out but they did not inform us until we asked. Hopefully the cleanliness and service will improve with time and experience, the meal was good and I would return to try out their other dishes. read more

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We, a group of 8 people, came here on Saturday evening for dinner. Green Tea restaurant has a high table turnover rate but I made reservation to be safe. It is kind of noisy so I can't really hear any conversation...Overall, the cuisine comes from Hangzhou, a city in east China. So the dishes are overall small and on the sweet side. Here are the dishes we ordered and comments: 1. sweet, smoked fish - this traditional dish is rather mediocre here. 2. Barbecue chicken - the most recommended dish. The skin is crispy and the meat is not too dry. 3. Mashed potato with beef slices in gravy - another recommended dish here. Mashed potato come nicely with the gravy. 4. Tofu with crab meat and egg yolk in stone pot - IT IS put in a stone pot, but there is no crab meat, no egg yolk but the egg tofu. 5. Braised pork belly - don't even order this one again! 6. Fried wintermelon with dried shrimp in soy sauce - it is ok but people from Hangzhou said this is not a dish from Hangzhou. 7. Fried rice - my friend from India really likes it:) 8. Bread temptation: it is rather a Hong Kong style dish, it is a bread with a scoop of ice-cream on top. Overall, I would recommend a smaller group (4 people) to dine. We might keep the barbecue chicken, mashed potato and try other dishes. read more

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Green Tea Restaurant is a new store in Chinatown. There's a line up for dinner. They have some nice dishes. My favourite was the steamed eggs and pork, which was really creamy. I also enjoyed their layered tofu and preserved eggs cold dish. It's unique and something that I really appreciated. I felt that the boiled chicken and BBQ pork fell under expectations. The portions were also smaller than I expected. I understand there are going for a higher end feel. The ambiance reflects that well. I think that because the restaurant is still new, some improvements to the service can be made. I had 4 different people serve me, which really makes the experience not feel high end. read more

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I enjoyed the food here. It's a step above the Chinese restaurants in the area and I really liked the clean modern decor. There is also a Markham location but this is my first visit to their restaurants. The place was pretty packed for our visit and so the service was a tad on the slow side, but i think this will improve as they were in soft opening phase during my visit. We tried the exclusive dishes that are available here - the Abalone with marinated pork; okra with fried beef; and the curry chicken with puff pastry. All three dishes were quite tasty, but I enjoyed the pork belly dish the most. Prices are not bad for what you get. Definitely worth a visit! read more

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MUST TRY: Okra with Fried Beef Abalone with Marinated Pork Chicken and Pig Tripe Soup Recommended: "Bread Temptation" - aka Brick Toast with ice cream OK: Barbecue Pork Curry Chicken Pot Pie The restaurant is a popular chain in China, specializing in cuisine from Hangzhou I tried several dishes off of the tasting menu. I'm not sure what the full menu prices are. The Chicken and Pig Tripe soup to start was surprisingly good, with a healthy dose of white pepper, and a small amount of ginger, to bring out the flavours of the broth. Okra with Fried Beef was excellent. Okra cooked well and not soggy. The beef slices are very thin, almost like a deli slice (see my picture). The dish is very flavourful with simple spices and without much oil. Abalone with Marinated Pork is very similar to Dongpo pork belly, but with a sauce that is slightly more savory. Most of the pork belly pieces were very tender as you would expect, although one piece was overcooked. The abalone cooked right, without much chewiness. The quail eggs and broccoli round out the dish well. For dessert, the Brick Toast (aka Bread Temptation) was excellent. Fresh cubes of buttered bread, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream The barbecue pork was disappointing. It is purposely different from normal Cha siu, with none of the usual sweet crust. Instead the thin slices of pork are higher in quality. It comes on a hot plate, but I'm not sure if the candle was supposed to be lit? In any case, the dish was ok, but the dry spice dip was not enough to make this memorable in any way. Curry chicken pot pie looked amazing. And while the golden brown curry was good, something about the puff pastry seemed off. An interesting and simple dish which could be improved with some tweaks. Servers were very friendly and attentive. While it took 45 minutes for the last dish to arrive, the soup arrived within a few minutes. I think this is reasonable considering the restaurant was full. The interior of the restaurant is clean, with simple tables and small booths read more

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Interesting menu items and some unique dishes. We went in a group of six and ordered the following: - shrimp stuffed chicken wings. Note the photo on the menu showed a serving of three wings, but after we ordered we discovered that one wing was eight dollars! They were huge and delicious but pricey! - sweet and sour fried fish which had a light delicate crispy texture and the sauce that was well-balanced and not overpowering - Fire shrimp - this is the foil packet that they light on fire at the table (after spraying some smelly rubbing alcohol on the outside, no joke). This was really a gimmick, it was just skewered prawns which were deep-fried in the sauce inside. The sauce was good, however everyone noticed the prawns were not fresh! - Pea shoots in golden broth was absolutely delicious and quite a huge portion - The barbeque chicken with pumpkin sauce was good, however they barely gave us enough dipping sauce (like 2 tablespoons in a side dish). Would have been nice if there had been a more generous portion of accompanying sauces. The food was good overall at 30% off, but I'm not sure I would pay regular price for some of the dishes. That said there is a unique and interesting menu and might return to try other dishes. read more

Green Tea Restaurant Downtown Toronto - Fire shrimp is overrated and kind of gimmicky. Shrimp wasn't fresh :( - Chinese Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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I came to visit Green Tea during the opening weekend (who can say no to a hefty 30% discount). For two people, we ordered the mashed potatoes dish with fatty beef, pea sprouts in golden soup, egg yolk chicken wings, stuff lotus roots and golden tofu pot. All the dishes were major hits with my boyfriend and I and the portions so big we brought a second dinner home. Green tea, with dishes from the hangzhou region, is a refreshing alternative to the commonly seen Chinese food in Chinatown. I look forward to returning too! read more

Food met my expection. campare to other southern china place its good. Service is not bad. not accapt credit card read more

The restaurant sold us($20) a vip card to get discount but refused to take discount during our second visit. Just because we brought a picture proof instead of bring an actual card. Sorry for being a snowflake but It's 2019 for god's sake you still expect people to bring an actual freaking card in their wallet? Oh yeah wait I must have left my card on my horse! Service was not prompt either. Waited 5 minutes until the male waiter noticed us to get some water, could really use more eye contact with customers instead of talking irrelevant things with other staffs. read more

Came here for dinner on a Tuesday night during their grand opening week. Restaurant was almost full. Been hearing good things from my foodie friends about how popular it is in southern China. Looking at their menu they got a lot of interesting dishes I have not seen at other restaurants. My friend and I decided to get the bbq chicken and the pumpkin filled with sticky rice. The bbq chicken had nice crispy skin, moist meat and was well seasoned. Also it came with pumpkin sauce, sweet sour sauce and mixed seasoning on the side to add even more flavour to the dish. The pumpkin stuffed with sticky rice was good to try for those that like sticky rice and pumpkin. Presentation was nice and portion size was good. It could use more flavour if you were to have it on your own. But its a good compliment to the flavour packed bbq chicken dish. Overall the meal was good and would be interested in trying other items on their menu in the future. read more

Green Tea Restaurant Downtown Toronto - Chinese Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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2 stars, but I'll explain why. First thing to mention is that the service here was absolutely amazing, I think that's why J stayed. Not to mention, the interior of the restaurant is stunning too, kind of took my off guard. However food wise....wouldn't rate it the same. We ordered a couple of their signatures such as the, 'BBQ Pork.' It was dry and too fatty. All of the food as a whole was very flavourless and not enjoyable. I was a bit deceived, the photos looked absolutely delicious but this was not the case. Thanks for reading! read more

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Came on Wednesday lunch, not many people. The dish quality is really good, worth revisiting. read more

Decent food worth trying. We ordered a green vegetable dish, a soup and a chicken dish. I can't say they are bad food but I wouldn't say they are great food since they seem to taste just as a normal restaurant. It's hard to believe people line up hours for their grand opening. read more

Green Tea Restaurant Downtown Toronto - Chinese Near Me - Toronto, Ontario

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I came for the steamed pumpkin stuffed with sticky rice and mixed with honey ($11.99). A few minutes after I ordered that and their BBQ chicken ($16.99?), they informed me that they ran out of the steamed pumpkin. They apologized profusely. I then ordered the meat and vegetable skewers in spicy sauce ($12.99). While I was waiting, I had a nice cup of tea. Their tea comes in a really heavy teapot, so be careful. The tea was nice and floral. I think it was jasmine tea but I'm not 100% sure. The chicken came first. It comes on a cast iron pan so be careful cuz that thing is hot. It's served with three kinds of accompaniments: sweet chili sauce, pumpkin sauce, and some sort of chili flakes. The pumpkin sauce was very mild in flavor. I don't think it added all that much to the chicken itself but I could just eat the sauce with a spoon and be happy that way too. I mean, it's basically just pumpkin puree. The chicken was not the juiciest chicken I've ever had but it was by no means dry and the skin was very crispy, which I appreciated a lot. The meat and veggie skewers came after. I had asked the waiter what kinds of skewers it came with, but he was unable to answer me and referred me to the picture on the back of the menu where it was listed as one of their specialties. I had already seen the picture, so his answer didn't help all that much, but I ordered it anyways. The veggies were um...just seaweed knots. There were three skewers of seaweed knots. There were also four of what may have been sliced heart or kidney (I'm guessing of chicken), two of sliced beef shank, and three of cubes of chicken. That's 12 skewers in a pot of a chili oil, soy, vinegar, etc. sauce. For the price, I was fairly pleased with the number of skewers I got. These were spicy and numbing and flavorful. I had perhaps three with my tea before I decided to call it quits because I'm not strong enough to take that delicious pain. I did bring the rest and the sauce home. The sauce went towards homemade zhajiang noodles and also made a tasty sauce for my dried tofu strips. Service was surprisingly pleasant for a Chinese restaurant and they do speak English. They gave me a discounted price for the skewers because they didn't have the steamed pumpkin, which was very kind of them. They also tried to help me pack my leftovers into boxes instead of leaving the boxes on the table for me to pack myself. I know they have some sort of VIP pricing but I didn't see any indication of how that worked. I still have to go back for the pumpkin... read more

We came Green Tea Restaurant for a particular dish which is called Fire Shrimps that was served with a big fire that made everyone take a video of it. However, the taste of the dish is not as good as its looking... I will say that those shrimps were not soaked enought with plenty of flavour from the marinade. read more

Good food, TERRIBLE SERVICE, the guys and girls are rude on the weekends and weekend nights for sit down service and just as rude for takeout, I regret getting my discount membership...owners take the time to come in and see what's going on...they smoke in the front of the restaurant and play their music very loudly in the restaurant...most diners don't want to listen to loud chinese hip hop! You've lost control of your restaurant and if you knew what was going on and didn't care, shame on you. read more

They have some good dishes and most food are very decent. However it's also very pricey. The downside is that they only accept cash and Debit card. There was no sign at the door letting people know about that. read more

Green Tea is located on Spadina just south of Dundas on the east side. It's a pleasant restaurant with booths on the sides and tables in the centre. Lots of good choices in the menu with some unique dishes. We enjoyed BBQ pork, chicken stuffed with shrimp, scallops on the half shell rice and tofu. A little bit pricier than most places in the area but it has some tasty dishes worth trying. read more

1. A disgrace to Chinese food 2. No signage of "debit only" 3. Server won't remind you about debit only 4. If you used your credit card, the server will force you to pay a 3 dollar fee. If you enjoy paying for the servers' mistakes then please come! read more

Decided to come here for the first time after walking by the past couple months. The food was average and didn't really stand out. Other than the decor, there really isn't much difference to a shitty restaurant with average food. Do not be deceived! What really disturbed me is that their servers tend to squat near the back with their bubble tea instead of helping their customers. I've heard of many stories were the staff have not communicated or did not honor discounts before. Very sketchy. Bad business practices. Average food. If you're looking for a good experience, look elsewhere read more

4 out of 6 dishes coming with broken dinnerwares, which shows no respect and make our dining experience not very enjoyable. In addition, the food doesn't taste like they are freshly made. read more

Friendly service, bu the food was below average and quite expensive. Nothing out of ordinary.