Cha for Tea, Taiwan
Cha for tea is a chained tea company and restaurant in Taiwan. Most of their meals are light, and paired with or used tea as one of their ingredients.
Ordering food here is pretty simple, as they have different kinds of set menus for about $8-$12. The difference between the prices depends on the main dish. I decided to get the Steamed fish (main course) set menu. The rest of the 5 items, you get to choose, usually 2-3 items in each category. This set menu with choices thing is quite popular in Taiwan now.
My meal started off with some very nice chilled soft tofu in light soy based sauce. It was very refreshing start. There was also a shot of plum tea, to cleanse my pallet. Next came the mushroom soup, and again, the broth was very light. It had a few pieces of shitaki and oyster mushrooms a long with carrots and pea sprouts.
For the side dish to go with the main, I picked another mushroom dish. It was steamed oyster mushroom with a little bit of satay sauce, a little heavy in flavor compared to the previous courses, but still very nice. The steamed fish was a simple dish with sweet miso glaze, topped with green onions, and very thinly sliced red and yellow peppers. It came with a bowl of steamed rice and was very tasty. The portion size was just right, didn’t leave me too full for dessert.
I also made a side order of pan fried shrimp buns to share with my cousin. The filling had lots of chives and a few pieces of shrimp, pan fried but not too oily.
I picked tea jello for my dessert. It was chilled, had lots of tea flavor, and not too sweet. I was given some cream to pour on top of the jello, but eating it on its own was tasty enough for me.
Each of us also got a personalized pot of tea at the end of the meal that we didn’t have to order, just a nice light tea to end the meal with.
I really enjoyed eating here. I ate lots but it didn’t feel like I ate lots of heavy food and I wasn’t overly full either. Great place to check out.
