At the end of my last review of Tea House, the Twin Cities’ OG Sichuan restaurant, I noted that it would likely be less than three years—the time elapsed since the prior review—till we came back to eat there again. Well, that was in the spring of 2018. In my defense, the years of the high pandemic had something to do with many of my review plans/promises of that period not being kept. It’s also true that when we get on Highway 35 to go north for Sichuan food it’s very difficult to not get off at Exit 6 and head to Grand Szechuan instead of driving for another 20 minutes. In the interim, however, Jon Cheng—the Star Tribune’s restaurant critic and one of the few professionals in the area who doesn’t seem to think his main job is to be a booster—named Tea House the best Chinese restaurant in the metro. That was in 2022. We’ve been meaning to get there ever since to see if very dramatic changes had happened since our last visit. Well, we finally got there this past weekend. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →

Our first visit to Tea House in Minneapolis was almost three years ago. In my review of that meal I noted that while it was fine on the whole, nothing about it made it worth driving 20 more minutes each way over going to Grand Szechuan. However, after our recent return to Szechuan in Roseville, I figured we should give Tea House another try too—especially as occasional commenter, Jim Grinsfelder always speaks highly of them. Well, we went back a few weekends ago with most of our regular eating-out crew. And I am very happy to say that we liked this meal more than our first. Read on to see what we ate.  Continue reading →