1384 Dandenong Rd (Cnr Warrigal Rd)
Oakleigh, Vic 3166
Ph: 9563 1238
Opening Hours
Lunch:
Monday - Sunday
12:00 noon - 3:00 pm
Dinner:
Sunday - Thursday
5:30 pm - 10:30 pm
Friday - Saturday
5:30 pm - 11:00 pm
"Situated at the busy corner of Dandenong Road and Warrigal Road, Oakleigh, Tea Garden is a sophisticated Chinese restaurant where outstanding service and care is taken to ensure your dining experience is a celebration of quality food and wine.
Tea Garden Oakleigh – authentic Chinese cuisine, dim sum made on premises daily, relaxed atmosphere, semi-private dining room and friendly service – the place to be for all occasions."
We Ordered:
Appetizers
Pan fried dumplings $5.70
Steamed home made soup dumplings (Xiao Lung Bao) $6.40 for four
Mains
Steamed scallops on bean curd with black bean sauce $28.80
Char-grilled whole calamari served with BBQ sweet thick sauce $24.00
Golden fried crispy skin chicken $19.80
Pork chops in Mandarin sauce (light batter)$19.80
Side
Fried rice with dry scallop & egg white $18.00
Desserts
Chinese pancake (red bean) $11.00
Chinese pancake (egg custard) $11.00
Friday night, two of our friends joined us at Tea Garden.
One of my favourite Chinese Restaurants which I'm currently crazy about.
This little restaurant decorated in a chic modern style is located on a busy road,
under a serviced apartment in Oakleigh.
Minimal decoration, bright colour walls, dark wooden chairs,
traditional Chinese water colour paintings glass framed on display and lovely lovely white table clothes.
I love tables to be covered up by white clean clothes and missed so much about the wet hand towel handed to me by wait staff when arrival.
And now I miss Hong Kong a little, just for those hand towels restaurants served.
We started with DH's all time favourite: "soup dumplings".
Mind you, those were steaming hot.
Smooth tender skin, good portion of meat fillings.
Very fresh, very delicious.
While soup dumplings are incredibly hot in HuTong Dumpling Bar,
one of the most popular restaurants in town and on Urbanspoon, a restaurant review website.
Market Lane in the city is certainly mad about these tasty, juicy small steam buns with soup inside.
Food lovers, there are other restaurants who also served the dish well, just like here in Tea Garden.
Each of us ordered a main and we shared the dishes.
DH decided on the steamed scallops on bean curd with black bean sauce.
The black bean sauce was really nice, well balanced flavour.
Fresh, moist scallop cooked just right, not too raw or overly done.
And the tofu, fabulous! They were in heart shape. How sweet and thoughtful was that!
I wish I took a photo to show you how delicate those were.
The presentation was the king! Don't you want to have a serve?
The chef here is a master in cooking and also an artist in food decorating.
The other day I was surfing recipes of homemade Pekingese food,
there is a dish among them all I really want to have but
too hard for me to cook: pork slices in Mandarin sauce.
there is a dish among them all I really want to have but
too hard for me to cook: pork slices in Mandarin sauce.
I love to eat and I always dine out, unfortunately I'm not a very good cook.
I should said I don't have many opportunities to cook.
As I grown up in a family with maid, who did most of the cooking.
My parents were both workaholics and seldom cook
We used to go to Yum Cha and dinner every weekends.
We used to go to Yum Cha and dinner every weekends.
I guess it's a typical family style in Hong Kong.
One of my biggest regrets in life is
I don't have a mum who can hand me down the secret home recipes.
I don't have a mum who can hand me down the secret home recipes.
When I first started working,
I was extremely busy and work like a dog (the workaholic gene in me) and left me only time to sleep.
I was extremely busy and work like a dog (the workaholic gene in me) and left me only time to sleep.
Now, I just started to slow down a bit in life,
it seems learning how to cook is my first priority thing on the to do list apart from blogging.
it seems learning how to cook is my first priority thing on the to do list apart from blogging.
By reading books, surfing blogs, watching Youtube vidoes
and following Masterchefs on TV I still only can cook the same old dishes.
I know I need more practices and I will.
and following Masterchefs on TV I still only can cook the same old dishes.
I know I need more practices and I will.
Anyway, the dish is too difficult for a beginner who just started cooking.
It's better to eat in a nice restaurant where truly cook it well.
When I found it in the menu, I was a bit excited.
I have to say Tea Garden delivered the good old memories of one's childhood happiness.
Yum! The dish of the night.
Actually, it was not easy to pick a dish of the night as every dishes we had
were pretty delicious and well presented.
were pretty delicious and well presented.
The char-grilled whole calamari served with BBQ sweet thick sauce
was also a dish I will order again and again.
was also a dish I will order again and again.
Simply gorgeous!
And the high light of the night or everytime we were there was the dry scallop and egg white fried rice.
Smell it! See it! Taste it!
The crystal rice, golden dry scallop and green spring onions
make the most beautiful picturesque scene in a bowl!
make the most beautiful picturesque scene in a bowl!
I couldn't had enough.
It's a must have dish that I could consumed just by itself without any other dish on the table.
At last, we had the traditional Shanghai style pancakes with red bean and egg custard for desserts.
Great dishes to finish the night in a traditional way.
I wish I had the black sesame sweet soup as well.
Those pancakes are crepe like sweet pancakes that are popular in Shanghai.
The pancakes are made of common ingredients such as flour, sugar, eggs and oil.
The filling is made with red bean paste or egg custard.
These desserts are very popular in a shanghai cuisines cheap and expensive.
Sounds easy to make but I hardly find a restaurant cook them well.
Either the crepe is too thin or too thick or the paste in between is too little.
Those red bean pancake in Tea Garden were the best I had for a long time.
The restaurant is not close to where we live but a decent place we don't mind to travel a little.
However, Chadstone Shopping Center is only about five minutes away.
So next time after shopping, please pay it a visit and try their food.
We are so pleased to find an authentic Chinese restaurant with nice comfortable seats, tasty dishes, good service, and most importantly fair price.
And I wish you all enjoy their food as much as we do.
Bon Appetit!
Cuisine: Chinese, Yum Cha & Takeaway
Food: Excellent
Service: Good
Atmopshere: Good
Value: $$
Recommend: Excellent
