"We did not enjoy our meal here and, in fact, left with most of it unfinished. The food just felt gross and subpar compared to other similar restaurants. Gyoza: $9 for 6 pieces. Instead of the standard, plumpy shapes, their gyoza were more like chips. Incredibly thin spread of meat inside some wrappers. Tea flight: $15 for the most underwhelming, diluted tea, which is bizzare considering we ordered teas that are known to be full bodied. Gyokuro is a highly prized, shade grown tea that is supposed to coat your mouth with umami. Fukamushi is a deep steamed green tea that should taste smooth, green, and sweet. Kyobancha is a roasted tea that should have warm, cocoa like notes. But, somehow, the tea that we received tasted weaker than Ito en bottled tea. For a place that has tea in its name, the teas offered have very little flavor for what should have been quite favorable teas. Chirashi: this $26 entree had less seafood than a regular $14 poke bowl from elsewhere. The tuna pieces looked and tasted like they were pre sliced and stored in the fridge. The squid was in calamari shape instead of a rectangular slice, which also felt not freshly prepared. The eel pieces were small and tasted like prepackaged eel from 99 ranch. Miso ramen: broth from an instant ramen package has more flavor and mouthfeel than the broth here. It had a strange watery vegetable and ginger taste. The noodles were thick and all break into short pieces. The worst offender was the BBQ pork that was Cantonese style chasiu with pink coloring, and did not taste good either. The whole culinary experience felt odd and inauthentic, in addition to the unappetizing flavors. The merchandise on the wall confirmed my suspension they labeled a Manchu style clothing wine sleeve as kimono. I do want to point out that the staff was incredibly friendly and attentive. But based on the culinary experience, I would avoid this restaurant."
