Ten Ren Cha For Tea – Sydney CBD, NSW
Why is it so difficult to find a restaurant that opens after 10pm in Sydney CBD?
I find it hard to believe that Sydney is a big city yet there are not many restaurants that open late. Friends from overseas laughed at me when I told them the shopping malls here in Australia closed at 5pm. Yep, I can’t defend myself on that one, it is a joke.
Do you remember the art deco Alexander’s cafe across the street from Town Hall in CBD that opened 24 hours many years back? I loved that haunt. Despite the smokey air inside, drunkards and the lousy food; it is definitely an iconic after-midnight savior for those who were a little peckish. City Extra is simply too far down at Circular Quay for some midnight snacks.
The time is 11.00 pm on a Friday night, I am with Helen, Simon and Yas plus Mr & Mrs Pig Flyin, strutting down George Street in Sydney CBD in the hope of finding a restaurant that is still open for some after-meal desserts. After trying two restaurants with no luck, Mr & Mrs Pig Flying have given up and decided to call it a night, leaving us the die hard foodbloggers to go for the food hunt ourselves. A quick peek at World Square to confirm Din Tai Fung is shut after 10pm, eventually we are pretty much given up hope and settled at Cha For Tea, a Taiwanese tea house that closes at 12.30am on a friday night.
Clockwise L to R: Cha For Tea colourful menu; Apple green tea - Large 7.50l; Coffee Jelly milk tea - $7.50; mystery drink that we didn't order
We bypassed all the Ten Ren’s tea products at the shop front and made our way through to the in-house Cha For Tea cafe upstairs. The cafe is brightly lit with fluorescent lamps and everything seems painfully brighter at this time of night. Me and Helen chuckled at how the layout of the cafe resembles the one in Restaurant City computer game on Facebook with low glass wall dividers to mark out the walking path to the tables.
There are more than just your usual hot Chinese tea in the menu – flavoured ice tea, milk tea with QQ (tapioca pearls), tea flavoured crushed ice, tea with fruit, tea with fiber (ice), herbal tea, the list goes on. With over 200 different drinks in the menu, it will take us some time to make our decisions. There is also a hot menu with Taiwanese snacks and noodle dishes for those who prefer a substantial supper than just a casual drink. It is pretty busy at the cafe, and seems difficult to get the waiter’s attention to take our orders. After another short wait, our drinks have finally arrived. As Helen happily settled on crushed ice, we ordered three drinks each – apple green ice tea, coffee jelly milk tea, coffee and milk tea mix, and also a mystery drink mistakenly landed on our table. The manager comes back to our table trying to rectify the missing drink from another table and scolded at the waiter who stuffed up the order. But it is too late as the water level in the glass miraculously one centimeter below the rim, oops!
Crushed ice with peanut, milk, azuki bean paste, green tea ice cream - 7.50
Helen’s dream of beautiful crushed ice with QQ also comes crashing down after being informed that they run out of QQ, and it will take another 20 minutes to cook them. Helen determines to wait for her chewy tapioca pearls but alas, the waiter comes back 5 minutes later with another bad news to tell us that the freshly cooked QQ are just enough for the drinks ordered at another table. I personally think it is an excuse as it pushes to their closing time and trying to persuade us not to go ahead with the QQ. No QQ, Helen eventually settled on azuki red bean as the alternative.
crispy chicken fried - 5.80
While Simon is happily cooling down with his 3 scoops Japanese matcha ice cream, he also orders a side of crispy chicken fried and share among us. The chicken pieces are heavily rendered in collagen and fat, coated with five spice and deep fried to deep golden brown. It is tasty with an earth shattering crunch, but I can feel my cholesterol level risen on each bite.
Pu-Er tea flavoured noodle with beef brisket and pickled vegetable - 10.80
Everyone doesn’t seem to be hungry, except me (hmm… that says alot) and ordered myself a big bowl of Pu-Er tea flavoured beef brisket noodle from the Specials menu. Can’t say I really know what Pu-Er tea taste like, but the beef briskets have definitely been braised for a long period of time, with a strong aromatic herbal flavour and it just falls apart easily. Nicely balanced with some crunchy pickled vegetable that is sour and salty at the same time. The Udon noodle used in the dish is rather heavy and filling, I left most untouched but happily polishing off all the beautiful tender beef briskets.
Clockwise L to R: Japanese macha ice cream -4.80; thick moreish udon noodle with flavoursome Pu-Er tea soup; Taiwanese meat ball - 3.80; Tea flavour azuki bean crushed ice - 7.50
I was a little ambitious and being kind to order a plate of Taiwanese meat balls to share and it is the last thing to arrive at our table way too late as we all thought they would have already forgotten about the order. Two meat balls which look more like flattened glutinous rice dumplings with the diameter of a tennis ball are dead lying in a pool of bloody chili sauce. The strong garlic smell is off putting and no one wants to touch it despite my generous humble offer. I poke it with chopsticks just to make sure it is not some alien life form and slowly split them in half revealing a gooey starchy mess of pork mince, chives and garlic. A dish best to leave untouched after 12.30am.
By the time we finished and it is already way passed their closing time at 1am. The shop is already closed with roller door half shut and we have to duck our heads down to walk out the shop into the chilled winter air. I really hope that the “sup-culture” will catch on here in Sydney and have more restaurants and cafes open till later hours to satiate us, the midnight supperers.
Ten Ren (Cha for Tea) 696 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Tel: +61 (02) 9281 1887 Open 7 days, 9am - 11pm Fri - Sat, opens till 12.30am
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
HAHAHAHA the meatballs were aliiiiiiiiiive!!!
yup I totally agree, scrap the thursday late night shopping, and open late for weekends instead I’ll say!
.-= Yas´s last blog ..Something fishy going on at dinner. =-.
Well, LA is frigging big too and yes, hard to find restaurants that open after 10 pm, too.
.-= Rasa Malaysia´s last blog ..seafood_montage_0.jpg =-.
Oh I remember Alexander’s! I use to take refuge on hot days for their peach ice tea and have a few smokes. The good ol’ days. ..
Don’t forget there’s also Pancakes at the Rocks but I guess that’s a bit of a walk. 11pm Friday night? After-meal desserts? You guys forgot Mamak?!
.-= Karen´s last blog ..Daring Bakers Challenge: Mixed Berry Vol-au-vents =-.
ha, just open late all the time, the place is so crowded, that by opening all the time there can be more space. It is a tragedy as it is.
.-= yewenyi´s last blog ..more stupid mobile phone laws =-.
Had been to sydney for the last weekend and oh boy, I thought I never left Melbourne. Bloody chill is everywhere man. There is also ten ren in melb as well. I’ve been there for the drinks only though.
.-= Cruxie Faye´s last blog ..Review at Coconut House =-.
The crushed ice with beans looks very intruiging. I’ve never seen anything like it before!
.-= Anita´s last blog ..Vols-au-Vents – Daring Bakers Challenge September 2009 =-.
The crushed ice with beans looks very intruiging. I’ve never seen anything like it before!
.-= Anita´s last blog ..Vols-au-Vents – Daring Bakers Challenge September 2009 =-.
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to tell you great post!
We really need to get some proper crushed ice machines here in syd. The crispy fried chicken look really good though mmmmmm
.-= FFichiban´s last blog ..Ice Cube – Darling Harbour, Sydney =-.
I have to agree with you. It’s getting really hard to find a place to dine after 10pm. It’s even worst in the suburb!!
.-= ManMen´s last blog ..Who is Your True Friends… =-.
Personally, even if City Extra was within easy reach I doubt I’d go there. Yet to have had a good experience there for the few times I’ve been.
I totally get where you’re coming from with the fried chicken. It felt like it was an oil sponge, deceptively soaking up more oil than it appeared to.
the meatballs were pretty scary. garlic breath! If you quit your job, i will join you and open a midnight meat market! LOL
isn’t it sad?! I want my mamak!
Yeah, I used to love Alexander’s. When we visited this place was during the period when mamak going through the renovation.
What place are you referring to?
Heheheh, sorry probably not the best time to come last week with all the dust drama and all. Hope u had a good time eating around though.
It is a Taiwanese thing… hope the ladies not bursting for toilet after that big shave of ice.
Tell me about it, the ice kacang in sydney is just as not same.
We need a petition for late night snacking haunts!!!
I don’t mind City Extra actually, i’ve had good memories there.
Their burgers after 12am is a comfort blanket. 