We have been exploring some Korean restaurants in Fort Lee, NJ. After doing some research, this place had some enticing photos of their dishes. So, we decided to try them out. I was a bit surprised that this place called “The Tea Bar” was actually Korean food restaurant, as I always thought they were another bubble tea kind of place.
The inside was bright and spacious. Definitely not a place to get just tea. They had a good amount of table seating, and simple but interesting decors on the wall. I saw they had several empty wine bottles against a wall, but I don’t thing they offer wines here.
They have booth seating towards the back, for bigger group of people. By the large window facing the parking lot, they had smaller tables for two. By just looking at the interior, it doesn’t scream Korean food, but more modern design with relaxing earthy color tones.
They have a small outdoor seating, and since it is facing the parking lot, it doesn’t get too much noise or exhaust gas. The only person who I saw use the outdoor seating was their staff while on their lunch break.
We went on a weekend, and they had weekend brunch buffet. It sounded good, so I went to check out the food offered at the buffet counter. They had some meatballs with broccoli…
Sausage, bacon and eggs, although all the eggs were gone. I believe they had what they call the salmon teriyaki, but most of all the salmon was gone too. The veggies like onion and peppers were left, looking a bit sad…
And some sandwiches. The only Korean dish I found on the buffet counter was Kimchi Rice. It would have been really interesting if all or most of the dishes served on the buffet were Korean dishes. Since we were there to try some Korean dishes, we didn’t go for the buffet.
One of the great thing about Korean restaurants is that they bring you complimentary appetizers. They brought us some spicy looking snacks, which we were a bit scared to try at first… This one was the peppers, and yes it was spicy! Way to kick our metabolisms started.
This one was a cabbage, and even thought it had red hot chili pepper on the top, but it was not so spicy. This one was rather refreshing and had a good snapping texture to it.
We started with an interesting starter called the K-Town Fries ($9). It has shredded beef, kimchi, and cheese. Got your attention? It certainly got mine!
When it came to our table, I was shocked by its enormous size. It was really, REALLY big! I don’t know if you can tell by the photo with my hand next to it… The fries were good, tasty, and yes, spicy. The kimchi was great and had lots of kick to it. The beef was tender and tasty, went nicely with the kimchi. It was one of the most interesting and unique fries I have ever had.
For main, we ordered Bibimguksu ($10) to share. It is spicy cold noodle made with kimchi, wheat noodle, and assorted greens. This was also pretty big size, enough to share between the two of us.
The noodle was thin like angel hair, and coated nicely with the kimchi and kimchi sauce. And it was very spicy! If you are not a fan of spicy food, and if you don’t have good amount of tolerance to spiciness level, then you might want to think twice before you order this dish… Otherwise, we loved it, since we love spicy food. The fresh greens calmed down the spiciness just a little bit. Overall, it was fresh, spicy but tasty, and very refreshing.
I did play around with the black sesame on the little quail egg before we ate it. It is always fun to make a little smile with your food…even though this guy ended up with a little mischievous smile. LOL.
The owner was working the floor, and he brought us some complimentary soup. We thought that was so sweet! Then, after seeing my husband sweating with heat from the spicy food, he brought another soup, telling him that it will help with the spiciness. Really nice! It had seaweed and some meat chunks in it, very comforting and flavorful.
By sharing the starter and main, we saved some room for desserts! We also decided to order tea to go with our dessert. This is where the name of this restaurant, “The Tea Bar” made total sense to me. Their tea menu was quite extensive! They had around 50 teas. Yes, that is not a typo, but 50 teas! We went with one of their most popular one called Green Rooibos Key West ($7/32oz pot).
They use an interesting pot, that releases tea from the bottom when you put it on a cup. When you pick up the pot off the cup, it stops. Pretty cool. I almost wanted this pot, until I saw that the tea drips on the table just a little… Other than that, it is pretty darn cool. The tea was really nice, light, fruity, and flavorful.
For desserts, we ordered Red Velvet Lava Cake ($6) and Original Cheesecake ($6) to go with the tea.
The Red Velvet Lava Cake was interesting, and it came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. It also had chocolate drizzle and whipped cream. It was moist and good, but not great.
The Original Cheesecake was a big hit! It looked so plain, so simple, small and almost boring. But, this is one of the great example how you should never judge a book by its cover. This little cake was super delicious!
It was dense, moist, velvety and really rich. I am glad it was small because it was so thick, and super satisfying. I would definitely order this again when we go back!
It was a very pleasant brunch. Everything was very delicious, satisfying and very affordable. The service was nice, the owner took a good care of us and made us feel welcomed. The female staff was not very friendly, but the owner was very nice and friendly for the two of them. I would like to go back again and try out more of their tasty menus.
The Tea Bar – 1636 Palisade Ave, Fort Lee, NJ 07024