Skyline Tea House — Restaurant in New Taipei

Foreigners don’t go here! After reading that all the BAD reviews are from locals and English speakers customers, you will know why! I was excited to bring my foreign family members to have traditional tea in Jiufen. The waiter at the front door greeted us warmly and asked if it was okay since they only serve tea and snacks at dinner time. Of course we didn't mind that; we wanted to try their traditional tea set anyway. We sat down, and a waiter named WANG brought the menus. We told him we wanted to make our own traditional tea. He questioned our experience, asking if we'd ever made tea before. We mentioned visiting a tea house a couple of times. Dismissively, he said their tea-making was different and required precise timing. He insisted we didn't know how to make tea to. I politely explained to WANG we simply wanted to make our own tea, but he remained adamant, advising against it and suggesting we order drinks from the menu. Frustrated by his refusal to let us get the traditional tea set, we decided to skip it. We were thirsty and just wanted a quick drink anyway. He also said elementary school children "must" order a drink, which didn't apply to us since my kids are in pre-k and kindergarten (5 and 6 years old). Even after explaining their ages, Wang insisted they needed drinks. We figured it was a restaurant policy and went with it. Interestingly, we later saw other Japanese customers order the traditional tea set. Waiters even explained the tea-making process in English or Japanese at their tables. Even at the next table, a different waiter recommended the tea set to later-arriving Japanese customers. Do they believe the Japanese are superior tea makers? Do they think explaining tea making in a simple foreign language is clearer for Japanese guests, compared to using their native language for local customers? But the tea making process here is very similar to the tea house we visited! I don't understand why WANG insists their tea making is different. Even my foreign spouse thinks this is extremely discrimination.

Before we checked out, I told the cashier that I wanted to speak with the owner, if possible. I wanted to bring to their attention this discriminatory incident to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

The cashier at the desk listened to my story. (I wasn't sure if she was the owner, as she didn't introduce herself.) She said, "We actually recommend customers making their own tea." However, this contradicted what Wang had told us earlier. The cashier couldn't explain the discrepancy and simply said, "You're right, your children are too young for the minimum price drink requirement. You don't have to order drinks for them if you don't want to." This left me confused. Why did Wang force us to order drinks in the first place? The cashier offered no explanation, only stating, "He's new and doesn't know the rules." Skyline Tea House needs to properly train its employees to avoid these frustrating situations for their customers.

But the point is, you don't treat Japanese customers this way. If you don't want to accept local or English-speaking customers, just say it clearly at the front door. I don't have to come here and be treated like this just because we're local or English speakers. I also told her I knew who WANG is, and that we could confront the situation.However, she responded by offering a discount. Haha! What a joke. The way skyline tea house solves the problem is not to let WANG apologize, but rather they think we are trying to get a discount. I told her I wasn't interested in any discount. I felt that they didn't care about locals and English-speaking customers. After we returned to the B&B, we checked their reviews and found that many customers, particularly locals and English speakers, had similar...

Don't bother! Mostly agree with other negative reviews. Note we visited on a day that was incredibly rainy and cloudy so the view was no draw but we hoped to maybe get a little bit of a nice view of the lanterns. The teahouse was mostly empty including the dining area. There is basically one table with an okay view of the street and A-Mei.

Inside is quite cold/budget tourist looking without the warmth and character of other places in Jiufen. Service was very brusque and we were told no food only tea and taken to the second floor. Others were led to a higher floor, and there were families eating in a separate area on our floor. It all seemed quite rushed and we were seated in an okay place but not in the empty spaces with the view of the old street and weirdly were moved away from the windows after sitting down - again the place is pretty much empty. The service was fairly rude

Ordered high mountain tea - had had this previously in other places including alishan mountain tea up in alishan. We were shown how to brew which was nice (although barely different from anywhere else serving oolong...) but a bit of a wait for someone to do this. The tea was super bitter after brewing (followed the instructions exactly after the first cup brewed by staff and brewed for less time than I had for other oolong teas) - completely different to any of the other oolong teas I've tried and not pleasant.

Other tables were served snacks with their tea, but ours and some others weren't. They do leave the (small) packet of tea with you, but in general it is far too expensive for what you get, the general experience and venue. I appreciate the view is a good attraction but when there is literally no view and the place is pretty much empty you'd hope there might be a difference in service style and an attempt to serve teas that are drinkable.

There are so many other really nice tea houses in Jiufen, please give them your business instead of this definition of a...

Do not recommend to come here Those who work here are very rude ,do not have service mind and I think they are racism. When we first come in here, We ask the 1st waiter that come to take the order for which type of tea that this shop recommends and the waiter recommends one. Then after a long long time another waiter comeback and angrily tell us in chinese ( well my friend can understand and speak Chinese fluently) that if we didn’t have any experience to make a tea ourselves, we should not order this tea and he didn’t have time to make tea for us he have so much work to do it’s not his work to do this. We politely try to tell him that we didn’t know and make the order follow the 1st waiter recommendation we dont know if we offended any traditional rules by not knowing how to make a tea… He rudely put paper of the instructions of making tea on the table. While demonstrating angrily 1 time then stormed off After that we saw him make tea happily for other Japanese and korean customer Well, we come here to enjoy the traditional cruisine and their beauty and i dont think most people know how to make a traditional Taiwanese tea. This event made us disappointed in this restaurant a lot. They have two standard for customers from different races And tell rude word without any proper reason So do not recommend this place Do not fall for the beauty of armei tea house and try to sit hear You do not deserve to have your beautiful day...