Old Asia Teahouse — Restaurant in Beaverton

This might be the most interesting restaurant I've been to in Beaverton, and definitely still one of the coolest in the Portland metro area. The place is small and cozy, somewhat hidden from plain sight as the signage is not flashy or large. It's even more comfortable inside, with modern Asian-themed decor in a clean, small setting and purple lighting. There isn't much seating, so it would be wise to get a reservation ahead of time. Service is very kind and they are pretty fast from my experience, they check on you often but not at annoying times, making your experience at the teahouse as wonderful as possible. They have the same ownership as the trendy Top Burmese restaurants, and you can tell that the management knows what they're doing in creating popular and exciting places to which people would want to return.

As indicated by the name, Old Asia specializes in a selection of East, Southeast, and South Asian teas, from black to oolong to green, with a variety of flavor profiles and caffeine levels. You also get to customize what you order, such as having the ability to add milk or oat milk to your tea. Their hojicha is delicious. However, the food they have is also fantastic. They only offer four entrees, but they're creative and diverse, with a lot of thought put into them. The beef tastes fantastic, fully cooked without being dry, and with an amazing garlic fried rice to complement it. They also have an extensive Asian-themed dessert menu, in which I would suggest the Sooji Cake, with a mochilike texture and yummy...

The main issue during my visit was the long wait time. For a small restaurant with a few tables, such long wait times make no sense especially when it was not busy either. The service staff was very helpful and kindly gave us a discount without us complaining and asking for it. I was impressed by the staff's incentive on this. Great customer care! Another issue was delivery of forks with each dish was consistently missed. The third negative for me was the rice in entrees was undercooked and a bit crunchy :( Also their popular Chicken Karage was out. Besides these shortfalls, I must admit the beef skewers and the beef entrees were really tasty. Fantastic dishes to try! The chicken meatballs were a bit bland but well cooked. The hot sauce it came with made sense BUT there was no indication of how hot that sauce is! I can take a good level of heat but that sauce almost made my ears bleed! Oh boy! Customers would appreciate a heads up on that for sure ;) Lychee and mango beers were interesting to try. If you do not have a sweet tooth, you may want to skip those though. Prices are a bit high given the small portion sizes. For a $30 per head check, I would expect to fill fuller prior to exit. I think this place offers original dishes I haven't seen in the area. However, the kitchen needs to be more organized and swift to do justice to the wonderful staff and the...

Do not recommend.

Parking: out of their control of course, no stars off for this but just be aware the parking lot has exactly two spaces (one of which is handicap), so most likely you’ll need to spend some time finding somewhere on the street.

The prices are truly astronomical. Ordered karaage chicken, $14 for a small appetizer of chicken. It was EXTREMELY fibrous and impossible to take a bite without yanking, pulling the whole thing apart. In general, limited menu, fine, but poor options and nothing seemed particularly appetizing.

50% of people at this establishment will be uncomfortable as you have a lovely booth on once side and then on the other you have the smallest, shortest most uncomfortable stools I’ve sat in since the plastic baby chairs in kindergarten.

I think the worst thing, the thing that really got my goat, was that this place charged $2 (!!!) for less than an ounce of oat milk on the side PER DRINK. A heads up on that would’ve been appreciated by staff, so many other establishments are finally moving away from the unethical up-charges for non-dairy milk but not Old Asia Teahouse! Would also add that the Chai was terrible. Couldn’t even taste the tea, was just masala spiced water.

I left this place feeling completely swindled and quite...