Tea Horse Sichuan Bistro 川知味 — Restaurant in Ellicott City

I have a deep admiration and respect for restaurant owners and operators. It is a very difficult business, yet so vital to so many people. Restaurants also bring so much joy, as everyone must eat, every day. Chefs are true artists and restaurants are a place where people come together. I have never written a negative review of a restaurant before and I eat out about twice a week. I chose to try this restaurant for the first time on my birthday with my mom and her boyfriend. I was so excited to try the duck because it was one of the best dinners I have ever had (at a different restaurant). However, I was reluctant to try the duck here on one of my regular nights out because of the high price, so I waited for an event where I could share it. We arrived at the restaurant and it was full, the atmosphere was really nice too. However, the expensive duck they served me for my birthday was absolutely awful. It was placed on our table about five minutes after playing the order with the waiter. It was completely dried out, tasted like an old dirty stale leathery sock, almost rotten, and little pieces of bone shattered in my mouth with every bite. I felt totally embarrassed as I tried to extract the shards in front of my birthday guests. Now, if this were a good restaurant, with reasonable prices, that had fallen on hard times, and was compelled to sell less a than fresh dish to survive, I would understand and wish them the best. I might even eat there more often. However, as I noted above, this place was packed with wealthy Howard county patrons paying high prices for their meals. I can see no good reason why they would have serve anyone old and rotten food on that night. Therefore, I feel I must warn others not to order expensive duck at this restaurant, because of my birthday experience. I live within two miles of this restaurant and eat out regularly. However, never again will eat at this place and I will never forget this birthday ripoff experience either. They actually ripped off my mother, because she was the one who paid for this...

Went to Tea Horse Sichuan Bistro around 6 PM on a Saturday for dinner. It wasn't busy when we got there, but by the time we left there were people waiting in line for a table. The atmosphere in the restaurant was pleasant. Nice decor and quiet enough for conversation.

The service could've been better. Nobody really came by once we ordered except to drop off food and to refill our water once. I didn't get a chance to order my second beer like I wanted. Now the food...we ordered pork soup dumplings, dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, general Tso's chicken & Peking duck.

I'm 90% certain that the port soup dumplings are the frozen ones that you can get from Mila. I eat a lot of these at home and they have the exact same meatball like consistency and appearance. Very little soup in the soup dumplings to speak of. I would not order these at all.

The dan dan noodles and mapo tofu was decent, not great. It was a bit bland for my taste, which is not what I would expect from a Sichuan place at all.

The General Tso's chicken was for my daughter and I got to taste it. The chicken was dry and the whole dish tasted very fishy. I'm guessing they cooked fish in the same wok prior to cooking this without washing it out.

The Peking duck again was just ok. Pretty standard, served with scallions, diced cucumbers and duck sauce. They did make a soup out of the remains of the duck after they carved it out, which was a surprise and actually the favorite thing I ate the entire evening.

This place seems promising and other reviews seem to rave about it but that was just not my experience here. I would not recommend but I probably will return in a month or so to see if I just came in on...

Wow! Tea Horse Bistro is the best Szechuan foods I have had. It can easily be compared to Lao Sze Chuan in Chicago or Peter Chang in Rockville. There is a saying “Do not judge the book by its cover”. I guess it is right. The restaurant looks like a small mom and pop shop on the outside but it is big and nicely decorated with P.F. Chang decoration. The service is friendly, professional, and seamless. The owner is very nice too. On weekends, come for dinner before six o’clock or make a reservation.

The Spicy Fried Chicken Bites is perfectly cooked, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. The mala and spice mixture is aromatic, slightly spicy, but not too salty. Other dishes are impressive as well. The owner mentioned that the chef is from Chengdo. The portion is quite big for two, so we packed the foods home. It should last us a few more meals.

There are three private rooms that fit about 17 -35 people. I like the table. It looks very crafty. Yes, it is quite rare for me to give five stars for a restaurant. I am just so glad to finally find it.

Suggested Menu, family-style (shared) dishes (Minus 2 dishes/5 pp and up) Xiaolongbao soup dumpling (excellent) Stir-fried green beans Chicken (nugget) with Szechuan pepper Steamed whole fish Or Smoked tea duck Or Stir-fried veggie noodle (not a lot of veggies as I expected but the noodles got some...