Green Tea — Restaurant in Town of Brookhaven

Just another 1 star review reiterating what a lot of people have said before... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Not only was there an extremely long wait, but I personally saw one of the waiters seat a party who had arrived after us right before we were supposed to get our table. The waiter who had promised us the next table glanced over and made eye contact with me saying “one more minute!”

The food came. It was mediocre at best - overladed with sodium and priced a bit too high.The only thing we liked were the free spicy peanuts they gave us for free.

When it came time to pay, I left a 12% tip for the unfortunate mishap that happened earlier. Little did I know that it would become this whole debacle and a public humiliation.

The waitress cornered me in, counting the bills before yelling “He only left _ amount!” in Chinese and ridiculing me by pointing to the 15% tip minimum that they attempt to “enforce” on some unsuspecting customers. After this public outburst, she yelled at another waiter to come talk to us. The male waiter hustled over and quickly sputtered back and forth between Chinese and English explaining their situation. He promised us that the other parties had arrived before us and that it was just a busy weekend night. I looked him straight in the eye asked if he could promise me that they had arrived before us. He said “Why would I lie?”

So I believed him. And tipped more.

Green Tea, you may have gotten a couple extra dollars, but you’ve lost a faithful customer and have earned yourself this stellar review....

So, let me spill the tea on our recent dining escapade at this spot—it was a bit of a rollercoaster. Now, don't get me wrong, the food here is downright fantastic, but we hit a snag in the form of one of their hostesses.

Last time, we had this super-friendly hostess who made us feel right at home. Fast forward to this visit, and it's like we walked into a different universe. We tried asking about the menu, and it felt like we were talking to a brick wall. Recommendations? Nonexistent. It was like we were bothering her with our existence.

Then came the menu debacle. We asked to keep one, and she snatched them away like they were secret files. "Get them later if you need them," she said. Talk about feeling rushed and unappreciated.

The real head-scratcher? When the bill arrived, suddenly, our frosty hostess did a complete 180, flashing the friendliest smile in the room. It was almost comical how the vibe changed.

Here's the scoop—we decided to keep it real with our feedback and skipped the tip. The kitchen and the rest of the wait staff were great, but this hostess threw a bit of a curveball. It's like enjoying an epic movie, but someone's constantly kicking your seat—annoying as heck.

My advice to management? Sort out the attitude issue. The food's worth the visit, but feeling like you're crashing a party you weren't invited to? Not cool.

So, in a nutshell, incredible food, quirky service, and a tip that stayed in our pockets. Hoping the next visit is...

2 star rating because the food was good but service was really questionable. We sat down at 9:40, and they told us that we had to order immediately because they were closing soon. (Google says they close 10:30 Saturdays.) As soon as we sat down, we overheard a guy coming out of the back saying that an employee stole a personal item.

Everything was going well until it was time to pay for our food. After they gave us food, they didn't service our table at all until the bill came. When they gave us the bill, they specifically asked how we are going to pay tip, then demanded a 15% minimum tip because, and I quote one of the older employees in the store, "this is America." They stared us down and brought out more workers to pressure us to tip. They then looked through our checks and made sure we tipped at least the "required" 15%. My friend did not want to leave a tip at this point, and when they saw three cents (in change they gave back) in his check, they dumped it aggressively onto his plate. Even at this point, most of us tipped 10+% tip. This was not pleasant at all, and we would most likely not be...