Chado Tea Room Edit

Chado makes me happy. After an afternoon at the Japanese American Museum, you can pop on by for a leisurely pot of tea. It’s not too fancy or stuffy, but the people there care a great deal about tea — and the menu just makes me smile. It’ a wall of text — with a long list of teas and odd facts about tea. I like to take friends and family here who are new to tea, as they don’t feel out of place but often get into the swing of things and usually leave understanding that the world of tea is wider than they thought.

Chado Tea Room carries a huge selection of teas, and the staff is always friendly. There some parking in the rear, but otherwise it’s street parking. The tea room may seem a little pricey at first, but it’s not as expensive as some of the other tea rooms I’ve been to in LA. Their tea selection and prices have me always coming back though. =)

Chado has an amazing variety of teas, and I this was the first tea shop I went to when I arrived in LA and was ready to explore finer quality teas. I’ve been to a couple of their shops, and the counter people are helpful and knowledgeable. When I mentioned my black tea phobia, I was given a sample of the yunnan gold black tea that opened my eyes to the possibilities. I got a 10 year old loose puerh that was another wonderful revelation.

I have taken friends there to enjoy tea, and it’s been a lot of fun. And they were happy with the teas they bought too.

But while most of what I’ve bought from them has been quite good, getting to them & parking is not as easy as my usual chinatown shops, and while they have several of almost any class of tea you can imagine (herbals, darjeelings, chinese, taiwanes, rooibos, and more) their selection is perhaps broader than deep (except maybe the single-estate indian/sri lankan/african black teas), and I mostly go the the chinatown stores these days.

But as I am now getting curious about the white, oolong and green teas from India and Sri Lanka, I feel another trip to Chado coming on.

the people here are ridiculously sweet. its a really nice place with a huge selection of teas for great prices. i ended up picking up about 10 different selections of tea including 2 chado specific blends and i was not disappointed. i definitely left happy and will be returning.

Somewhat pleasant experience. Great selection of teas. I thought the teapots were so small. Not a lot of food for the price. I wouldn’t call this an elegant tea room, kind of felt like a coffee house for tea. The selection of teas is by far the best thing about this place.