Oriental Teahouse

Oriental Teahouse started as a tea shop. Its founder, David Zhou, arrived in Melbourne from Shanghai and opened a small shop on Chapel Street in the 1990s with a range of Chinese teas and blends of his own; the teahouse upstairs at 455 Chapel Street in South Yarra followed in 2003, then a second room at 378 Little Collins Street in the CBD and a takeaway in Brunswick. The house counts itself among the first restaurants in Melbourne to serve yum cha with tea, and that is still the shape of a visit: a pot on the table and dumplings around it.

The tea list is the older half of the business and it is sold, not only served. The classics come in 50, 100 and 250 g bags: Iron Buddha, the house name for Tie Guan Yin, Black Dragon, a plain everyday oolong, Long Jing and Bi Luo Chun among the greens, Jasmine Green, Gen Mai Cha with roasted rice, hand-rolled Jasmine Pearls, a Sou Mei white, an Orange Pekoe black from Sri Lanka and pu-erh pressed into small pieces. Next to them sit the founder's own blends, on rotation for tasting in the venue, and the teaware: Zi Sha mugs, glass cups, trays and cast-iron pots.

The cheapest way to try the list is by the pot: on the tea menu, Black Dragon, Jasmine Green and Gen Mai Cha cost A$ 5, Iron Buddha A$ 5.50 and Long Jing or Bi Luo Chun A$ 6.50, so a tea can be tasted at the table before a bag goes home. South Yarra opens every day, from noon on weekdays and 11:30 at weekends; the CBD room keeps lunch and dinner hours and closes on Sundays, and the house prints a separate yum cha menu for Saturdays. The online shop ships the same bags, which is how the teas reach the rest of Australia.