Te, House of Tea

So I had a private lesson on Saturday, figured I'll meet up at a local tea shop instead of coffee shop. I actually knew one of the owners, Connie from way back. Turns out, she was a dance studen of mine back in the day when I used to teach at SSQQ. What united me and Connie was that I attended a local dance event at Te, and small world as this is, there she was. I haven't been to Te to dance but go there to grab a quick hibiscus tea to go. They do have a pretty full menu and I've been eyeing on their crepe for quite sometime. Finally, for my lesson, I have a chance to go there and enjoy my crepe.

Here's the thing about crepes. I am a very loyal fan of Melange Creperie. Buffalo Sean had taken great care of me, and I in return try to go there whenever I can. He incorporate anything from cliche' to creative, even friends who had tried his crepes (not knowing my loyalty) even said that we should try to do a Iron Chef challenge and give him some secret ingredients and see what creative crepe he'll come up with. Needless to say, I am a big fan of crepe and going in with a very critical eye on that item.

When it comes to House of Te's crepe, it can go both ways... One, the crepe itself is structrually perfect. No holes and it's a perfect look to it. The other, unfortunately, was the taste - or lack thereof it. I was sold on the Farmers Market Brunch Special, which consisted of their finding from the weekends farmers market. That day's special was kale and sausage. Alright, didn't sound bad at all, I eat both of those. What I didn't realized was that there was no sauce to go w/ the combo. So, it was literally, crepe, meat, kale.

I don't know how familiar you are w/ kale. By itself, cooked, it draws the bitter taste to the greens. So, when you have nothing to compliement it, it's just that, bitter. Luckily, there were some sausage to offset that to help my taste buds, but since they probably put like 5 pieces of tiny sausage, those were few and far between. That aside, the brunch combo comes w/ a pot of tea, I got my usual hibiscus. Here's my tip to you all, this is something Mag South in Austin does, is to put hibiscus tea w/ your favorite lime soda to give it a pip. But since the flower itself is pretty flavorful, it helped offset the bitter from the kale some.

Not to mention, I had to wait over 30 mins for my crepe. In their defense, it was lunch time, people were ordering less time-consuming items as mine, such as sandwiches and salads. I had to walk up to Connie and asked if they had forgotten about me. *sigh* I hate to do that, because it makes me look like I'm not patience, but when it has been 30 mins, I also felt like you have forgotten me in the corner and turns out, I was right. My order got lost in the shuffle.

So while I treasure this neighborhood gem, between the lack of parking and the forgotten order, I'm not sure if I would recommend this to anybody. But, I have heard good stuff about their noodle soup, so maybe I'll give them a try on that. They are pretty active in terms of partnering up with artist and dancers in the community. They host the Saturday night dance with the Swing Dancers, I believe Friday is with the Tango Dancers. Wednesday night they host a movie night and I know a crochet group hangs out there as well. Maybe I'll try again at night, but for now, it's a thumbs down for me.

Te' House of Tea
BYOB - they charge a corking fee
1927 Fairview Street,
Houston, TX 77019
(713) 522-8868 ‎
tehouseoftea.com