Downtown Vancouver’s Tsui Hang Village Reborn as Cold Tea

Deliciously accessible, Cold Tea offers Chinese-Vietnamese all-day dim sum, Chinese BBQ and Vietnamese family style food.

If you’ve ever had a saucy night out on the Granville strip, then you’ve likely rolled into Tsui Hang Village after hours and ordered the “cold tea,” code word for cold beer in a dim sum style tea pot served with fresh white mugs. You might have even ordered and devoured some chow mien, chicken fried rice or sweet and sour pork in an effort to ward off an inevitable hang over.

Late November 2019, the folks at Tsui Hang Village called it quits and handed the keys over to now owners, Ron Cheng (Former General Manager, Hapa Izakaya, The Parlour, Tap and Barrel), Paul Rivas (Owner, The Parlour & Bodega on Main), Chef Thien Vuong (Former Head Chef, The Parlour, Bodega on Main, Frankie G’s) and bar man Joe Cheng (Former bartender Minami). The foursome aimed for a March 2020 opening after extensive renovations, likely hoping for nothing but good times. Unfortunately, 2020 had other plans for human-kind which put Cold Tea in the challenging evolve or die paradigm. Thankfully, the team was able to shrink the original menu to share plates and take out friendly options and weather the worst of the lock down with a good take-out hustle.

Now that we are in the swing of Restart BC phase 2 and 3, dine-in and take-out is buzzing along, so we popped in for a visit. Off the bat, we noticed the original chandelier and much warmer design palette. It is a big space, and the team has done an admiral job of creating comfy zones for small groups to enjoy each others company. The pork belly bao, corn on the cob and spicy chicken xo wonton dish stood out for us. The vegetarian options were exceptionally good with the The Spliff (cucumber, jicama, mango, green apple, red peppers, mint, cilantro, chives, lettuce and tamarind dipping sauce) knocking our socks off.

Given the experienced team behind Cold Tea, you can expect to be hyped on the cocktail, spirits, wine and beer menu. It is provisioned with local beer on tap and a tight little offering of imports with a nice sake list, the full pull. Collect a small group of your symptom free friends and make a night of sips and chats at the tiki style bar. Try the Scotch Thistle (monkey shoulder, blackberry tea syrup, lime juice, Dickie’s ginger beer) or enjoy an Old Fashioned or Moscow Mule from the tap.

Feeling nostalgic? Ask for some Cold Tea. You will be rewarded with an homage to THV — just don’t ask for the recipe.