Hayes Valley tea-house salon lures in wearied shoppers with hot tea and treats--but also serves hearty lunches, dinners and an under-the-radar brunch.

by Patrick Heig

This bright corner eatery is known for steaming pots of full leaf, organic and fair-trade teas paired with your choice of hand-baked sweets ranging from turnovers to puddings, galettes and buttercakes. But Modern Tea does more than steep; house-made chicken quinoa chowder, French lentil soup and braised chicken with herbed biscuits (all organic) make this restaurant a favorite among locals. A relatively undiscovered weekend-morning menu--highlighted by a salmon hash and cornmeal Civil War Waffles topped with yogurt and mixed-fruit compote--means a much shorter wait time here than the other go-to brunch-eries in Hayes Valley.

02/09/07

Not just about tea...

by mendezcarmen

Great service and delicious food! The butternut squash soup was excellent. We also enjoyed the salmon with cheesy barley.

07/28/06

Wonderful tea selection

by sharolama

The food here in light and yummy. I have eaten here several times and never had anything but flavorful dishes. I appreciate the lighter side! I don't want to gorge on food all day. The tea is made perfect, one of the very dew places in the Bay Area that doesn't burn their teas. Brunch is yummy too. Only thing I hated was no to go cups, so you can't bring your tea out with you.

• Pros: tea made correctly, organic light food, YUMMY
• Cons: no to go cups for tea

07/26/06

small portions, unflavorful food

by iheartfood00

i went to modern tea with a group for lunch. the menu is rather limited and the portions are extremely small. with only a handful of hot items on the menu, they told us that they didn't have any more chicken meatload sandwich!! so with few choices left, i had the chicken quinoa soup with green salad which cost close to $9. the soup had no flavor at all and little substance, but was extremely salty and the salad was literally just greens tossed in a little tiny bit of oil. it was definitely not enough for a meal. all of us were still hungry after lunch. the servers are very nice and friendly but service is extremely slow, took us over 2 hours to eat. i do not recommend going here for lunch.

• Pros: ambience, service, healthy
• Cons: portions, taste, price

07/25/06

Nice place, nice people

by shalgal

A rare combo these days, it seems like. Before we even had any tea, we were struck by just how nice the people were - a good way to start our afternoon! The tea was great (don't remember what we had) and I like that the place had a nice serene feel, but there weren't any doilies in site. I'll go back just to support these nice people and this nice place! Check it out for something different.

04/20/06

A great place to have some tea

by bkg2117

Modern Tea offers fine dining w/o the 70 bill. The setting feels like home with lovely music in the background that makes you want to enjoy every minute as if it were your last. When you taste the tea, you can tell that it's there specialty and they do not disappoint. There is a tea there that I never thought was possible that you have to try. It was like tasting some type of forbidden water. It's called Chilled Jade Oolong, and words can't describe its magical powers, it's just something you have to taste to believe. Overall the location, the atmosphere, the employees, the tea , and the food is great. Modern Tea is a great place to relax during a busy work day.

P.S. I've been told that do to popular demand, the restaurant has added more to the breakfast waffles and lowered the pricing.

• Pros: Tea, Tea, Tea

04/03/06

Extremely small portions/over priced

by nat_adt

As the subject reveals, our portions were so small I was appaled.

The waffles, are not infact plural. There is one small thin waffle sliced into 4 small pieces served with 4 grapes and half a strawberry. This all for $8.50? I had the apple turn overs which are two very small (dumpling size) pastries also with the 4 token grapes/half strawberry sliced. My boyfriend and I both ordered some tea and our bill was $30. We were already talking about where to eat lunch, since we knew we had only had a little snack disguised with meal prices. The quality was good - but it is NOT worth the value.