Tea Master

A little place on the edge of Brisbane’s Chinatown that offers all-​vegetarian fare (*some egg dishes present, but not hard to avoid if you wish). As befitting the name, they take their tea seriously, serving it with a pot for steeping, another for straining, and a tiny little tea cup. I’m not a tea connoisseur, but I enjoyed it.
Their tea master noodles were pretty basic, served with bok choy in a sesame flavored sauce, and the miso soup was pleasantly cloudy and had a few pieces of fried tofu in it. All together, none of it cost a ton. They had some intriguing looking spicy dishes, but I had a sore throat. Next time, perhaps.

This is our favourite place for delicious vegan food! Try the Tea Master noodles or the Sacha noodles and always get the fried chicken and you won’t be disappointed.

I’m a huge fan of The Tea Master — mostly because its one of the only reasonably priced Asian take aways in the CBD/​Valley that do a huge variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes. I’ve never really been one for the whole fake meat sort of thing, but Tea Master do it brilliantly.
I like their vege duck more than I ever liked actual duck when I wasn’t a vegetarian, and it’s refreshing to know you can order dishes like a Laksa vegetarian style, which would ordinarily be made with shrimp paste or fish sauce.
Quality wise, it’s on par with most Asian restaurants in this price range — the best part is that they don’t do meat. So if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, it’s definitely for you!
Their service is always great — it’s cash only though so make sure you go to an ATM first!

I do not plan to frequent this spot as I am a huge fan of meat, but on this day I was hungry and desperate for something quick, easy and nearby.
I had my take away mushroom meal within 5 minutes and I was on my happy little meatless way.
Note that this place is CASH ONLY!

I’ve previously been a fan of Tea Master (though my heart has always belonged to the nearby Kuan Yin Teahouse), so I was pretty disappointed to get such a lacklustre meal here. I ordered the spring rolls, chicken-​sesame noodle soup, and a winter melon iced tea.
The spring rolls were small and very crispy, and were more wrapper than filling. They were also covered in a sweet sauce that, while tasting perfectly fine, was very one-​note. Some tartness from citrus or vinegar would have been welcome.
The melon tea was oppressively sweet, and the soup was wayyyy too oily. The faux meat was well-​done as usual, but overall I did not enjoy the meal very much at all.

My feelings about Tea Master are totally mixed, but I still find myself back there occasionally (and probably would be there more if the parking wasn’t so difficult at times). The opening hours can be tricky, seem to change, and are lunch-​focussed, which makes getting there difficult as well.
Their mock meat is definitely usually more mock than meat, and most of it seems to be «Lamyong» brand, reheated — which you can buy at many asian supermarkets, as well as places like The Green Edge. I realise that conventional restaurants don’t make their own meat (instead, buying it from a butcher/​whatever), but when it comes to Vegetarian restaurants, home-​made is so much better, but so rare. It’s mostly very tasty, though.
Considering they are a vegetarian restaurant, their vegetables definitely need work — they’re often overcooked, oily, and underseasoned, which is exactly how I found their noodles (and why I order rice). It seems like the meat is the main focus, and the vegies are just there for a bit of colour.
Like most veg restaurants, you can’t really go wrong with the entrees (which are mostly deep-​fried), and delicious. With the mains — I’ve never had anything truly terrible here, because most of the mock meats are nice (even if often nothing like what they’re supposed to be), and leave you craving more, and it sometimes the niceness of the protein component is in how they’ve cooked it that day.
Tea Master has quite a large and substantial menu of both entrees, mains (including Bento boxes), asian-​style desserts, and various teas, bubble teas, and sweet iced drinks to go alongside your meal, and they do takeaway fairly well. If I had my way — I’d probably only order the veggie meats and proteins, on a platter, take it home, and cook my own veg and rice. There is an art to reheating frozen veg proteins (and I’m not great at it. We don’t eat them often. They are kinda weird until they’re on your plate).
Sorry I can’t be more definite, but as I said — Tea Master leaves me perplexed. It’s definitely worth a try — but I find Kuan Yin (across the road) just that little bit more reliable, even if they pretty much have the same philosophy/​menu about their food.