No place is perfect, and Green Tea is no exception. Despite the name, this restaurant doesn’t really have anything to do with green tea or even Hangzhou, but it is one of those places that would be a shame to miss. It’s just the character of place really. Aside from the food, which is excellent and diverse, and unusual, there isn’t really much to mention. The decor is blond pine and cute in a quaint, hand-cut Norwegian 1990′s Hangzhou sort of way; the quality of service is papered over by huge smiles and good intention; and by Hangzhou standards the bathroom and general cleanliness of the place is, like the rest, average.

For first timers, the place is a little tricky to find, but it is right next door to the Tea Museum (Lake direction), and if you are turning up in the evening, you’ll find it hard to miss the wood buildings with huge green neon sign outside. There’ll be plenty of badly parked cars scattered around the main entrance. On the way in the din will increase and you’ll realise your effort to arrive late, or early so as to get a table has failed. This place is always full. You can book a table, but all that only really means is that you’ll jump the queue of those waiting who didn’t book. (Book anyway). The menu is on a blackboard and other miscellaneous notice boards littering the entrance and so there will be staff taking orders, delivering food, moving chairs and tables and herding guests onwards all going on in seeming chaos right there when you walk in. With a bit of luck you’ll also soon be herded through a series of rooms and verandas and companion ways to your table. On the way there’ll be fire pots burning, smells of dorian fruit being dismembered, the whiz of blenders making somebody some sort of fresh juice, weird looking toasted whole breads with ice-cream careering past, and when you make to your table, it’ll be clear to you that the chaos is only skin deep. The previous 12 guests haven’t yet put on their coats, but your setting is already spic and span.

Green Tea used to be a little more difficult to find when it was stuck up a mud track near Linyin Temple. The new one is heavily modeled from the last one, with the brick terracing, copious use of pine and batiques. The original Green Tea was a youth hostel and had a few youth-ish maybe hostel-ish trappings; a small pool, climbing wall. Some rooms too. The success was maybe a little too much for the local government who pulled down the building and turned it into tea fields. Sad irony in that.

Thomas, the owner is a bit of foodie. He travels much around China, and whenever he finds something he likes, he takes it back to Green Tea. If the chefs cannot make it according to his instructions, they are sent to the far-flung corner to learn how to make it. So keep an eye out for what the neighbours are eating or otherwise it is easy to miss something special. The core of the menu is based around the duck oven. Thomas cooks lots of things in the oven. Delicious pork belly of perfect succulence, spatchcocked chickens, leg or back of lamb. Fish. Maybe even some duck. It’s a real BBQ. There are other truly delicious things – the fish head in pickled chillies is a house special. And dont forget the booze. Qingmeijiu is baijiu flavoured with qingmei, or plum. It’s only served by the pint, so make sure you have a few hardies to drink it with you as it kicks like an angry mule. The hongmeijiu is a little less fundamentalist, but no less good. And the beer comes in kegs and miniature glasses, so you’ll quickly lose count over how many you’ve had. No harm in that.

The food is surprisingly superb, and the unusual offering of booze, combined with the disarming informality of Green Tea makes for a laid-back evening kick-off for two or three friends, or a gathering much larger. I don’t forget lunch, Green Tea is a great way to have lunch then settle back with some fresh tea and soak up a little afternoon sun.

It isnt the easiest place to find for the first time, so print out this map! If you are going south down Yanggongdi, take a right into Longjing Zhilu. Go over the T junction and on about 200 metres. It’s on the right, before the Tea Museum.