Inner Bay Tea House

We eventually stopped at a Hakka restaurant and had lunch after snack. When we enter on the first floor it's full of customers. Good thing we sat in the second floor and it's empty. But then once we were seated another individual groups of customers next to us. It’s chaotic and crowded, but so much fun, and really worth the experience. The decor of the place from the outside seemed nothing special, but inside of the shop had a nice authentic Hakka atmosphere, small and rustic with simple wooden and bamboo furniture. We ordered the set meal in 8 dish for 4 person included the fatty and oily pork long beans soup that no one wants to try.

We started with their stir fry leafy vegetables such as baby cabbage are crunchier than regular cabbages.

We also had a small plate of slices of pork belly with layers of melt in the mouth fat served with garlic vinegar.

Despite the low cost, this is the perfect portion size of noodles are stir fry chopped meat and vegetables. The noodles is a bit overcooked but nonetheless it was flavorful.

The next dish to be brought to the table, was a stir fry vegetable dish that were mushrooms, carrots, scallions, stir fried with aromatic oil and garlic. This stir fry mushrooms  was pretty dense and maintaining their bright, fresh texture.

Vinegared pork intestines with ginger strips, pickle mustard and soy beans. The intestines was a bit too chewy but soft and quite sour. Recently I've become a huge fan of this Hakka dish since I had this vinegared pork intestine at Emei old street. I loved the tartness-sour flavor of this dish, it reminds me the Filipino cuisine. Again, the amazingly unexpected flavor got me hooked. It's definitely been added to my favourites. It was seriously good stuff! If you are from old world Europe or old Western civilization it's definitely you'll gonna love this vinegared pork intestine as much as I do, ok maybe not!

Now it came wit my favorite, steamed chicken with tangerine or orange dipping sauce. Cooked just right, the meat was smooth and firm.

Homestyle omelet had strips of dried radish and chopped scallion it cook beautifully golden added a nice crunch to the dish.

Hot lei cha are the surprising include of our meal.

An extra order of iced lei cha for my daughter, a filling tea made from a paste of different seeds with green tea mixture not mint leaves, it is refreshing. This drink are specialize for the Hakka people in Taiwan.

***

Great place for Hakka food cravings, service just promptly and meals came quickly and the price was not expensive.

***

Inner Bay Tea House-內灣茶堂

新竹縣橫山鄉內灣村中正路61號

No.271 Chung Cheng Road, Neiwan Village, Hengshan Township, Hsinchu County

Contact No: 03-584-9362

Website:

www.lei-tea.58168.net

After lunch we drove around the mountain spa villa, taking a slightly different route through mountain village. Then we took the road back down the Neiwan. And we stopped at coffee shop and restaurant are specialize in making a good coffee called tree house coffee, I forget the exact name. Our table was near a live band stage excellently placed at the back of the restaurant with river view, suspension bridge and surrounded mountain in the background. For me, this place is just a one time thing, and something that is a must do in Neiwan, just drink their coffee.

I ordered the hot espresso con panna was I think they use some type of coffee beans, melt it down with a gourmet whipped creme and chocolate. Tic tac what a nice coffee!

For my boys had both cappuccino, again it was good a cup of coffee. The well extracted coffee beans blended well with milk that was lovely and creamy and at the right temperature.

My daughter always go for her favorite drink. The green tea is less sweet, while the milkshake is very milky.  I strongly recommend this place for the sake of their good coffee!