There are more than 100 types of tea at Ms. Cattea, but you should also book in for the dumplings

Sydney Morning Herald

17-07-2025

Here's a cheat code: start with the Nine Mountains green tea. The pot will arrive continually warmed by a candle burner – a smart winter-defeating move and a sign of Ms. Cattea Tea Bar's thoughtful approach to optimising brews. Each sip is mellow, soothing and tells you about Cathy Zhang, the bar's owner. This green tea is from her home town in Guangdong, China. She recalls harvesting leaves there as a teenager, and remembers rocky car trips to the steep, disorienting mountains ('I was so sick,' she says).
Her earliest memories are also fuelled by this tea, sipped from her grandfather's cup and fortified by multiple infusions. Zhang's lifelong connection to these leaves also makes them special. 'We've known the tea farmers for many years,' she says.
Zhang is tea-science graduate and international tea judge. After two decades of professional pouring and steeping, she opened this bar and shop in 2019. Good Food's Essential Cafe and Bakeries Guide recently named it one of the best places to enjoy a well-brewed pot.
But that's not the only attraction. Book ahead for Zhang's wonton dinners prepared with 'Aunty' Manying Li. Dumplings are available stuffed with vegetables, prawns or chicken and flavoured as you like (with nutty sesame sauce, chilli vinegar splashes, or an organic chicken and ginger broth). There's also tiger salad (a Northern Chinese dish named after the lively strips of raw onion scattered throughout), and noodles tossed with fried peanuts, shallots and a funky fermented bean sauce that evokes Zhang's birthplace.