Gloria P wrote:
>
> Do your local Chinese restaurants charge for a pot of tea?
>
> When we lived in New England, and now in Colorado, the waitstaff
> brings a free pot of tea after taking your order even if you don't ask
> for it, and it's usually quite a nice tea.

It's been a while since I have been in a Chinese restaurant, but when I
was working and going out for lunch and dinner breaks we frequented a
number of Chinese restaurants and they charged for tea. They also
charged for rice if you ordered it. If you didn't order rice they
usually brought it out anyway and did not charge.


> We were quite surprised on my first trip to California, back in the 70s
> when things were cheap, to ask for tea along with our other drinks, and
> find a $2 charge on the bill for it. I think it was in L.A. We ate a
> lot of Chinese and Japanese that trip because it was such a nice change
> from New England's bland Cantonese style.

Some places offer cheap prices without the extras. When I was working we
also went out for breakfast a lot and could usually get breakfast
specials for $2.50-3.00 including coffee. There was one place that had a
99 cent breakfast.... 2 eggs, fried potatoes and toast. Bacon was extra
and coffee was a $1.50 when most other places were only charging $1. So
if you ordered bacon and eggs and coffee it usually ended up costing
more than breakfast specials at other places. But people were sill
impressed with 99 cent deal.