Are restaurants serving good loose leaf tea?

We had dinner at a small Chinese place in town recently and asked about the tea. The server said they had oolong, jasmine or bagged so we went for oolong. It was actually a ripe puerh, but loose and really yummy. She listened when we explained it to her afterward and I think she was slightly interested, but she might have just wanted us to go away. I intend to look into it more when we go again. I didn’t mind some pu with my dinner!

I’ve found ONE local restaurant (locally owned) that has a decent loose tea selection they serve with their food. That’s it. Sigh. They have a decent Irish Breakfast blend, Moroccan Mint, low quality (similar to the chinese restaurants) jasmine green, and a few herbals, one of which I am really fond of.

Selden Standard in Detroit has Joseph Wesley teas.

What about B&B’s? I came across one that has all day loose leaf tea service and a huge selection of local teas (mostly Japanese. Like hojicha and sencha) in Boulder, CO. Looked cool!

Some restaurants do serve decent tea, but not many. In my experience they tend to be either higher end restaurants or café types. I really do think decent tea is going to become more popular though. You can now find loose leaf tea in places like Target and most grocery stores. If you look in the tea category on Amazon loose leaf teas are some of the most popular. It wasn’t too long ago you could only find pre-ground drip coffee at restaurants, and now you can get a nice pour-over or at least a decent roast in most places. It seems natural that tea would be next.