Green Tea Cafe replaces Spin'n Chicken on Colfax

Have you ever had Chinese buffet food on a high stool by a window, diner-style? If not, here's your chance. Green Tea Cafe has set up shop in the old Spin'n Chicken space at 6901 East Colfax Avenue, which, at one time, was also home to Joe's West of Memphis BBQ.

Green Tea kept most of the decor -- checkerboard countertops, aluminum paneling, pale green walls. You feel like the waitress is going to roller skate over with your chocolate malts any second. If only Green Tea Cafe had chocolate malts ...

Jessica Chapman

The spartan restaurant's claim to fame appears to be -- surprise! -- its buffet, in which everything is $1.35 per scoop. All the usual suspects are there: sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, egg drop soup. Rice, incomprehensibly, also costs $1.35.

Jessica Chapman

Lunch and dinner plates run $4.75 - $7.95 but, honestly, don't go there. The buffet alone barely deserves mention. The food was lukewarm, the meat of dubious origin, the soup flavorless (though, to its minuscule credit, hot). Even the rice was bad: stale and crisp-edged. The veggies -- broccoli and jalapeño in my case -- bore some semblance of freshness, and the one employee working was smiley and nice.

Unfortunately, the best thing about Green Tea Cafe is its clean, wholesome-sounding name. Fortunately, it was a brilliant, sunny day. RIP Spin'n Chicken.

Hours:
Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Sunday: Noon to 9 p.m.