CUPERTINO WELCOMES NEW UPSCALE RESTAURANT JADE TEA GARDEN
CUPERTINO WELCOMES NEW UPSCALE RESTAURANT JADE TEA GARDEN
By Gerrye Wong April 7, 2025
When I first moved to Santa Clara Valley to look at homes in the northern part of Santa Clara County in 1960 , coming from an Oakland urban existence, it was a culture shock for sure. Interspersed along the road flanking many orchards of strawberries, flowers and all types of vegetables, were signs on lawns and sidewalks everywhere advertising $20K Tract Homes for Sale. The boom of population growth to nearby Cupertino was yet to come. The 1950 census of the little town claimed only about 3000 citizens in its 11.3 square miles populace. By 1970 the influx of new citizens brought on by the growing high tech industry and the news that Cupertino School District was one of the most progressive and the finest in northern California, brought a large group of Asian Americans to the area. This necessitated the concurrent growth of Chinese owned businesses, and not surprisingly, Chinese restaurants.
By the 2020 census, Cupertino had grown unendingly and its population had grown to more than 60,000. According to World Population Review, 71% were Asian American and Cupertino had more than 40 restaurants serving Chinese cuisine predominantly. Little restaurants seemed to pop up on any business corner, serving basic Chinese fare from noodles to dumplings, from dim sum to sumptuous banquets. Revitalizing a space vacant for many years following the closing of the former Joy Luck Place in the Ranch 99 Shopping center off Wolfe/Homestead Avenues comes a new beautiful sorely needed high end Chinese restaurant JADE TEA GARDEN .
Caption: At grand opening owner Ada Chan welcomed all into Cupertino’s newest fine dining restaurant with Chinese Lion Dancers
Newly opened Cupertino’s JADE TEA GARDEN can host beautiful wedding banquets, family celebrations, and organization meeting places in an exquisite setting. Opening up in August, 2024 the owners Ken and Ada Chan have worked hard to bring their restaurant to serve the community’s needs for excellent cuisine in a prize winning location The first time restaurant owner, Ken replied when asked what prompted them to open a Chinese restaurant, “ I had worked in the high tech world in companies such as Intel and IBM and later founded my own software company, so I was ready for a change. My wife and I love to meet people and admittedly, we are foodies. Ada is a true extrovert and meeting with people gives her a lot of joy.”
Caption: Happily greeting diners at their Jade Tea Garden entrance are owners Ken and Ada Chan.
Ada added, “ Although we knew running a restaurant would be a big challenge and a lot of hard work, we thought it would be an awesome experience that would greatly satisfy our interest in interacting with people as well as showcasing our Chinese culture’s wonderful array of different foods.” To offer a reason for customers to come every month, Jade Tea Garden offers a monthly Special. This month of April Jade Tea Garden Is offering a whole Peking Duck with buns for $38 and a lobster noodle dish for $28.99. Let’s all go to take advantage of life’s specials and enjoy dining under the glamorous ceiling with its skylight simulating a rooftop blue sky.
Caption: April Special of the month is a whole Peking Duck to delight all diners complete with special buns.
Dessert to entice and entertain the children is the sumptuous unique dessert called the Lava souffle (shaped like volcano, inside is egg white w/egg yolk ready to spill over. For birthday celebrants, Jade Tea Garden has sweet bean paste birthday buns and serenades the birthday person on the large giant TV screen.
Caption: A special favorite among dim sum dinners was the specialty Volcano lava Souffle, enjoyed by visitors to the lavishly designed dining room.
For dessert, I saw many children excited over receiving a special dessert which drew screams of joy. It was little platter of cute little white bunnies that one hated to bite into. But when we did, its taste was as surprisingly good as its looks.
Caption: Adults as well as children are always delighted with the whimsical and delectable little white bunnies for dessert.
Another fascinating dessert was corn on the cob. I thought to myself that is an odd looking dessert until someone cut into it to find it was a real surprise. It was a delicious mango pudding within but my fellow diners kept marveling at how real the cob of corn looked, down to each individual kernel. Be sure to order it when you dine there to surprise all of your guests.
Caption: The surprise of the dinner was Corn on the Cob for dessert. Obvious men were fascinated by this mango pudding dessert.
Jade Tea Garden is the only Cupertino Chinese Restaurant able to accommodate 330 people In the main dining room in fine fashion and has hosted many big party celebrations in its first year. A back private room can host 8 round tables. A VIP room can be requested and can seat up to 15 people at one table. Another private VIP room is designated the Mah Jong room and when reserving, ask for the private room with mah jong table so you and your guests can play and dine all day in your Private room..
Caption: The beautiful dining room is a perfect venue for special celebrations and large banquet parties.
Certainly Jade Tea Garden is the only Chinese restaurant of this size in Cupertino able to host large parties. When leaving the restaurant, I liked what both Ada and Ken said in farewell greeting, “We find joy in making new friends and seeing customers enjoying the foods and hearing many former customers say they are happy to have a fine dining restaurant again at this location. We are happy that now we can bring a true elegant Chinese restaurant to Cupertino’s citizens and look forward to meeting new people always.”
Caption: Jade Tea Garden’s extensive menu has many delicious offerings very attractively presented.
For reservations and info: contact 669 888 1188 Address: 10911 Wolfe Rd., San Jose, CA 94087. Owners ken and Ada Chan welcome all calls and want to be there to take care of our special guests, so be sure to tell them you heard about Jade Tea Garden through Gerrye and DingDingtv.
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