Sipping in San Francisco and Beyond

Malaya Tea Room

920 Central Avenue • Alameda, CA 94501

510-263-8208 • malayatearoom.com

The only tearoom of its kind in the Bay Area serves both British and Malaysian teas in Alameda, a small island city between San Francisco and Oakland. Delightful furnishings feature two sets of floral-patterned china glued to walls, a large wood cabinet displaying Malaysian foods like curry and crackers, and small framed leather artworks of a shadow puppet and a kebaya (a woman’s blouse) in a chrysanthemum-rose pattern.

“My furnishings remind me of flavors, memories, and my childhood growing up,” says owner Leena Lim, who is from Kuala Lumpur in the former British colony. “I love antique stores, but I didn’t want my tearoom to look like lots of lace and pink. I wanted it to look unisex.”

A midlife crisis birthed the Malaya Tea Room, which she opened in 2019. “When I turned 40, I asked myself what I really wanted to do,” says Leena, who was working as a publicist for emerging fashion, furniture, and jewelry designers after studying advertising at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. “My family owned Chinese and Thai restaurants. I always loved to cook and taste different foods; we grew up tasting all kinds of food. This type of tearoom is what I grew up with in Malaysia, where tearooms are for men and women, not mostly women. My mother took me to tea all the time.”

A sign reads “Ring a bell for service here,” which some customers find startling. “It’s like Colonial times, when the house is so big you rang a bell,” Leena smiles. Unusual teas in the tearoom include her country’s Signature Black Monkey (a strong black tea), Malaysian pulled tea (served on weekends only and whose frothy top comes from pouring milk high above from one cup to another), green tea with dragon fruit flowers (from the spiky reddish fruit), and rooibos flavored with coconut and lavender. “Some customers aren’t sure about that one, but then say it’s delicious.” Her black tea with passionfruit and mango is very popular, says Leena, who selects her teas from several wholesalers.

Afternoon tea includes a pot of one of their 33 teas, two sandwich fillings (either Malaysian or British—you can mix and match), a classic British scone with clotted cream and kasturi lime curd (made with calamansi limes, which taste sweeter than Key limes), and three kinds of sweets (pandan chiffon cake—made with a tropical plant whose leaves taste like grassy vanilla with a hint of coconut— macarons, and sago pudding, made with tapioca). There’s also a Light Tea, with just one sandwich filling, two kinds of sweets, a scone, and tea. Extra sandwiches are $6 each.

Regulars account for 40 percent of her clientele, and many guests are men, she proudly notes. A special Christmas menu is offered. “Tea in a Box” is also available despite initial misgivings. Leena introduced it when the COVID shutdown hit six months after she opened, and then kept it. “It was well-received. Alameda is a small community, and people were so supportive.”

Malaya Tea Room is open Thursday through Sunday with seatings at 11 a.m., 1:15 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. Reservations are required.