Ray's Cafe & Tea House

Glass siphon bulbs sit on the bar at Ray's Cafe & Tea House, and they have been the signature of this room in Philadelphia's Chinatown since the family opened it in 1989. Coffee and Taiwanese tea are the reason to come; the dumplings and noodle soups are the reason people stay through lunch.

Siphon coffee, slow drip and Taiwanese leaf

Coffee is not a sideline here. The cafe sells its own house blend by the half pound and the pound, and siphon brewing has been the house method for decades, with Jamaican Blue Mountain among the beans that have passed through it. The cold side is just as particular: a 12 hour slow drip iced coffee, also sold as Japanese Premium Ice Coffee Drip, plus slow drip cold brew made with the house blend.

Tea runs on a Taiwanese axis. The loose leaf is imported from the high mountains of Taiwan, with Yu-Shan Four Seasons Green Tea named directly and red oolong close behind. Between the two programmes the counter can send out a siphon brew, an all-day drip and a pot of high-mountain tea without changing register.

A small Chinatown room

The room is intimate, with space for around thirty people, and it has the worn ease of a place that has never chased a redesign. Old maps hang on the walls, the siphon machines are in plain view, and cooks fold dumplings where you can watch them.

What that supports is a hybrid: breakfast, lunch, a casual dinner, an afternoon pot of tea, or a bag of beans on the way out. It is a family-run Chinatown institution built for practical comfort rather than for a tasting-room performance.

Start with siphon coffee, then eat

Order siphon coffee first if the specialty side is the draw, because it is the method the cafe is known for and the one happening in front of you. For cold coffee, the 12 hour slow drip is the most distinctive order. If tea is the point, ask for the Taiwanese high-mountain leaf, Yu-Shan Four Seasons Green Tea in particular, or red oolong.

Then move to the food. Taiwanese beef noodle soup brings thick noodles and tender beef; the dumplings come with pork and leek, pork and napa cabbage, vegetable or curry chicken fillings, and a sampler covers several at once. The house special soup adds chewy noodles, fried egg, jumbo shrimp, chicken, pork and vegetables. Homemade chocolate cheesecake is the dessert to remember.