Retro House reopens in Ybor City with full coffee menu and brand new dining room

A go-to spot for dim sum and Cantonese eats just reopened in Tampa with a brand new dining room and specialty coffee counterpart.

Retro House, located at 934 E Henderson Ave. on the outskirts of Ybor City, is now open from 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday after a three-month pause due to renovations and building updates.

At the start of 2025, Retro House had to temporarily close to fix its roof that had sustained damage from Hurricane Milton. While these renovations took a bit longer than expected, the Chinese restaurant and its coffee shop counterpart is finally open for dine-in service.

Retro House starts brewing coffee at 7:30 a.m. while its full food menu of dumplings, baos, rice bowls and Hong Kong-style noodles is available starting at 11 a.m. Its coffee shop portion boasts a stacked pastry case filled with housemade cookies, danishes, savory breakfast items and more.

“I think in-person service will be a great change because we can have better customer interactions and feedback,” co-owner and Chef Meishan Lu tells Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “We can actually plate the food in a nice way instead of making adjustments for to-go orders and service drinks in glasses instead of plastic bottles. It’s the difference in pace that we’ve been really looking forward to.”

Retro House’s new drink menu offers a variety of espresso-based drinks, cold brew, pour overs, matcha and chai lattes, as well as a lineup of signature lattes like the honey and cinnamon “Honey Pie”, pistachio and rose-flavored “Velvet Moon” and the “Ziggy Stardust,” a butterfly pea latte with lavender.

Owners Corrinne Liou and Paul Venghaus—who also own both Felicitous Coffee locations in North Tampa—run the beverage and pastry side of Retro House, while Chefs Meishan Lu and Joseph Hixon operate the restaurant portion. According to Venghaus, all four of the owners have brought their own twists to the new-and-improved Retro House menu, while bringing over some of the popular drinks and pastries from Felicitous Coffee, too.

The owners soft opened Retro House’s kitchen last summer and have been patiently awaiting the debut of its cafe and dining room. 

Venghaus says that he’s particularly excited about the newly-added, Hong Kong-style Yuan Yang iced latte, which is half tea, half coffee. Other Retro House exclusives are its Hong Kong lemon tea, mango passion fruit green tea and calamansi oolong tea.

The pastry case at Retro House features a combination of sweet and savory items that complement its variety of specialty coffees and teas.

“We’re really excited for the dining room to finally be open and now we’re able to expand the pastry selection,” says baker Corrinne Liou. “We’ve brought over some favorites from Felicitous—particularly the vegan and gluten free items—but I’m also trying to introduce new, Asian-inspired baked goods like our new ube and cream cheese danish and ube mochi cookie.”

Retro House’s Best of the Bay-winning dumpling options–which include chicken lemongrass, dan dan sui mai, mango shrimp wontons and the newly-added vegan buddha wontons—alongside bao options with fillings like char sui, golden turmeric lava, ube, curry chicken, pork and shrimp and mushroom, have remained constants on its menu.

For larger, more entree-style plates, the restaurant and coffee shop offers a customizable umami rice bowl with a variety of protein options like char siu, curry chicken, honey-glazed pork belly and NY strip pepper steak, signature fried rices or Hong Kong pan-fried noodles.

And while the meats are certainly highlighted throughout the Retro House menu, Lu says that her plant-based clientele has grown over the last year or so and has enjoyed the challenge of creating vegan dim sum recipes. In the future, customers can expect more traditional Cantonese specials, weekend dim sum brunches and the return of the restaurant’s night markets.

In addition to its food and beverage service, Retro House owners make it a point to support the local art community by hosting artisan markets and hanging art for sale on its cafe’s walls.

“Supporting the local arts is something that we have carried over from Felicitous, too. Right now we have art from six local artists hanging in the shop and for sale,” Venghaus says. “For us, it’s about connecting with the local community and helping make the shop’s ambiance more welcoming.”

Head to @retrohousetampa on Instagram for the latest updates on Retro House’s upcoming event schedule and new menu items. Retro House is now open from 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, with food service starting at 11 a.m. each day.

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This article appears in Apr 3-9, 2025.