Jieyu Chen and Quan Li are putting a fresh spin on a maturing Clintonville restaurant.

The wife-and-husband team in December quietly purchased Ying’s Tea House, which was opened about 20 years ago at 4312 N. High St.

Both natives of Canton, China, and restaurant industry veterans, the couple decided to cast their fortunes in the central Ohio market.

“For a while, we have wanted our own restaurant,” said Chen, who manages the front of Ying's.

She said Li, the chef, had been a patron of Ying’s for a number of years, and when the previous owner expressed interest in selling, they decided to buy the restaurant, formerly named Ying's Tea House & Yum Yum.

“We kept the menu, but we’re a little bit different,” Chen said.

They have added several Thai dishes, a cuisine about which Li is passionate, to the largely American-Chinese menu.

New offerings include drunken noodles, basil beef, chicken and shrimp, Thai dumplings and thin-and-crunchy rolls stuffed with pork, shrimp and chicken.

Li is perfecting his recipes for Thai red and green curries, which soon will make the menu.

“We wanted to bring something to new to the (customers),” Chen said.

Ying’s has been known as a casual restaurant with classic, moderately priced Chinese fare. The expansive menu covers a lot of territory, with mostly common American-Chinese food, Singapore noodles and pad Thai. It’s also one of a shrinking number of restaurants that still serve egg foo young.

Ying’s still offers homemade dumplings, some legitimate Chinese dishes, such as beef chow ho fun, Sichuan eggplant and mapo tofu.

Although it is not on the menu, Chinese sausage may be ordered and prepared in several dishes.

The tea part of the equation involves bags of oolong, jasmine, green tea and pu'er.

As for a major menu overhaul, it will have to wait, Chen said. The cuisine of the Guangdong, or Canton, province is too complicated for the quick-serve nature of Ying’s, Chen said.

Plus staff shortages are an issue, as well.

“Right ow we want to go step by step,” she said.

Nancy Kuhel, executive director of the Clintonville Area Business Association, said she hopes Chen and Li keep “doing what’s been done because everybody loves the food.”

“Welcome to the neighborhood,” said Kuhel, who said she regularly orders takeout from the restaurant. “And I’m excited to see them continue the tradition of Ying’s food.”

Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. I closed Mondays. For more information, call 614-262-7587.