T-Chow Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Adelaide

T-Chow is the only Chinese restaurant in Adelaide that serves authentic Teochew cuisine from the southern provinces of China (either Chaoshan or Fujian) If you know what to order, often times the dishes are lighter and less skewed towards Cantonese-style Chinese dishes or those from Sichuan which prevails in Chinatown here.

One of their specialties is the braised duck, or T-Chow duck. It is a dish that, unlike the usual roast duck, is lean and braised till tender in their master stock. In the near-20 years I have lived in Adelaide, I have introduced many people to the dishes on the menu of T-Chow that are familiar with any one who has a Teochew heritage.

On this occasion, I had brought a guest unfamiliar with the braised duck. For the first time, I was greatly embarrassed. The duck, normally tender, came out cold ... and worst of all, tough as opposed to tender. The oyster omelette which I would normally recommend, usually fresh and fluffy, was deflated, cold and oily. The other dish was the steamed spinach which came out at room temperature. In the numerous times over the course of many years I was utterly disappointed beyond words.

My guest said: “I thought you said this place is really good?”

It didn’t stop there. The wait for the dishes on a weekday with less than 10 tables was longer than any I had experienced. We had gone through half a bottle of wine when I had to ask where my dishes were. I am used to a maximum of 15 minutes wait-time on a crowded night. The table next to us noticed me asking in Mandarin (visible annoyance bridges language barriers) and said to me they had been waiting for 45 minutes for their banquet. Banquets, as we all know, don’t take that long. It’s the bread-and-butter of Chinese restaurants.

I asked for the owner, but apparently he/she were not around that night. The staff also told me that they were short-handed. It’s not good enough especially for regular customers.

I miss eating my most favourite duck dish in Adelaide. It is not like fatty roast duck or sometimes overly-dry tea-smoked duck. The braised duck used to be so special, succulent and tender here. I feel scarred. I am tentative of returning. I can only hope that since then, there have been no bad experiences like mine.

If you venture here in spite of my review, don’t order the banquet. Try something different accompanied by steamed rice and share...

We've been eating here regularly for the last 10 years, and the food has been mostly good. Our last visit (late lunch yesterday) has soured that though. Not busy, only ~1/4 tables occupied. Waitresses more interesting in fussing with empty tables than taking orders or welcoming diners in. Also later on, more interested in chopping veggies than serving diners. Leave the prep work for the kitchen, and do YOUR job. One lone waiter was madly trying to cover all tables - at least someone cared about the diners!! Not sure if it was because we normally only visit on weekends, or there's been some recent staff changes, but most familiar staff from the waitstaff team weren't around this visit. Where's the tall guy who keeps everything running efficiently? Or the granny who keeps the waitresses doing as they're supposed to? We had ordered 2 dishes for takeaway at the same time as placing our yumcha orders. After our yumcha was all eaten, waited a bit more, then asked a waitress for info about our takeaway. I was questioned repeatedly about whether I was sure the orders had all been placed at the same time - not acceptable. Someone made a mistake, just apologize & fix it. Trying to blame it on the customer who regularly spends $100+? That's a big no-no!! The waitress checks with the kitchen, says it's "being cooked, 5mins more". 5mins later some boxed takeaway food comes out, but not mine. At this point it's been 55mins since the orders were placed, my parking is about to tick over to another hour, and getting fed up with waiting. The waiter finally admits that the orders hadn't been passed through to the kitchen, but that cooking had already started ... would we be happy to continue waiting? Seriously? Heck no, cancel those orders, let me pay for what we ate, and get out of there. We'll give it a couple of weeks before we give them another visit- if the staff training issue still hasn't been sorted by then, then it'll be time to find a new place for our regular weekly...

Customer Service encompasses beyond the food being served, the ambiance and the cleanliness of a restaurant. Customer service also includes staff congeniality and friendliness. After being served our orders, we politely asked a male staff to take a group photo of us before we savour our food but walked past with a gesture to wait as he was walking towards another table. A female staff came by to hand us a plate for one of us and so we asked if we can have our photo taken but our request was declined and gesturing she was wearing gloves and motioned to wait for the male staff to come back. While the female staff was standing beside our table the male staff came by and we asked him again for a photo but declined and gestured to the female staff to take our photo. And then gesturing with her gloves as if to say ‘i’m wearing gloves’ she said is it okay?? I just replied ‘yeah, it’s clean right?’ - she proceeded to take our photos which we are thankful for. Now that we have the chance to think about it - tossing us back and forth as to who can take our photo was a bit silly and what is it with the gloves? Does management not allow her to take off her gloves off and fetch herself new ones? It just felt as if our request was sort of a nuisance when all we wanted a a few seconds of their time to have a photo taken. Also, it is rude to be speaking in Chinese in front of non chinese speaking customers. A smile on their faces won’t hurt. Apart from the male staff who greeted us in front of the restaurant, the ones who served us and took our photo never had a smile on their faces. A smile is a Non-verbal way of communicating to your guest or customers how they are received. A smile or lack thereof can make or break a customer’s dining experience. In our case, instead of talking about the food we ate part of our conversation ended up being the lack of customer service received...