Tai Tai — Restaurant in Brisbane City

I've enjoyed the food at Tai Tai on many occasions, generally always delicious.

Today I didn't get to enjoy the food, because the service was terrible.

For context, I took my 6 year old son to the Bluey QPAC show this afternoon on Tuesday 2/1, and intended to enjoy an early dinner at Tai Tai afterwards, a usual place I frequent before or after a QPAC show depending on the time.

The show got out at 4:30pm, I stopped by and spoke to a staff member wearing white around 4:45pm and he said the doors would be open at 5pm for dinner. So I took my son down to Southbank for a play and to work up an appetite.

I came back to the restaurant at 5:30, the restaurant was less than half full, and a party of four was waiting to be seated at the reception area. My son and I patiently waited for them to be seated, and upon stepping to the the employee seating everyone was told,

'We're full, I can't take anymore children.'

He said this, and I looked at the half empty restaurant, with a grand total of three children seated(all with Bluey merchandise btw) and just said, 'Ok'.

Part of me wanted to ask for the manager, part of me wanted to have a few choice words with him; but ultimately I knew that the best thing to do would be to write a review that will last forever about this particular employee.

If the owner/manager actually reads these reviews...he was working on Tuesday the 2nd, he was wearing a long sleeved burgundy shirt, wore wide brimmed black glasses and had short blonde hair, your restaurant was less than half full, and I find it very peculiar that during the middle of a rental/housing/general cost of living crisis he took it upon himself to turn business away at 5:30pm on...

We actually dined here by default and what a wonderful detour it was! We had just finished a mesmerising night at the queensland ballet and decided dinner was the next stop. As it was raining and we had no umbrella's we didn't want to venture far from The Playhouse. We decided on James Squire, but as we drew nearer and could see the crowd we wondered whether that was the best choice? Just so have it, whilst waiting at the light to cross, some very enticing smells brought Tai Tai to our attention! It was busy, but not ridiculously so, so we cued and within minutes had a seat. This is no ordinary 'sweet and sour pork' Chinese restaurant. This is classy, generous and high quality Chinese cooking. I had the Hakka crispy pork belly which came as such, but served with the sauces seperate, so you can put as little or as much on your meat as you like. My wife had the San pei clay pot chicken which was deliciously tender and steaming hot and full of those delicious smells that led us here. When we ordered, our waiter suggested a plate of the stir fried leafy greens to go with the meat dishes and the jasmin rice we had ordered to help round out the meal and he was a spot on! What we couldn't finish, staff were more than happy to supply a takeaway container. Thank you Tai Tai, it's been a while since a restaurant excited us so much that we can't wait to go back - to just try something different on...

I just wanted to share my experience of Tai Tai with anyone who wants to know what it's like! To put it bluntly, if you want to give your tastebuds an absolute treat, eat here!

From our welcome to the restaurant, all the way through to the gentleman taking our payment (and complimenting my shirt), my experience at Tai Tai was most enjoyable! My wife and I ordered the rice noodles and the claypot of eggplant. Both were absolutely exquisite in flavour and texture. The eggplant dish blew my mind as I didn't know eggplant could taste so amazing!

While we were eating, our nasal cavities were constantly assaulted by more and more smells wafting over from the kitchen. Each individual smell made us want to eat whatever it was that was being cooked, but as our stomachs only had room for dessert after the mains, we settled for the fried ice cream and mocchi balls. The three flavours of mocchi we had were tiramisu (bloody brilliant!), vanilla (the filling was so delectable and unlike any mocchi I've ever had) and the red bean/green tea (just delightful!). To accompany our entire meal we shared the storm in a teapot cocktail which was so smooth and delicious.

The price was right for what we ate as well. I expected to be forking out way more money than we did as it was such a five star dining experience! We will be back :) Thank you for an...