Tia's Cafe — Restaurant in Cairns North

I have no idea why this place rates so highly on Google. We have passed by Tia's many times after looking in and deciding that it did not look promising. Well, tonight we gave it a try on the basis of a friend's recommendation. Service was reasonably good. Atmosphere was terrible with poor air conditioning and non-existent ventilation. We found the prices of dishes to be oddly high. I understand charging $33.90 for a whole fried fish, but I do not think paying $17.50 for a smallish portion of sweet and sour pork is reasonable. Proper sweet and sour pork should NOT be coated in the same batter as the fish for fish and chips! It is just plain lazy - not to mention sneaky as the plate is then filled with huge bubbles of batter with small pieces of pork inside. This leaves little room for any vegetables, which the chef conveniently decided to place less of. The sauce lacked punch. Initially we thought it was not sour enough, but we decided in the end that it just tasted terrible. It's not difficult to make, people! I wonder if this is because the chef is no longer the owner. As South East Asians, we are very disappointed and will continue to give this place a miss. We will also warn our friends to avoid this sorry excuse for a cafe. There is cheaper, heartier and tastier South East Asian...

Food was okay, but service was Terrible. We have gotten takeaway three times from this shop. First night the man behind the counter was very happy and lovely, second night we had to go back for cutlery (I.e. Chopsticks and a spoon which SHOULD be included!) third night, which was tonight they didn't give us any cutlery, so we had to go back inside and ask for some to which they regarded my partner quite mean, giving off rude body language and attitude. Then, we had to go a second time around 10 minutes later, because when our food was opened they'd forgotten two sides to our dishes (chilly and soy sauce) we specifically ordered. To which they laughed and thought was very funny that we had to keep on walking back. We should not have had to walk back twice after we'd received our food for minor things. They should take their jobs more seriously and deliver what was ordered. Over all their food is okay. But I was very dissapointed with the...

This wasn't my favourite food experience but it was by no means bad. I visited with 2 friends and while they enjoyed their dishes I was less impressed with mine.

They have off street parking which is a plus. I'd consider going back and choosing a different dish. The good news is the menu is quite big so there's plenty to choose from.

I had the prawns with glass noodles, one of my favourites when I'm in Thailand. I don't understand why restaurants put all the extra vegetables in the food, eg cabbage & red peppers -- it's not served that way in Thailand, so why is it served that way in Australia? I took out all the extraneous vegetables. The noodles were good but couldn't entirely escape the flavour of the red peppers. The prawns were plentiful, 4 quite good sized ones, but they didn't taste the same as I've had...