T's Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in Tasmania

First of all, I am surprised by your response, especially as you bring up my English ability and mention my Asian heritage. For your information, I have lived in Ireland for three years and Australia for two and a half years. By making such an assumption about me as an Asian, you’ve only exposed yourself as a racist.

Secondly, why are you offended by us finishing the food? In our culture, finishing a meal is a sign of respect for the chef and their effort. I shared my honest opinion after completing the meal, so you have no right to dismiss me as a "keyboard warrior." My review was truthful and fair.

Lastly, let me educate you on how to handle customer reviews. You can either take feedback to improve or choose to ignore it. However, your response clearly reflects the attitude you displayed towards us during our visit. It only validates the hurtful remarks you made to us in person. Blaming me for "hurting your small business" is misguided—you are doing that yourself through your behavior.

Thankfully, my experiences at other restaurants in Sheffield were wonderful. While I can’t recommend your establishment, I hope your business succeeds and you engage with customers more respectfully.

First and foremost, I acknowledge that there are locals who love and frequently visit this place, and I respect that. However, my review is strictly based on my personal experience. Reviews exist for a reason—they’re meant to help both businesses improve their services and assist travelers or customers in making informed decisions.

Although I took down my initial review at the merchant's request, I stand by my belief that constructive feedback should not be silenced. Telling me that you’re the only Asian restaurant in town catering to local, non-Asian tastes does not justify diminishing my rights as a customer.

My critique regarding the food was simply to warn others who may share similar tastes or preferences—whether they are Asian or not. It’s not about race; it’s about taste. Those who had positive experiences should and likely will leave their own glowing reviews. My review reflects my personal experience, which cannot and should not be dismissed or erased.

Now, regarding the service: I stand by what I said. In a small-town restaurant, the relationship and interaction between servers and customers should be visible and genuine. However, to have someone tell me, “You’re in Australia, in Tasmania—this is how we do things here. You’re a tourist, so accept it and don’t complain,” was beyond disappointing.

Excuse me? As a paying customer, I have the full right to dine in, share my experience, and express my honest opinions. To feel even the slightest undertone of racism when those words were said to me was infuriating. I refuse to accept any form of compensation to remove my review. I paid, and I walked out with my dignity intact.

The repeated statement from the owner that the food is tailored to "white people's tastes" felt not only dismissive but borderline offensive, especially when a specific country was mentioned. To me, this isn’t about race—it’s about preference. For those who prefer less salty food, this may not be the place for you.

Short Summary of Original Post: The Garlic Vegetables should have been called Soy Sauce Vegetables. The Gong Bao Chicken was so salty it bordered on bitterness. The Fried Chicken Dim Sum had no visible fried chicken. The Guo Tie was disappointing in appearance and taste.

Service: Bella, the robot, deserves a 10/10 for service. The human staff, however, barely warrant a 2/10. There was almost no engagement during the meal—empty plates weren’t collected, and tea wasn’t refilled. For a small-town restaurant, I expected better service and more meaningful interaction with customers.

A final note: Be aware that they only inform you of a minimum spending requirement after seating you and taking your order.

While others may have had good experiences here, mine was disappointing—particularly the hurtful remarks from the owner. I hope this review helps both tourists and...

If you're expecting the usual Cantonese/Szechuan/Beijing fare that is the staple of most Australian Chinese restaurants then I'm afraid you may be disappointed - unless you keep an open mind and are open to other Chinese cuisines. The owners of T's hail from Xinjiang in China's far west, bordering Tibet, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia, Afghanistan and a few more 'stans into the bargain. This means the food is strongly influenced by the muslim countries surrounding the province.

In this region, where temperatures can drop to -40C in winter and 40C in summer, warming foods such as lamb & mutton feature strongly. And at T's the food is no exception.

The menu is not extensive, but it's large enough, and the lamb dishes are exceptional. On a very cold, windy and rainy night my wife and I ventured forth for my birthday celebration. We took along our last bottle of Jansz Single Vineyard chardonnay methods champenoise (not allowed to call it champagne any more. Besides, the Jansz is superior to most of the French champers I've had and I've had quite a few of the best!) to wash down the food.

We started with our favourite palate-pleaser, the wonderful pot sticker dumplings. Soft and delicious on the top, crunchy on the bottom, these are sure to please anyone and they certainly pleased us. At 12 to a serving (the food at T's is made to share), this is just the right size to take the edge off the hunger while waiting for the main courses to arrive. The food is cooked fresh to order so expect to wait a while for the mains, so the dumplings - and there are a few different varieties on the menu - fill the hole in the meantime.

The owners have their own farm in the area, and produce their own organic lamb and beef. Pork is bought in from another local producer and is from the Berkshire breed, absolutely delicious. When you have such fine quality produce, you don't have to do much to it, and thankfully this is the case at T's.

We had the Gong Bo lamb as one of our mains and it is just delicious (I know I've used this word a few times now but it aptly describes the food at T's), a blend of different flavours and lifted with medium-hot chilli. Not too hot but just enough to accent the natural flavour of the lamb, which is thinly sliced, wok-seared and, unlike so many Australian Chinese restaurants, isn't padded out with lots of cauliflower, carrots, etc. There are a few veggies to add their flavour to the sauce, but what you get is lamb; beautiful, tender flavoursome lamb.

My wife has a passion for sweet and sour pork and so we chose this for our second main course. While not strictly a Xinjiang dish, the quality of the Berkshire pork makes this without a doubt the best sweet and sour I've ever had, not too sweet; not too sour but just enough to accent the flavour of the pork.

T's has a range of rice and noodle dishes on the menu, but in keeping with the traditional cuisine of the area, we chose a lamb Zhua Fan pilau rice, a dish which shows the Muslim influence in Xinjiang. Not unlike a Pakistani Biryani, small chunks of lamb are cooked with saffron (or turmeric - the owners are not too forthcoming in discussing their recipes, and who can blame them?) rice which makes for a main course in its own right and not simply an accompaniment to other dishes.

Whatever you choose from the menu, you will be delighted with the food. There's a deft hand in the kitchen; the food is not greasy at all but is light and brings out the full flavour the locally sourced produce. I noticed a couple of negative reviews here, mostly related to the service. Yes, it is relaxed and if you're in a hurry to eat and go, then T's is not for you. Good food takes time and all dishes are cooked to order. And expect the food to be different from your usual Chinese restaurant; there aren't too many Xinjiang restaurants around, especially in Tasmania but not in the major mainland...

About 6 years ago, my cousin had her 21st birthday there and it was my first time there. The place was a regular old eatery looking place, a little rundown but the food was humbled, and almost authentic. It was enjoyable and probably better than any chinese near where i live. Yesterday I decided to take mum and nan there for mother's day. Was really looking forward to the taste I tasted before. The place clearly has been renovated to a fancy chinese restaurant with a robot waitress. Atmosphere were great. My kids were really entertained by Bella the robot. I booked a table for 9, and being Chinese myself I ordered 5 mains, a noodle and couple of starters. Menu was very small, not enough choices so I basically almost ordered a bit of everything.

Then they start serving it:

Spring rolls, can't really go wrong, the family kinda enjoyed that.

Curry puff.. was ok, not the same with the one in Asia but edible, too saugy on the skin, but ok on taste.

Then it comes a few meat dishes... I could not tell what is what... all I ate has 1 same taste to it!! I ordered sweet and sour pork... it came out that red, the red colouring was dripping and ousing out with its oil... then there is another similar taste and looking dishes came out... was chicken, I ordered Satay chicken, apparently that's what it was?? It has no satay taste to it whatsoever. Satay chicken are marinated in soy, turmeric, ginger, garlic and lime juice. Pan fried it or cook it over flame and then you serve it with peanut, some hot spices and coconut sauce.. what I get was a very sweet dish different colour to the sweet and sour pork but tasted the same. Basically all the meat dishes we ordered had 1 same taste to it except for 1 is slightly spicier than the other. All meat were seemingly battered and put different colour sauce to it that has 1 same taste. Chinese bbq pork, i don't think i get that but we did get the right amout of dishes as i counted. Vegetable stir fried, what they called as " yu shuang" or "xi shuang" or similar to it.. was basically stir fried mixed veg in sweet chilly cause. I was the only chinese in the family with my kids being mixed blood, and the rest are local on my table. Non of us were impressed, in fact we were underwhelmed by the food. From what it was a humbled and honest chinese food, has now became a place that look fancy with a robot waitress that we can't even rate its customers service.

I suggest, if you don't know what some chinese dishes are or mean, don't put it on your menu. It was really disappointing and underwhelmed. Just stick to what you know, at least when customers ordered they will get exactly that. If I wanted some unauthentic, all meat dish tasted sweet and tasted the same, I could have gone to the one down the road from my house.

Having to drive an hour to get to you it was not worth it. Your food not tastes horrible but not what it says. May suit non Asian taste bud. I was generous with that 1 star rating, paying $330 for a meal I...