Tan's Asian Cafe — Restaurant in Tallahassee

Honestly, this restaurant has great vegetarian options with nice servers. The manager was just very obnoxiously rude and made me not want to eat there again.

After eating an excellent Mongolian tofu dish, I decided to order an original boba tea (it's just black tea with milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls). I've had basic black bubble teas (I only order this one flavor) hundreds of times but upon moving Tallahassee, I couldn't find a place that served this kind of tea so I decided to give it a try at Tan's. I can make classic black boba tea at home, but I really wanted to have a go-to place to grab some if I don't have the time. I get the tea and the pearls were nice but the tea was overly sweet and had a bad syrup-like taste to it (I've had this tea and made it many times and I don't know how it could've tasted like this). I asked my server if it could be remade or if I could sent it back, but he sent it back and was very sweet and polite about the whole situation which was why I tipped him an extra two dollars.

Everything SHOULD be fine after that, but the manager asked what was wrong with the tea as I was leaving and I responded that it was too syrup-like and overly sweet (I believe condensed milk was used which wasn't listed in the description and I can't handle that kind of milk) and she kept sternly asking me what was wrong with it since it was popular and I kept giving her the same answer. After she stopped pestering me with the same question, she rudely said that restaurants in general don't take back food (not true) and hinted at how I shouldn't have done that; I asked if the tea could either be remade properly OR if I could send it back and one of my offers was accepted! If neither of those choices was an option then I would've paid for it! I don't know if she felt comfortable belittling me because I'm young or because I'm Asian, but I had every intention to come back UNTIL she gave me a hard time about the order!

I have NEVER gone out of my way in my entire life to write a bad review about a restaurant but what I experienced tonight was downright ridiculous and...

My wife and I ate here in November 2019, on our way back home to Louisiana. At that time, it was a bustling business with an Indonesian buffet in which the food was delicious... Fast forward to today (12-28-2022), my wife and I once again visited Tan's to partake in what we thought was going to be delicious buffet of Indonesian food on the way home... But upon arrival, we were greeted by a sign that said "takeout only". Ok... No big deal... Depressing, as we wanted sit-down... But upon entering the establishment and taking a menu to "order", we found that the once delicious menu of Indonesian food had been reduced to Nasi Goreng and Bakmi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice, and Indonesian fried noodles) and essentially replaced with typical nasty Americanized Chinese dishes that you'll normally find in a "Chinese" buffet. This was disheartening to say the least. But wait, there's more... Everyone in the building was wearing cold weather jackets... There was no heating on whatsoever. The building was cold as could be. Not sure why, perhaps it is the cold weather from the polar system that came through... Perhaps it's just that they're too cheap to run the heat (judging by how they chose the cheapest Americanized "Chinese" dishes you can make, I would go with the last option).

All in all, I don't know if we will be back here again. It is a crying shame when an Asian foodplace chooses quantity over quality, as quality is one of the things most Asians tend to value. We might check back in the future, in hope of finding out that they've gone back to their Indonesian roots. It isn't so much the fact that the buffet is gone, it is that they are takeout only, and the worst sin of all, they are avoiding their heritage of phenomenal Indonesian food... For whatever reason... Tis a shame... Especially when Indonesian food is hard...

I just had the pad Thai. It was a revelation. Very delicious. I looked up pad Thai on Google. It's rice noodles vermicelli often topped with peanuts. The recipe is intriguing. Fish and soy sauce. Tamarind. Palm sugar. Dried shrimp. So obviously very umami. I had it all the way. The shrimp exploded in my mouth the way juicy succulent springy properly cooked shrimp are supposed to. My second favorite meat was the beef. I do not know what cut they use but it was tender and juicy and a great mouth feel. The roast pork chunks were porky. The chicken did it's thang. They included a line wedge. I would say to ask for one or two more lime wedges.

Superb meal

I have gotten the Javanese style fried rice and fried noodles from tans several times. I never looked up the recipe. But both dishes are succulent and scrumptious with beef or shrimp.

I do want to know "everything" about Java and Sumatran and Indonesian cooking. So one day I will purchase the cookbook fire islands on Amazon.

I think tans should renovate and only serve Indonesian food. Maybe that is not lucrative and that is a damn shame.

As far as the Chinese food goes their crispy deep fried tofu is great. The crispy tofu can be obtained "salt and pepper" style. U can also get tangerine and sesame styles. All three are good.

The Mongolian beef is awesome. That's all I've had.

I used to eat the tripe soup back when they had a larger...