T & S Chinese Seafood Restaurant

T&S is a Chinese restaurant that I went to a few weeks ago. When you first enter through the doors, it looks like any other ordinary Chinese restaurant, large circular tables with plastic tablecloths, chairs with plastic seating, a fish tank in the reception area, with everything from the walls to the carpeted floors looking slightly old and worn down. But one of the many things that strike first is the line, which usually during lunchtime, fills up the room and well out of the doors. Another peculiar thing that you see when you are seated during lunchtime on Saturday, which I think is the best time to go there, are that there are many carts that are wheeled around the well placed tables, each with a different assortments of foods in small baskets or steamed metal bowls. This is dim sum, and food is served in this fashion every Saturday during lunch. All you have to do is look into the cart point to what you want, and how many, and the waiters will simply place it on your table, and mark your paying sheet with what you bought.

~The Sign~

The food at T&S itself is a marvelous and extraordinary thing in itself. But I will only be sharing with you what is served during dim sum, and even then, I don’t think that I could list everything they had for you, but I will try my best. There are about 5 food carts that are perpetually wheeled around the restaurant, mostly coming at a rest next to a table, or back in the kitchen to restock, with 4 of them containing appetizers and main courses, and the last holding the desserts, which I will go into detail later.

Shiny Food Cart~

On 2 of the carts, there are precariously stacked columns of glistening metal steam baskets, and on these are the varieties of seafood and other meats. Such as small shrimp wrapped in some rice paper or shrimp roasted balls with a crab claw sticking out for you to hold on. My personal favorites on these carts are the curry squid, which is roasted squid tentacles soaked in a salty spicy curry and is extremely tasty, and the taro cakes, which are fried taros and potatoes into neat rectangular prisms, with frequent cubes of meat.

On the next carts, the food is placed in a different manner, because on this cart, the foods are not as piping hot as the previous ones, but rather at a lukewarm temperature. On these carts are the rolled rice cakes, which are served with shrimp and/or pork, or even plain. Dumplings can also be found on this cart, with chicken and pork in shapes from triangles to small semicircles, all which have their own special sauces.

Delicious Nom Nom Nom

And on the last cart, which is my favorite one, are the desserts. On this cart, most of the sweet snacks are cold, such as the mango pudding, which can be served with condensed sweetened milk, and they come with a little umbrella sticking in the middle. The other desserts are baked and contain many interesting flavors, but for the most part, after a stuffing full meal, I like to enjoy a light, refreshing pudding.

To sum these things up T&S is an amazing Chinese restaurant in Austin, and even with all I have talked about is merely the dim sum, which takes place only once a week. I didn’t even get in depth with the dinner courses. So if you want to get the full experience, I guess that you just have to go there yourself. You can get reviews, location, and prices here.

Fishies!!

Have a Yummy Time!

-Chocolate Rabbit

Photos courtesy of Yelp