T & T Supermarket

T&T was busy yesterday afternoon. I was there to get a snack from my busy work schedule. Arrived at their pastries area. Wide selection of buns and cakes. Looked for my favorite seaweed pork bun, and bought a couple. The line up was a bit long. I placed my buns on the conveyor. The elder man in front of me was rude. He kept pushing my buns back and back because he did not put his items on the conveyor until it’s his turn. I was in flames. But being a classy me I kept my cool. The man bought 220 worth of meat, compared to my 3 dollar buns. Of course the cashier didn’t say anything. Not saying she was right but she should have told the man don’t touch other people’s items. Once that man was gone I paid my products and went back to my car to devour the bun. It was on par delicious.

I waited at the bubble tea line for 10 minutes while I watched the lady work, I assumed she hadn’t seen me and said «excuse me, can i get a bubble tea?»
she told me i could only get the ones up at the front, so i asked her if she could make me one, because usually i get something that isnt at the front.
She told me they were closed. It was 2:14pm. But apparently their open til 10pm on Tuesdays. So i asked her why they were closing at 2 and she called over another lady, who also said were closed. I politely asked her when they closed and she walked away from me. I don’t think I’ll go back again.

Really good prices. Surprisingly better than walmart when items are on sale. I bought a prepared sushi/​roll platter and it was delicious! Will continue to shop here.

YAY’S!!: Mini Japanese Cheesecake $ 1.99, Coconut cream & almond bun $ 1.99. $ 2.99/lb boneless chicken special. Great deals on fresh
& frozen tillapia & trout. The $ 6.49 2-​item combo… get the lemon chicken & spicy chicken (low heat/​spicyness). Updated: electronics sub-​store is quite decent. I bought a great charger cable for my Android phone for $ 7.
SUPER-​YAYS!: The «1 – 3 item express» checkout lane — love this! Wow — this location is lightyears ahead of the T&T I visited in Ottawa. I feel spoiled to be next to such a clean budget grocery store with such a great selection of products! The customer service has been really remarkable too… plus no language barriers whatsoever at any of the departments (unlike Ottawa). This is a great place to shop if you want some cooking inspiration! I was so tempted to buy some of the live crab, lobster & fish they had on display and go grill it up with some of the great quality herbs they offer in the produce section. Maybe get the lime leaves and pre-​peeled garlic (both about $ 1.99 a pack) and steam some collard greens with Thai chili sauce on the side. Or grab one of those large ripe avocados and make a nice salad. The options are endless!
NAY: $ 5.99 hot food express special — «Elegant single combo meal». Noodles with what I was told was beef. More like ‘surprise me” beef lol. Hoping I might catch better specials if I go earlier on the next weekday.
Goodbye No Frills!

This was the first T&T to open in Ontario. When it initially opened, there were hordes and hordes of people shopping here as it’s the first upscale Asian supermarket (as in, without that smell normally associated with Asian supermarkets). Now that there’s multiple T&Ts in the GTA, customer traffic has gone down to respectable levels.
I purchased a sushi set here for lunch, particularly the one discounted to $ 9.99 from $ 14.99, which was easily an awesome deal. The fish and rolls were quite good for supermarket quality, but there was definitely a lot of rice used in the sushi.
In addition, I’m not sure if this was a weekday only thing but there were a lot of empty cupboards in the frozen food when I went on a Monday. In particular, the fish ball counter was completely empty, and I couldn’t find anywhere to purchase fish balls if I were to purchase them.
The produce section was one of the most organized of all the T&Ts in the GTA, and I find the quality to be higher than the T&T I normally go to (Unionville).
Overall this T&T is good for the community it serves, and is well connected to the Promenade Shopping Centre. For a larger variety of selections, however, Warden store would have better options.

The cleaner and fresher experience compared to the Hong Tai supermarket chains and a much more elaborate selection of meat and seafood.
Fresh white tilapia and the seafood tanks in general are kept very clean without the fishy presence of gills and fish guts lingering in your nose. Service of ‘clean and cut’ also available, I’m not too sure if they fillet at a cost or not though. They have fresh oysters in plastic containers and precut fish of the day (cheaper and about to get chucked out) and a long selection of imported frozen fish and the more exotic like sea turtle.
I come here for the poultry selection as well. So many options with the cut selection of the chicken parts. Chicken breast is at better quality and expect it to be a bit more expensive than the average chinese supermarkets but inline with the quality offered at Costco.
It gets a bit pricier with the fresh produce as well, but weekly sales from cooking oil to exotic fruits is worth the visit. This location also houses quite an extensive filipino selection from chips, sweets, condiments, drinks and canned goods.
Daily specials are available in their HOT FOOD selection like spicy shrimp, gazillion chicken dishes, fried veggies, the roasted pork and duck section, sushi and dessert section. Smartly placed towards the end of your errand before heading to the cashier as by this time, an appetite has been strategically created by the power of effective marketing.

I don’t really know how T&T can afford to sell seafood so cheap and I don’t want to know!
Their seafood section is so impressive! It’s so fresh and they have lots of variety. It’s impressive!
If you like clams, oysters or mussels you can walk up to the water tank and scoop them up yourself.
My kids love going here… it’s like taking them to the aquarium.
Don’t forget to bring a loonie for the shopping cart!

The five stars is for the seafood section, it’s incredible. Really clean area, no fishy smell. Mainly because it’s almost all live in these huge tanks. Not only would I say this is the best place to buy fresh seafood in the GTA, but it’s much cheaper than most seafood markets.
Once I got a six pound lobster, that was so lively, I could barely hold onto it. Another time I got a pound of live prawns, cost me six bucks!

Love this place.
Extremely diverse clientele.
Their pre-​made food area is to die for. Lots of options, and they all taste good for the most part.
Great selection of Far East produce and goods.
CLEAN!!!
I stop at this place every time I’m in Toronto.

Everybody here speaks English!
A lot of Russian, Polish, Jewish, and other non-​Chinese patrons shop here, thus the high proficiency of the English language at this location.
I don’t really care, but I’m sure that’s a nice factor for other people. I don’t like this location. It doesn’t feel very comfortable to shop here. I hate the parking lot; it… doesn’t feel comfortable parking here. I only found myself popping in here for a quick bottle of tea when I am in the area.
Something is off about this location; it lacks the feelings of a Chinese supermarket. It’s never buzzing with people; it’s too damn quiet, Hell. it’s maybe even too damn clean!
The experience of shopping in a Chinese grocer is not there.
Much of the items available for purchase is even altered to fit the needs of the ethnicity of the surrounding area. What’s the point? Just open another No Frills or something.
The cooked food area is underwhelming, which in my opinion has always been the main event of any T&T. I’m just not feeling the love.
It’s like the staff here don’t remember the good ol’ days back on the boat.

It is a decent supermarket with below mediocre food served in the sushi area and dim sum.
The convenience is where this supermarket makes up for the adequate quality.

Good selection, good quality and honestly, the neatest produce area I’ve ever seen.
The only drawback to this place is that it’s quite pricier than other Asian grocery stores.
But, I guess you get what you pay for.

I remember coming here when it first opened… it was probably one of the biggest things to happen to the Promenade Mall (besides their food court renovation). Their consistent and polished design and well maintained atmosphere makes a good standard for all other chinese supermarkets to look up to. One thing I really love is how well-​lit and clean the store is. In addition, I think their staff uniforms are also really cute and neat. I also love coming here to have some delicious samples.
The store was renovated and revitalized some time ago. They now have a nice small dining area at the entrance. As well, they increased the size of the Filipino and south east asian section near the bakery, which is nice! Customer service has improved quite a bit over the years! I have experienced pretty bad service in the past, but it seems like I haven’t had any issues at all now. The workers are really kind and now even say «Hello» while you’re shopping! I also found that they were helpful in directing me to some items I couldn’t find on my «to-​buy» list. I have to say, their staff at this location really make it a great experience to come shop groceries here.
In terms of their bakery section, I like their breads, but I don’t like their cakes. They look good, but don’t really taste good. I find them very bland.
However, if there is one con to this place, it is the pricing. If you ask anyone, they will tell you that T&T supermarket is probably on the expensive side as their sales are not as good as competing supermarkets.

This is one of the better Asian supermarkets I’ve been to. It’s clean and there’s take-​out! T&T also includes a sushi section and a bakery section. I enjoy the free samples as well (they really work on me). They’ve recently renovated and the place looks great. Everything is organized and the store is nice and bright… and did I mention CLEAN?

This is the first location of this chain which I had visited. As others have noted, it is very clean, at least the part that is visible. There is a huge variety of Chinese stuff, a smaller Philippine section in one corner, and miscellaneous Korean, Japanese and Southeast Asian goods scattered throughout. Nice selection of live fish and seafood.
Some good buys on meat; I think one might be able to better on produce in smaller Asian markets if not buying items on special.
The store area includes a number of separate businesses (some reviewed in Unilocal) which form a kind of Asian mall-​within-​a-​mall.
Checkers seem more considerate and polite than at some other markets.

One of the first T&T’s in Ontario and situated in unique location — inside the Promenade Shopping Mall.
When it first appeared I was sceptical. A few business had leased this location after Eatons but none of them ever survived for very long. it had been unoccupied for some time until the mall leased T&T the lower.
Many years later, the T&T franchise had only grown and established itself as the top Asian supermarket chain in the country. There are several T&T locations in Ontario now. Even Loblaws corporation recognized this ethnic grocery leader reach and acquired T&T July 2009 to expand into this market.
This store is well maintained and kept clean, features: vegetable, meats, seafood, dairy, frozen food, snacks, hot foods, bakery departments.
It offers most all of the popular ingredients for a home cooked Asian cuisine. From Chinese, Filipino, Thai, Japanese, Korean cultures.
Ingredient freshness is the number 1 criteria of any supermarket I frequent.
I have had no complaints of anything I had bought from here over the years.
The bakery does a pretty good job. The Portuguese tarts and fresh steam buns are some of my favorites. All of their chinese buns and artisan breads are now made using Utane method (derived from Japan). Result is a super soft, moist bread that can kept fresh longer.
The checkout is reasonably quick — if you’re just grabbing a few things there is an express 1 – 5 item checkout by the customer service desk.
Some of the things I most especially like here are:
–Crazy Specials (really some ridiculous deals to drive traffic to the store)
–Contests (who doesn’t want to win an ipad lol)
–Country Theme or Festival Celebration features throughout the year
–Organized and Clean

Decent market for Asian staples: veggies, sauces, meat. However, I wish they carried more Indonesian and Dutch-​Indonesian foodstuffs (What? No muisjes? Nor spice mixes for rawon from Indofood? Boo!) On the other hand, the prices are pretty good for other basics like eggs. The bakery is also nice, too, and they carry the softest, spongiest fresh sandwich bread plus a goodly selection of moon cakes. Mmm, moon cakes.

CUTE! Chinese Girl describes the Promenade Mall as «the white people mall» despite there being a T&T. Situated on the northern end of Jewish Bathurst strip it’s a little surprising to find a T&T here. Although ultimately it’s welcome. There’s huge amounts of parking given it’s a mid-​sized mall. Ever try to get near a T&T in Markham on the weekends? So not happening.
T&T price wise is eclipsed by Foody Mart and Tone Tai. You can find Bahn Mi here but they seem to sell out Saturday and there aren’t any left by Sunday. The lunch counter is actually a great deal. 4 items (plus rice and soup) for what you’d pay for a combo meal at McDiggles. Srsly. There’s rarely seating in the T&T’s small food court area but you’re steps away from the mall’s food court proper. No probs taking it out there and just mowing down.
Where to pay for the take out food is a little confusing, however. There’s no cash at the take out counter. Eventually we figured out you had to just get in line at a regular cash and pay for it.

The T&T Supermarket inside the Promenade Mall is the first T&T location in the GTA area.
I also find it is not as nice as the newly opened one. The main problem is the aisle is so narrow. It is so hard to push your shopping carts around without bumming into everything!
Aside from that, it is still as good and busy as the other T&T locations! I love to shop here when I am in the area.

Dear T & T,
you flipped my world upside-​down. You took my relatively quiet, calm, ample parking little mall of my youth and turned it into an all-​out-​Asia-​mega-​land.
Not that I’m complaining. In fact, the day after I moved back from Tokyo I came directly here. And oh, you saved me! You had isles and isles of unknown foods. I had to smell cellophane bags to try to figure out what was in them — and I felt at home. Thank you, T & T, for bringing in a balanced amount of confusion into my grocery shopping experience.
Aside from that T&T has an incredible selection of all-​foods-​Asian. My husband’s Texas grannie is obsessed with bubble tea — so all I had to do was mosey on up here to stock up on a complete DIY bubble tea experience — everything down to the fat straws and drink mix!
I also love the fact that I can pick up my favourite Japanese drinks here (calpis anyone?) as well as tofu-​noodles. They pretty much have it all here — and it’s easier to navigate than China Town!