Tai Pan

Closed for renows April 2014, no reopening date listed. Also post they want –all new staff as well

I don’t mind this place! I can’t really take away stars for it being so damn far south but in that sense I probably wouldn’t go super far out of my way to go, but it’s really not bad food.
We had some sort of duck special menu where they have a bunch of duck stuff, which I don’t eat, but I heard it was pretty good. The layout of the restaurant is OK, it’s not the easiest to spot, it’s kind of tucked away in the corner and upstairs, and the parking can be OK as long as Ceili’s isn’t too busy right next door.
The buffet looked okay, pretty good selection and a decent price.
They did a really good job of their pea tips and vegetable dishes. Overall it’s between a three and four, I think that if you’re going to go I’d avoid the buffet if you can (I mean, buffets are almost never good lets be serious, except maybe at east Indian restaurants). Some of the stuff tasted like they used butter, but it was all tasty. Nice setup with ample room for big parties. Service was OK, I mean you’re still asking for tea to be refilled and waters and hot sauces, but they were definitely friendly enough.

The worst excuse for «food» period! Horrible… period!

So-​so buffet. I had the weekend dim sum/​chinese food buffet. Seniors $ 12.95 and Adults $ 14.95.
The dim sum fare consisted of:
— Steamed Chicken Bun — Very good and hot and steamy. I like it! It’s kind of peppery with chicken mean and a wedge of egg.
— Steamed BBQ Pork Bun — Very good and hot and steamy.
— Fried Turnip Cake — kinda cold. This should be served hot.
— Har Gow — took the last 2 when I got to the tray but waited for about 20 mins before they filled it up again; not too bad
— Siu Mai — just OK
— Sticky Rice — hot and steamy and quite tasty
— Some dessert items — like laughing ball (chin toi) — OK, baked pineapple bun — a bit dry.
— Congee — not too bad.
The Chinese buffet:
— cut up BBQ chicken pieces — quite tasty
— salt and pepper calamari and fish — quite good
— Singapore Vermicelli — not bad
— Won Ton Soup — needed salt
— Vegetable dishes looked kinda sorry
— Fried Rice — quite tasty
— Tomato and Egg dish — kinda mush
Not sure if I’ll be back.

This is to review the buffet …
Bleck! hahah. Okay, that sounded harsh… well, let’s just say I didn’t enjoy it. $ 12.95/pp…Not much variety, pretty basic and not great. I’m not much for Chinese buffets anyways.
But on Mon & Tues, the buffet is $ 8.95 which makes it more bearable I guess… :-/

Parking: ⁵⁄₅
Dining Area: ⁴⁄₅
Food Quality: ³⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
Value: ⁴⁄₅
This place must do better with take out orders. We tried Tai Pan on the positive Dim Sum recommendations and previous Unilocal reviews but it was kind of a let down for dinner service. Sadly, they honestly seemed surprised that someone showed up for dinner and that set the tone for the evening. The server was distracted the whole time, the kitchen was slow, and the place was empty. Having said that, it was clean enough and the food was ok. We’ll probably go back to try the dim sum sometime but not likely to go back for dinner again.

Haven’t been in the actual restaurant, but the few times we’ve ordered delivery we’ve been majorly impressed.
Its not the typical greasy, oily Chinese food one typically thinks of. After eating you don’t get a gross feeling. The ginger beef is average, but the lemon chicken is amazing. They are friendly, easy to understand on the phone, and have free delivery in my neighbourhood. One of the best Chinese places I’ve had.

Ordered a few items on delivery and was absolutely blown away. Lemon chicken, mushu pork, steamed bbq pork bun, wonton soup, shanghai noodles w/​beef. It was about $ 15 cheaper than its competitors and drastically better. I can’t say I’ve had delivery Chinese food this good before. Give it a try!

I would hate to christen this place with a terrible first review, especially since I added it, but sometimes fair warnings are needed. This upstairs restaurant space is in its third incarnation since I’ve been in Calgary, nowadays masquerading as yet another Peking style buffet (its previous name was Empress, and was the same style), luring unsuspecting southern Calgarians into its greasy maw. Perhaps New Year’s Eve is not the best day to test out a new place, but food quality should be the same regardless of traffic: we were there at 5:30, half an hour before the place exploded with a surge of patrons (possibly looking to end their mortal lives on the last day of the year), and the food was likely the first batch of the dinner hours.
The only winner I could surmise (to my great surprise) was the salt n’ pepper squid — everything else was drenched in grease, and was either too salty, or utterly flavorless. The Shanghai noodles were the dubious winners of that combo, a flavorless slime that wriggled down my throat like worms. It made me look forward to Master Ken M.‘s homemade Mexican feast even more.
As I’ve said, New Year’s Eve is probably one of the worst days to try a new place, and it could be that they were on autopilot, slamming out dishes any which way. They might even turn out to be a decent buffet option for the south — but I am in no rush to return and find out.