T & T Supermarket

T&T first came to Calgary in the late 90s and since then has captured the hearts of many Asian Calgarians and the curiosity of the adventurous. It’s an Asian grocery store marketed like a Western grocery store. It’s clean, it’s huge, it’s got a deli, a bakery, fresh meats, wide variety of Asian produce and a large seafood selection. The only thing missing is a pharmacy.
My weekly routine is to check the flyers that come out every Friday. Why? Because everything at T&T is marked up by at least 20%. Basic Asian items can be found much cheaper at Superstore and at other Asian grocery stores around town, but T&T’s quality and selection cannot be beat. The produce are always green and the bakery buns are never a day older than when they came out of the oven. The seafood section offers some of the freshest seafood in Calgary and a butcher is available to descale, prep and bag your purchase for you.
I must admit, there is a language barrier but T&T is worth the visit. If you’re adventurous, be sure to visit and pick up some fresh Asian groceries while you’re there.

Service isn’t great — but there was a slight language barrier.
First stop was brunch — we went for dim sum and it was great — so fresh, so hot, so tasty. We watched the ladies in the back making BBQ pork buns and oh man was it the best BBQ pork bun I’ve ever had??? I think so YES!!! Big pieces of pork, nice seasoning, not too saucy but not dry– FANTASTIC!
Ordering was a little frustrating as we were getting hangry and «pork» was getting confused with «fork» but after that all was good.
We shopped around to get some other frozen dim sum items and they had such a large selection! I can’t wait to have some dim sum at home over the holidays! And the fruit section! So many options! We grabbed some snake fruit and mangosteens for a party that night and they wound up being a great conversation piece as well as a fun experience we all enjoyed! I love mangosteens to begin with — the snake fruit many enjoyed but I found the texture strange and it was not for me.
Otherwise the tills move fast so while it may look linedup it won’t take very long.
There is also a bubble tea stop which we made for the drive — not as good as other places and far less fresh fruit options and an additional $ 2 for alternative pearls seems super overpriced. Although they do sell the stuff to make your own at home so that’s nifty.

Initially I was pretty excited, the first sighting of a T&T since arriving but in comparison to some back home, I’m not fond of how they deliberately divided a normal long aisle to 2 shorter ones. Now finding things are even more difficult.
take the instant noodles. They should all be together — but not here, they decided to separate the Southeast brands away from the Chinese/Japanese/Taiwanese…and it’s not even in the same area. About 3 aisles down, then you’ll find the Malaysian/​Singaporean ones. By the way, the Migoreng’s are simply the best if you like a bit of spice ;)
What’s impressive is the humungus seating for the deli area as per pic.
But the washrooms really suck, small and unisex.
Overall, one of the bigger ones, though our Metrotown in Burnaby is still bigger.

I get it — this Supermarket was perhaps not designed with me in mind however I love to create ethnic dishes and am very interested in the teas and herbal remedies.
Today, my experience in Service all over the store was the worst I have had in a very long time. I would have spent more cash had I had some help as of course I could not make out what a lot of the things were I was looking at and those stations (tea and medicinal area) were serviced. But, I was un-​serviced. And hovered over at the wrong times for no reason. I received short, curt answers from staff in regards to questions with zero compassion and not a crack of a smile.
A shame as there are some very interesting things here. Seafood area (be prepared, it does not smell like your typical grocery store, think fishy but cultural)
Bakery, Dim Sum, Hot Food, Teas, Prepared dishes. Lots of Asian spices, dried herbs, coconut milk, pop that you have maybe never seen before and the list goes on.
No cases of water though and if you ask, some staff we encountered do not speak English here. Fair enough, looking through all the aisles was fun and interesting but we did not feel so welcome.
Sad, I bought a couple of things but was feeling rushed out due to 0 service and will likely not return.
I added a star to make 2 stars as the store was clean and I still think much of what they sell is cool.

Vegetables were fresh and affordable. Lots of fresh fish, and we found everything we needed.

Once you get past the overwhelming waft of seafood smell when you come in, it’s pretty entertaining to shop around. Usually I come here with no set agenda so I can wander around aimlessly and giggle/​gasp at the translations on items.
I always hit up the bakery, if you’re here early enough in the morning you get to pick up fresh pastries!
The inner child in me gets super excited when I wander down the candy aisle — I love Asian treats :)
Basic Asian cooking ingredients (soy sauce, etc) are a bit pricey, you will find similar products at Superstore for a lot cheaper
If you’re up for an adventure, check out T&T, you won’t be disappointed

I love grocery shopping. As a chef, there’s nothing more inspiring than walking aimlessly down the aisles of a really good grocery store to see what kinds of new ingredients or fresh produce offering I can create with. I love Asian markets even more because there is always something new and interesting that I’ve yet to try.
Enter T&T Supermarket. This Asian supermarket chain, now a part of Loblaw’s, has a vast selection of items and ingredients from all over Asia. Each region is represented with their most common items, though there are times when you may not be able to find something specific. All in all though, I seem to be able to find most of the things I’m looking for.
T&T also features a full-​service bakery, hot ready-​to-​eat food, Dim sum, noodle bar and a Chinese BBQ. Both locations in Calgary also have seating available so you can enjoy your food right there.
I have found the folks at the meat dept. very patient and helpful, despite the odd communication gap from time to time. I was there one time shopping for the restaurant to take advantage of a sale on short ribs and asked the meat cutters for 50lbs. They went right to work getting me freshly cut meat and 15 minutes later presented me with 15 lbs of ribs. oops. It was all good. They were understanding and never got short with me, even though I had this huge request with practically no advance notice. My bad.
I am very impressed with the quality of the produce that T&T has. Being a part of the Loblaw’s group, I was afraid that the quality would decline, but it has stayed the same. You can find all sorts of Asian produce, some selections are only available at one or the other location depending on the day. (ie: Taro leaves) The leafy vegetables are most often in pristine condition, neatly bundled and packaged. The foot traffic during the week is a good thing, insuring that the product is always new and fresh. Busy produce market = very good product.
My only gripe about T&T is that they really need a location in the South. I live near 22x which means that I have to make my visit to T&T as a planned event. I enjoy spontaneous grocery shopping, and yes, I do think grocery shopping is fun. Always wondering what new and exciting item I’ll uncover next keeps me on my toes and T&T is never a disappointment.

Extensive selection of South East Asian products. Some products are competitively priced, while others are obscenely expensive.
Average at best lunch takeaway selections, including standard «american Chinese» items as well as some more exotic items. BBQ pork, duck, etc, all available chopped by the pound. Dim Sum, buns, and other items also available at reasonable prices, but the quality is not very high.
Employees here range mostly from apathetic to overtly rude or offensive. Some of the staff here speak literally zero English, and you may misinterpret their lack of communication skills as rudeness — this is not necessarily the case, but it could be.
There are a number of employees here who are blatantly rude, and could make you question whether or not you want to give them your money. All this combined with the fact that the majority of the CUSTOMERS here are rude and offensive as well, I’m concluding that the T&T experience is not for those with easily hurt feelings!

I’m in paradise when I go here lol its like visiting a food lovers dream albeit with an Asian twist, but if you like experimenting and trying something new then a visit to one of the T&T markets is a must if you like food.
Its really catered for the Asian communities so hence most of the foods are leant towards Chinese, Korean and Japanese tastes, but they also carry all the usuals, they have really good deals on NZ Lamb (frozen) have a great fresh and frozen fish section, Asian fruit and vegetable’s.
The bakery is really good, but they have like a take away style hot food section thats really good and I make a bee line for the Steamed Bun section next to it which is excellent, you can get different types of steamed bun but my favourite and highly recommend is the BBQ Beef, you can keep them in the fridge and just nuke them for a minute and voila there good to go! (or for the purist you can re-​steam them, but I cant wait that long ;)
If you like Asian style food then this place is the Mecca!

For me, T&T is more like free entertainment than a shopping destination. I can easily spend hours wandering the aisles, reading labels, discretely checking out other people’s carts, and then only buying one or two things («Birds’ Nest White Fungus Drink» is always a suitable gift!). It’s definitely a cultural melting pot and the behaviors that make a trip to Safeway tolerable (smiling at passersby, making eye contact, saying «excuse me», making room for people to pass, etc.) aren’t the norm, but I’ve never actually been treated outright rudely. In fact, the staff are usually extremely helpful and want to share their cooking tips with me. If you’re looking for a special Asian food item T&T is probably your best bet in Calgary; it’s also a good stop if you’re looking for cheap produce (herbs especially are at least 50% cheaper than at most major supermarkets).

Just had to add:
Discovered T & T carries Tai Pow — Big Steamed Bun — they label it as «Vietnamese Egg Bun» — located in the fridge section where the rice dumplings reside (in front of the dim sum location). The bun is packed inside a plastic see-​through container and the bun is individually wrapped with saran wrap.
Steam the bun up for 20 mins or so and it tastes so gooooooood! I love that wedge of egg in it.
It’s the same bun supplied by Golden Happiness Bakery — see my reviews of Golden Happiness here:
Oh yes! Don’t forget to get a bottle of Lingham’s Chilli Sauce, made in Malaysia. Goes so well with the Tai Pow and any else you want to spice up!
YAY!