by Tina Dreier on I was brought to this place by a friend of mine, and had no idea what it was all about...before I stepped inside and was greeted by the ladies. I see from earlier reviews of this place that people don't rate the food that hightly...I have to disagree. Since it's been awhile since I visited this place, I don't remember exactly what we ordered, I just remember both my friend and I were very pleased by the food we got. The entertainment was sooo funny, and some of the ladies could actually dance really well! I was surprised they were spending their time on the bartop and not off dancing on a tour with someone. We were all definitely into the show, and the atmosphere was great. This place is definitely a place I would take a large group of friends to. We were just a party of two, but we still had a great time, so don't let that stop you. The drinks were really good too, I think the only bad thing I can comment on is the barchairs, they weren't that comfortable to sit and eat on, since we were seated at the bar. All in all, highly recommended for a night out.
by Izetta Ornelos on When I left Tao, I was reasonably happy with my meal. As the hours passed, the novelty wore off and reality set in. First of all, I have to say that I didn't pay for this meal, which usually makes any meal taste a lot better. For this business dinner, I was able to order anything I wanted and I couldn't wait. I started off with a saketini from the bar. It was described as sake, cucumber vodka and a hint of orange. Well, that hint was more of a declaration, as the orange flavoring overwhelmed any taste of the sake or cucumber. I normally look at orange as a good thing, but it really just took away from what would have been a refreshing and crisp beverage. So I switched to the Moet & Chandon Brut Rose, which was much better. We started with the roasted shishito peppers and the kobe tartare on crispy rice. The shishito peppers were delicious as always, and the kobe tartare was surprisingly flavorful. I enjoyed the taste, but I'm not sure if I could have had much more than a couple of bites, as it was very rich. It is a great dish to share. As I was perusing the menu, I have to take a moment to say how interesting I thought it was that they had a section called, "From the Sky". I thought it was seriously hilarious. I'm not sure why. Maybe the mental pictures of hunting video games that went along with it... I noticed that a majority of their sushi rolls were fried or accompanied by heavy sauces. I was really hoping that a restaurant with such a great reputation would have more actual sushi in their rolls, as I really like raw fish. I ordered a piece of uni with quail egg, the crunchy spicy yellowtail roll with crushed onion rings and the Tao angry dragon roll. A few moments later, the server returned to tell me that they were out of uni. I gotta stop talking it up, people are always out of it! So I went with the baby tuna instead. I figured that the spicy yellowtail roll would be fried since it was described as "crispy", but I didn't bargain for the huge globs of mayo on each piece. I am not a fan of mayo, and trying to scrape it off was not working so well, so I just gave up and focused on the angry dragon roll. I'm not sure what was so angry about it, it was just avocado and eel. Good, but it seemed pretty mellow to me. The baby tuna was interesting. Very tender and sweet. I was unexpectedly pleased with this as I was expecting your run of the mill piece of tuna. I also liked how they presented the quail egg in the shell, standing on end. I'd never seen it done that way. Pretty cool. For dessert, we had the mochi tasting, which was by far the highlight of the meal. Six different flavors arranged like they were being racked up for a game of pool. We had red bean, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, green tea and mango. The red bean and mango were definitely the best. The others were very good too, but they should have changed the name of the green tea to lavender, because it had a very strong lavender flavor. The ambiance was very nice inside and it had a great crowd for a Tuesday night. I just wish they would rely less on mayo and fried fish and more on quality and flavor. I would have been ok with it if we would have been at a $16.99 all you can eat sushi buffet, but for $17 a roll, you can get much better elsewhere.
