If you have every picked up a Hollywood gossip magazine at some point in time the restaurant Tao has been talked about. Tao is an Asian fusion spot that is always busy and every now and then has a celebrity sighting. Now I did not go to Tao hoping to see someone famous. I wanted to go because Tao was one of the first restaurants I visited when I started traveling to New York over 15 years ago.
When I walked through the door it was exactly how I remembered it. The lighting was dim. There was Asian décor decorating every inch of the interior.
The show stopper is the giant Buddha statue. It is almost as tall as the entire restaurant (keeping in mind that this place have 2 levels). Every table in the place can see this beautiful statue.
Their menu has a very large selection of fabulous dishes. You can order everything from fresh sushi to Kobe beef steaks. It was a hard decision but I decided to try a few appetizers and a main dish.
The pot stickers were great to start with. I went for the pork. I think the pork added more flavor to the filling. It went really well with the chili sesame glaze. The pot stickers were pan fried so the outside dough was crispy.
The other great appetizer was the satay of chicken and it came in a peanut sauce. The chicken was thinly sliced and speared on a stick. The chicken was extremely tender and even though the meat was thin, it was still super juicy. The chicken with the peanut accents had wonderful flavor.
For my main dish I ordered the Tao Lo Mein. I was really in the mood for a noodle dish. These tender noodles came with roasted pork and sliced up portabella mushrooms. The mushrooms added a slight earthy taste. The pork was sweet and tender. The sweetness of the pork complemented the salty taste from the soy sauce used on the noodles.
I did save a little room for dessert. I went for the sugar dusted doughnuts. Six mini doughnuts came out speared on a stick.
The dough was light and fluffy. They used a granulated sugar on the outside of the doughnut that added a slight crunch. On the side these doughnuts came with three dipping sauces:
- Chocolate
- Caramel
- Vanilla Cream
The chocolate added a slight bitter taste to the sugary doughnut. The vanilla cream was slightly runny. It was also much sweeter than the other sauces. The caramel sauce was my favorite. It was right in the middle on the sweetness scale. I also thought it tasted best with the fried dough.
Tao is exactly how I remembered it. The food was amazing and the views were entertaining. If you like Asian fusion I would highly recommend going to Tao. It is a true New York experience. They are always busy so I recommend you make a reservation.
Check out their website and menu at www.taorestaurant.com
Enjoy!
T
