Reviews & Ratings for Tao

01/23/12

Average not great

by Abigail55 at Citysearch

Hi i have been going tao since they first opened and must say the food is average not as great as it once was. I ordered the seabass and in the past it had more falor to it. The ambience though is as good as it allways been which is why I am giving the place 3 stars

06/12/11

good service

by jessica177189 at Citysearch

The service was fantastic, they were generally on time with reservations,

05/13/11

Had a great time!

by BreeG at Citysearch

I went to Tao for my cousins 21st birthday, and had a fantastic time. The food was decent, as were the peach cosmos. We stayed until 2 am!

Be advised though, make sure your whole party arrives ON TIME! They say you have 15 minutes after your reservation to get there. We were all there at the right time, except two people, so they wouldn't seat us. Those people arrived at the 15 minute mark and we still weren't seated for an hour. No Joke, dont be late!

04/23/11

Worst Customer Service and Rude....

by KevinAce at Citysearch

I have been to Tao about 5 times over the past few years. I have always gone with a party of 2 and have never had any complaints.

This time - I reserved a table for 8. I contacted the Maitre'D the day of the reservation to explain and confirm they could accomodate 5 of us sitting at our reservation start time and the other 3 arriving a half hour later. He said -- NO PROBLEM SEE ME WHEN YOU ARRIVE.

So - We arrive exactly on time, and Eric, the Maitre'D was super friendly and gave me a pager and said our table would be ready shortly.

30 Minutes go by and nothing...So - I go to the front desk and there is a blond hostess who won't even look me in the eye when speaking to me. I explain that we have been waiting for 30 minutes for our table we had reserved for 7pm. She immediately says "Well you are 30 minutes late for your reservation!" without even looking at me. I question her and say what does she mean. She proceeds to say that since the other 3 people in my party had not arrived that we cannot be seated and I am late and there is nothing they can do... I explain that I worked this out with the Maitre'D and she again without even looking me in the eye says you might as well wait till your party arrives cause you are not getting a table any time soon. I tell her that she is actually being quite rude. She, again, without looking up, says "I apologize if you feel that way".

At this point, the Maitre D' returns and says we are next table and will be sat any moment.

Then my brother arrives (my additional party of 3) and they end up speaking to the rude hostess. My brother says he is here for my party and that we are probably already sitting. She tells them without looking at them "Well your brother is a liar then cause he said his entire party was here".

She called me a LIAR to my family member. What kind of customer service is this????

I see Eric again, the Maitre D and I tell him what happened. He listened but i can honestly say I dont think he cared... We ended up getting a table a half an hour later.

I was tempted to leave but I had my whole family there.

I must say - I will never return to Tao as a result of that Hostess... It's people like this that can spoil a night. Now I am telling the world what happened and hopefully some of you won't go to Tao as a result of my story and then maybe Tao will learn to hire friendlier people.

04/05/11

Rude Staff

by jcbb at Citysearch

I'm a native new yorker and have gone to many great restaurants throughout the city, but this was NOT one of them! Even though we had reservations, we still had to wait 60 minutes to get seated. Then waited another 15 minutes for the waiter to take our order. It took 45 minutes for them to bring out our food which was bland and barely warm! Plus,t they kept rushing us. Needless to say, I did NOT leave a tip! Not one cent. If you want great service, good food, a friendly environment, and respect--go to Asia de Cuba on 37 and Madinson .

04/04/11

WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!!!

by mscoelho at Citysearch

On March, 3rd, 2011, I had the worst dinning experience in NYC. I went to TAO with my best friend, her mother, and her family who was visiting from Brazil. Unfortunately we were extremely disrespected by everyone in the restaurant. Our waitress was rude, disrespectful and impatient with our group of 7 people. Our group had 4 elderly people who did not speak English very well. The waitress did not even try to be pleasant and nice, and served us as if she was in a hurry to be somewhere else. First we ordered some sparkling water that was served super hot. When we asked for some ice, she made a face and only brought us a small glass. When we asked for more, she pretended not to care. We had to ask another waiter to bring us some more ice. Then we decided to order some wine. She was extremaly rude about accepting my Brazilian driver's lisence, and refused to serve me some wine, even though I'm a 28 years old woman. I asked for the manager, expecting him to be a little more polite, but he only made things worse. He took my driver's lisence as if it was a fake one, and when he returned to our table, he started yelling at my friend's 80 years old grandfather, pointing his finger at this face and insinuating that her grandfather had an atitute he, the manager, did not like! Not only he was extremely disrespectful to a 80 years old retired doctor, but also left the table yelling and making a scene. How can a manager, who is supposed to solve any issues, make things even worse?!?! My friend's grandfather was only trying to explain to the manager that everyone on the table could legally drink. The manager also said that if we were not happy in the restaurant, we were supposed to leave. The manager above him did nothing to make us feel better and went to the kitchen to hide himself. Of course we left feeling really disrespected and discriminated. I was dissapointed and surprised that such a renowned and classy restaurant as TAO hires such rude and unprepared people to work serving their custumers who are willing to pay a good amount of money to be well served and specially treated with respect. TAO was an extreme dissapointment and I will never recommend it to anyone visiting the city.

02/07/11

Busy, Fresh, Fantastic

by thebottlelife at Citysearch

On my recent trip to Manhattan, wanted to indulge in some fine cuisine so on Saturday we made reservations at Tao. Like everyone else has pretty much said, the wait is extended, not sure that it's because they want you to rack up a big bar tab, but probably just because they are booked solid and probably overbook the tables. No worries, we were anticipating a wait, and squeezed into the lounge/bar area at the front of the restaurant for some cocktails which were great. Again, like any Manhattan hot spot, it was full of gorgeous people and some pretentious individuals, but met some good people and had some fun conversations.

The atmosphere is dimly lit, asian over the top decor and high energy club-like music. They have a DJ on hand spinning which was a nice added touch to the feel.

After about a 45 minute wait past our reservation, we were taken to our table on the 2nd floor. Surprisingly it wasn't tight seating quarters (like STK was), and the waitstaff was prompt and very attentive. I had ordered the Chilean Seabass which was fantastic, small portion but very good. I tried my buddy's pad thai and it was exceptionally good as well.

The one thing I didn't really like at Tao was that they were definitely hustling you to get in and out. Our food came out in a matter of 15 minutes after we placed our order, and check came out almost immediately as the plates were empty. I'm sure if we wanted to stick around and get a couple drinks, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but drinking at the table isn't as fun as the lounge.

11/22/10

Not Pleased

by SE0982 at Citysearch

So this is the story. I went their on a Thursday night with a group of 8 people. We had made a reservation a week in advance for 8:30pm. We got there on time and were told that the wait for our table will be 15 minutes. Then it became 30 minutes. Then before we knew it, an hour had gone by and we still hadnt been seated. At this point I was angry and went up to the front desk and told them how rude they are and that they cant treat their customers like this...etc. etc. Then all of a sudden, we were seated. I wish I hadnt wait so long to complain, but all I know is that I will never go back their again and do not recommend them to anyone. They obviously do not honor their reservations, have no respect for their customers, and are very poorly managed. Their food was decent, nothing special, not worth the wait.

07/30/10

Great time!

by dreamer02 at Citysearch

organized my husband's birthday at TAO And I only have one word to summarize the experience: AMAZING.

The staff made the organization of the party so easy and were very accommodating. Everything was great.

The music was excellent, exactly the taste of my husband and our friends. And the choice of cocktails is brilliant. All our friends still talk about the amazing time they had there!

We will definitely come back for an organized party or just a few cocktails!

The only cons: Prices are a bit high

But thanks again and we'll be back!

• Pros: great cocktails

07/10/10

disappointing

by janiesmithsmith at Citysearch

This place is ok. I found the food a bit greasy and heavy. The portions are large but I didn't finish my meal because it was so greasy. The deserts reminded me of deserts you would get in a diner, they look good but don't taste good.

• Pros: large space
• Cons: greasy