TAO

Tao is a great and affordable Vietnamese restaurant, located on Adams Ave. Our meal started with a complementary salad accompanied by Tao-made fresh tofu. While I happen to love tofu, my husband is not a fan. He was happy to discover that the salad that accompanied the tofu was well seasoned and fresh. I thought the tofu is much better than the firm or slushy store-bought kind, and had great flavor (that’s a word I normally don’t use to describe tofu). It was light and refreshing, plus the fact that the portion was large, and FREE, made it even more delicious
The menu was fantastic! It was well laid out, easy to understand, well priced, and had a ton of vegetarian and even vegan options (a full page).We wanted to try lots of different things, since it’s a bit of a distance from home, we knew we weren’t going to be back in a week to try more things. We ordered the fresh salad rolls, the spring rolls - fried, the garlic chicken and the lemon-grass shrimp.


The salad rolls are a huge portion, I believe it’s about 4 large rolls, cut in half, so 8 large pieces. If you have a party of 2, you would be full on one order of salad rolls and an entrée. If you have a party of 4, the salad rolls are a great appetizer. They were fresh, well filled, and came with an amazing peanut sauce- overall: DELICIOUS! The fried spring rolls is what’s expected. If you’re choosing between the fresh and the fried, go with the fresh… Wow! I can’t believe I just said that… My weight scale would be proud!

Between the two entrees that we ordered, the garlic chicken was the clear winner over the lemon-grass shrimp. While I’m normally, a huge fan of lemon-grass, this particular dish laked pizazzzzzz. I can’t say it was bad, but the shrimp were on the small side and the sauce lacked a noticiable kick of lemon-grass. The chicken on the otherhand, was very well seasoned, tender, and flavorful. The sauce complemented the dish. Both entrees were served on large platters with rice. There was more than enough food. By the time we were done with the main course, we both had lunches ready for the next day.

To end the evening on a refreshing note, we received dual desserts, again, complements of the chef. A choice of ice-cream with a few pieces of fruit and delicious sauce. What an awesome touch! We both had the scoop of green-tea, which came with a few slices of strawberries and a delicious fruit sauce.

Eventhough, TAO is a little bit out of our way, we thoroughly enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, the reasonable prices, and the very cool vibe of Normal Heights.

 Check it out at:


TAO
Normal Heights
3332 Adams Ave.
(between 33rd St & Felton St)
San Diego, CA 92116
(619) 281-6888
Hours:


Tue-Sun. 11:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Tue-Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

GONE FOR TOO LONG!

Wow! Wanted to drop in and say hello to my blog. It's been way too long. I'm happy to say that I passed (shocked) the coding certification test that I've been studying for, so I now have more time to focus on my favorite subject: FOOD. Within the last couple of months, we've tried several interesting places worth mentioning: Crab Hut, Dumpling Inn, TAO, etc. Stay tuned for some fun reviews!