Tao

This is a very disappointing restaurant. The food is mediocre and looks like it has been sitting out all day. The staff are not that polite. When I asked for a bowl, they pretended they didn’t have any until pressed. They didn’t want to bring out dishes they had recently washed just before closing time!

1 visit: 2.5÷5
As a vegetarian I was super excited to try this place. It is so refreshing and thrilling to be able to eat anything at a restaurant and not worry about contamination with meat products.
The upsides:
The prices are very reasonable. I think it was something like £5.95 for takeaway or £6.95 for all you can eat. This is comparable to other buffet places on GG High Street.
The food appears to be cooked/​heated fresh in a little kitchen area visible to diners (and very hygienic and tidy looking too).
The restaurant has a lovely ambience and décor. They played contemporary music which I enjoyed though I suppose some would prefer «authentic» music.
The staff are very friendly but could be more attentive, specifically in taking our drinks order.
Now the downside: The food isn’t that great.
Firstly it doesn’t stay very hot. None of it was hot by the time I got to my table, and I didn’t spend very long loading my plate up so it couldn’t have cooled off in that amount of time. Even lukewarm would be a generous description of the temperature of the food. It was all kind of room temperature, except for a fresh batch of spring rolls.
Secondly, it just doesn’t have good flavour. I know that is a blanket statement, but I tried a little bit of almost everything. It was all pretty bland. The sweet and sour was generic, and other than that all the flavours kind of melded together, whether it was soy chicken, tofu, noodles or rice — it was all very one-​dimensional.
Thirdly, not all the food is well labelled. The hot food was almost all clearly labelled, which I appreciated. However, there is also a long table with toppings, condiments, vegetables, salads etc, none of which are labelled. Of course, chopped cucumber is self-​explanatory (and it was very nice and fresh I might add), but multiple bowls of sauces with no labels are useless to me. I won’t risk adding one to my plate if I don’t know the flavour or how spicy it is. I would have loved to know what some of the strange looking toppings were — I only assume they are toppings, since they looked so unfamiliar to me. Perhaps for a real Chinese person these foods are a real treat and they know what to eat with what, but I’m just an ignorant white English girl and would love to be advised on what to try and how. Labels would have helped.
So overall I wasn’t very impressed with Tao. I didn’t eat my fill. I didn’t really enjoy what I did eat. I felt guilty for making my companion go to Tao instead of Hainanese Buffet which I know he loves, especially as he ate even less than me and choked down a revolting glass of «banana juice», the very concept of which should probably be banned. How many times must I tell him: there is no such thing as banana juice! It’s just watered down banana purée. I feel strongly about the banana juice issue. I might even start up a movement against it. Who’s with me?

I have a thing for buffets. I’ve been known to spend silly amounts of money per pound just for the privilege of serving myself and getting to try lots of different things despite my relatively small stomach capacity.
Tao bills itself as pan-​asian and «karma free» vegetarian and appealed to me because of the beautiful and broad display of dishes, the dark colored décor, and the 3.50 take out box. It’s just one pound more for a larger take away box, but really, the small one isn’t a bad size.
There was such an enormous variety of things to try here that I really barely scratched the surface, but it was clear they have stretched the limits of asian-​vegetarian cuisine with noodle dishes, «lamb» curry, «chicken», «shrimp» skewers, and tons of salad options. There’s also an array of sauces.
If spiciness is a problem for you, definitely ask them to point out what isn’t spicy – most of it was mild to medium in spice and had my nose running.
The scallion pancakes were yummy and I really a rice noodle dish with peanuts.
It’s inexpensive for «all you can eat» if you stay and grab a table there, but I think the take away deal is a great option for folks like me who don’t particularly want to gorge themselves and appreciate variety.