Tao Hot Pot

AYCE. Ate way too much. Regretted a bit. Then decided I could come back for seconds within 3 days. Liked all the things we got. The feeling of spamming great lamb never gets old. Also you can get a 4-​divided section of pots with 4 different soup bases.
For AYCE I was surprised at how many different things and vegetables you could order.

I have wanted to try this place for some time now since I’ve hit up all the usual hot pot places in the area — I finally got to try this place last weekend.
First off, the place itself is difficult to find since it’s actually been renamed to Tasty Garden — it’s not Tao Hot Pot anymore, to my knowledge. But for easier reference, it is on the side of the plaza near the freeway where the parking structure is.
I was able to get a booth, which was nice… but some of the booth seats are very narrow and too close to the table. I was able to get in my seat fine (I’m slim, though) but my friend had to uncomfortably squeeze in, which was odd.
We got 2 soup flavors and opted for the AYCE option. You can order whatever you want, but it was interesting to see that this place didn’t have some hot pot essentials such as sponge tofu or tong hao or utensils such as tongs or those drainer spoons. There is a buffet of cold appetizers and fruit you can help yourself to, as well as a sauce bar. The cold appetizers were okay (your typical spiced tofu, bean sprouts, seaweed) but I guess was that these dishes have just been sitting there for perhaps the majority of the day.
The actual food itself wasn’t bad… hot pot is hot pot, but I did feel the quality of some of the items here wasn’t that fresh.
The ambience of this place is alright — it was a club vibe to it, with a large TV screen showcasing Hong Kong singers’ concerts. The place seemed clean and modern.
The service was the ultimate downer here… it’s hard to flag down a waiter for things such as a water refill or additional round of orders.
The AYCE excluding tip came out to about $ 25 per person. It was nice to try this place (another hot pot place off my list!), but I think for roughly the same money, I’d rather continuing going back to Little Sheep.

Pretty underwhelming experience. Sure their hot pot bowl is big and awesome, but their selection and pricing makes you long for more. I don’t think I’ll ever be back for the hot pot but their regular menu looks enticing. I wouldn’t recommend this place although their meat balls and shrimp balls are made fresh (not the pre-​frozen pre-​packaged kind that you get at the grocery store) It’s slightly different but if I were in the area there are plenty of better Hot Pot choices and I would honestly just opt to hit up a Boiling Point or Hot Spot since they are priced better.

Lucky for me I checked Unilocal out and found out just how weird this location is. It’s literally inside Tasty Garden. Really poor meat quality. Yes, I know it’s AYCE but there are other places that have better quality of meat for a similar price. I tried the special chicken herbal soup base for $ 20 extra. If only there was a smaller portion of it at a cheaper price so we could try the other soups that came free. But the soup was good. Service was ok. This one order of additional food took forever and they forgot several items.

I have never been to a place that immediately has about 7 people ask us within the last five minutes if we were ready to order. The business just opened and they shouldn’t be hovering over their customers when the place has only about five tables seated. It’s very frustrating when multiple servers continue to ask me if I’m ready when my other guests have not even arrived yet. My experience just within the last five minutes has already felt rushed and unsatisfactory!!! At one point after the next person I started talking in Chinese asking why they had continued to rush me! I made sort of a scene bc I was already super agitated and irritated. I understand there mentality was to provide excellent customer service but when someone continuously asks if we are ready, what do you want that just implies that it’s not providing me great service at all.
Once my family decided on the food they came in big portions which were nice but it was too much of some of the cheaper items bc it’s an all you can eat buffet and so we had a hard time finishing it. You also during this time got to order the special oysters but you only get two per customer. The first orders were very big oysters but the next orders were very very small!!! so they definitely tricked there customers but the quality of the beef, lamb, and seafood were of good quality so it wasn’t bad. The soup bases that we had were duck flavor and also a chicken base in a square like pot!!! The sauce section also needed to have English written on the bottles bc the sauces were all written in Chinese and scattered all over on the counter. It also needed to be cleaned bc there were a bunch of sauces all over the counter.
The appetizer selection didn’t have as much selection compared to other restaurants, but they had some nice seaweed, pig ear, cucumber, and some other foods that I don’t remember all of of! The other all quality of the food and the much rested waiters and waitresses hounding over me every single second was a lot better once they backed off! Bc this restaurant newly opened at the time I’m glad to say that I have came back and it’s doing okay! The first time starting off at this restaurant was bad but at the end of the dinner I left satisfied but I definitely think the prices could have gone down a bit!

AYCE hotpot how great is that? My family wanted to find an alternative to jazzcat since we are heavy eaters and since jazzcat isn’t all you can eat, it’d be pretty pricy! This place has a good variety of meats and stock selection for around 20 dollars. The beef was very very good, the stock could be better, but hey it’s all you can eat! There’s also a sauce station so you can make your own little special sauce! The waiters are decent enough to speak english to, are very friendly and refill water without you having to ask. Also, there is complimentary fruit and grass jelly next to the sauce station.

This place was really confusing to find. It’s part of Tasty Garden (basically inside). The soup base wasn’t bad. The vegetables were good. The udon noodle was really soggy and it’s not because I left it cooking for too long. The golden fish ball tasted gross like it’s been frozen for too long. I didn’t love it and I don’t think I’ll be back. There’s other ayce hot pot way better than this.

Come during the weekday. AYCE for $ 19.99.
Service was good. The guy was attentive and nice.
Meat quality: Frozen. Typical AYCE quality.
Soup base: it wasn’t spicy enough so he came dropped a huge ass block of numbing spice which made it SOOOO good.
Sauces: these were just ok. Not as good as Little Sheep.
Vegetables: typical veggies.
I don’t know why the bad reviews. This place is good for the price. Probably one of the cheapest. No wait. Ample parking.
I would definitely come back

Everything was overall pretty good. The foie gras was really good and the toro was one of the best I’ve had. I would say this is the top 2 sushi places in the area. The price isn’t too bad for the quality. I would definitely come back. Service was also good. Not your typical Chinese customer service

This place is Tasty Garden or is inside of it? Idk. Just walk into Tasty Garden if you want to find it.
Price: The price of this place isn’t much worth but Little Sheep changed their AYCE special to only lunch (as of now) but I still wanted hot pot so we came here. We got 2 soup bases so $ 4/​each and then the AYCE price which was around $ 23. For 2 people, it became around $ 70 with tip.
Food: The meat is obviously frozen and defrosted a bit but much better than World Hot Pot. I ordered 4 lambs but I only got one and I think for my second round, I ordered lamb but got beef. That was annoying but it was good so it didn’t really matter. We also got the pork belly which was really good. The one meat I would for sure not recommend would be the chicken. It dries out super easily because it’s thinly sliced. We also got the fresh shrimp balls. It wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t get it again. It’s just what it is, minced shrimp in a ball like what you’d find inside a har-​gao (idk how you’d spell that in English but the shrimp dumpling you get at dim sum).
Soup Bases: we got the Medium Mala and the Tomato Seafood base. The Mala tastes like any other place. Better than World, not as good as Little Sheep. I usually get it but I’m allergic so I only eat a little. I’ve just come to the realization that it’s not worth getting an itchy tongue. It does taste good! My favorite was the tomato seafood. I originally didn’t want it but my boyfriend wanted to so I agreed. It was a good flavor and it wasn’t like the soup was a tomato base like I thought it would be. There are just tomatoes in it. I loved it!
Dip Station: it isn’t dirty like some reviews say but I came on a Friday night when it wasn’t too busy. Everything I wanted was in stock so I didn’t have a problem.
Service: It’s a pretty big space with dividers between sections and they say us in the back which was super annoying since there were open tables in the middle. It took a while to wave down waiters to take our order. The soup also took a bit longer than I thought it would but it boiled fairly quickly.

This is actually Tasty Garden serving family style hot pot. It’s all you can eat style. The hot pot food was fresh and you can choose up to 4 soup bases. There was a small cold fruit/​dessert ands sauce bar, but the cold food selection was small.
They had several private rooms for hot pot parties. Good for groups.

I came here the other day on a double date. We ordered 3 soup bases, tomato seafood, century egg and cilantro, and the mushroom one. The thing they use to heat the pot take forever for the soup to boil. Either that or they make the soup and just pour it in when its cold. We waited like 20 mins for one of three 3 to boil. The last one didnt even boil, not even when we were done with our meal. That was not okay…
But their food is pretty fresh and goood and the service is pretty good considering all the fobs and stuff. I would come again and give it another shot, but I would only order 1 flavor the nxt time i go.

**Hot Pot** Rowland Heights, CA
SHORT REVIEW because I did not really care for this place. It’s about $ 27 per person with the broth and there are around 5 different broths to choose from. Service is horrible here. You get your own sauces at the sauce bar but it’s super messy and they don’t clean or refill them right away. No one monitors it. They lose your orders. You don’t care to eat anymore because you already been there 2 hours just waiting, repeating orders, because they keep forgetting. WHATDAHECK. The menu is confusing. I do like that they have a lot of vegetables to choose from which was a plus for me. We split the pot between a super spicy broth and a vegetarian broth for myself. Only vegetables was cooked on my side so that was good. But for AYCE, not worth it if service is horrible. Eat at your own risk. They do have fruits and some side dishes by the sauce bar, just help yourself. Maybe check it out if you’re in the area. I’m not coming back though.
Thanks for reading!
~*kenzie*~

While the food here was good, the prices are pretty high compared to other all you can eat hot pot places around. At $ 22.95 per person and then $ 4 for each broth, it came out to be about $ 27 per person for me and my boyfriend. I was misled by the owner/manager’s words because he said we could choose two broths and it would still be the same price. I thought he meant it would be $ 4 total for two broths, not $ 4 each… guess I should have clarified what he meant.
We got the hot and spicy broth and the tomato and seafood broth. They were both yummy. I thought overall food quality was good. They have a small cold foods bar and a sauce bar. Not as big of a selection as World Pot or Red Pine.
This place is modern, clean, and spacious. K-​pop fans would enjoy the playlist here because that’s pretty much all they play here. But the food is pricey and the «cold foods» selection is not as good as World Pot or Red Pine. This wouldn’t be my first choice if I wanted AYCE hot pot.

It’s really solid food, but not good enough to worth the almost $ 70.00 (w. tax/​tip) I paid for two people for AYCE when Little Sheep is down the street with AYCE for $ 50 for 2 people (w. tax/​tip) that has better vegetarian herbal broth and meat. Dinner is $ 22.95 per person + $ 4.00 per head for soup = $ 27.00 per person for AYCE. Not super into the idea that I have to pay extra for soup when most places it’s included into the price.
FOOD:
We ordered a Mala Soup base and a Mushroom Vegetarian soup base. I can only vouch for the vegetarian to say that it fell a little short in flavor. It was very bland and watery. But appreciated the vast amounts of mushrooms in it. As for meat we only got beef and lamb. It was supposed to be 2 lamb and 1 beef, but ended up giving us 2 beefs instead. Meat quality was okay, it was still iced over when they served it to us which usually means it’ll cook tougher. Lamb was too fatty for my preference. We also ordered an array of vegetables that were all fresh and crisp. We also ordered their Handmade meatball… Very interesting. I didn’t really like it. LOL. It was really beefy tasting with a hint of chives almost. I think my favorite of the night was their vast amount of options for sauces and their AYCE Herbal Grass Jelly bar. I LOVE grass jelly. But that was about it. Nothing else stood out that much.
SERVICE:
Average at best– they were kinda helpful at the beginning, but their demeanor wasn’t friendly… If that made any sense at all. It was very straight to the point, concise with an edge that I should know of of the steps already (even though it was my first time at the store). I had questions about the additional broth price and the waiter answered almost exasperated like it was common knowledge. We also had a second waiter, he was nicer, but didn’t say much (actually didn’t say anything to us, but consistently filled our water and brought us napkins).
ATMOSPHERE:
Loungyyy with that ‘trying to be hip’ vibe with large tvs of Korean/​Chinese/​Japanese pop bands playing on the screen. There were laser lights too… LOL. Love the seats though… Super comfy!

Found out about this place because it was my friends birthday. It’s definitely a new gem. This area has developed so much in the past few years. It looks like these are all brand new businesses and it doesn’t look like that many ppl know about it yet. They have a large parking structure so parking isn’t really much of an issue yet. This place has a really large variety of soup bases to choose from and the décor is like you’re in Vegas. Loving the backdrops because they’re like photo booth backdrops everywhere!!! That’s included for free! Plus for me since I love photography.
As for the food. The size of the portions are huge compared to the cuts you get at Korean BBQ places. I like! It’s all you can eat (ayce) and the meats, seafoods and other weird Asian side orders are fresh. They have a little mini bar where you can help yourself to fruits, grass jelly and like 15 different sauces for dipping.
The service was great as we were apart of a large party in the VIP rooms in the back. The only downside to this place is that when ordering the soup bases, it could be fairly confusing. However, we just asked the waiters to assist with that and that made it easier than trying to figure it out ourselves. Lol.
I scarfed down at least 4 plates of beef slices, 3 places of pork belly, some shrimp, some oysters, so muscles, a can of soda and a bunch of other funny looking but yummy things. I left with a nice looking belly and a smile. Waiters also helped us take a group picture. Highly recommended before they get too popular.

Come here with my friend days ago at late nite, it’s a new spot in town, as a hot pot lover, I really have to try it. Well, maybe it is new, so the server don’t know all what they have or they don’t, and also don’t know what they are serving, we ask the different the two kinds of veggies, the answer is she doesn’t know! You don’t know? Wow! Just go to the kitchen and check it please! Lol! And more, some of the item they don’t have at all! It is all you can eat but they charge the soup base and if you want the special soup they charge more, like way more and you can NOT take the extra soup to go after you paid it. I know it is all you can eat but we paid for the extra soup then we should take the soup base home at lease, don’t think we will come back again, for all you can eat, there are more better choices!

I was not impressed. The various soup broths were blah. The tomato broth and spicy broth were a disappointment but if you like bland or oily soups, you may like them. And for an AYCE, I think it’s lame to pay extra for the broth. I would think that it would be included in the price. In addition, only certain items could be ordered off the AYCE menu.
The pros… it was nice having the option of ordering extra food, even though I usually don’t finish my food anyway. Also, the veggies were pretty fresh… some were still on the stem. And I always love it when there’s a sauce bar. They also had like a mini fruit bar.
Overall, I thought it was overpriced and I probably won’t be back again unless they lower their prices.

Tao Hot Pot is definitely one of the better hot pot places in Rowland Heights. It’s located right off the Pomona freeway in a somewhat large plaza. Once you walk inside, you can notice all the cool decorations and designs. There are even seats in the back that make it look like a wave haha. They play Korean music videos/​songs on their TVs, which makes it fun to look at when you’re eating.
Onto the food, there are a variety of broth choices (tomato, tofu, seafood, etc.), meats, and veggies to put into your soup. Their fish balls that I ordered tasted and looked fresh. :) On the side side of the restaurant, there’s a large selection of different sauces, and they even have grass jelly and fruits! The waiters and waitresses were very helpful and friendly too. This is certainly a place to remember and come back for.

I am happy to find AYCE hot pot that open until midnight.
Nice Deco like café /​lounge with Korean music videos n disco night. Its really nice for hot pot place.
Services was great.
Get your own mixing sauce, cold dishes n fruits station
Foods is fresh
About $ 21 per person for AYCE .
8 Basic broths for additional $ 4 each.
Variety price for higher end broth.
Drink is $ 2.45 glass n $ 8.95 for pitch (4 – 5 glasses). Not sure about alcohol.
Our meal for 2 was $ 74 including tips.
Great place for hosting event