Tao Cafe

CLOSED. I’m kind of heart broken. This was my favorite neighborhood place for take out on a cold and busy night or a relatively intimate dinner at an affordable price.
I wonder what the new place opening in August will be.
Their website says:
TAO CAFE THANKS YOU FOR THE 10 WONDERFUL YEARS
Tao Café is searching a new home for a re-​birth
Stay tuned, check us out and leave us a message if you wish at «write to us»
At its old space, something new & exciting is coming in August

The windows are covered up and there’s a sign indicating that they’re out of business and «a exciting new venture» will go into the space in August.

One of the under-​valued gems on Guerrero… true, there is lots of competition on Valencia Street just one block over, but this restaurant is worth the detour! French Vietnamese on account of the owner’s having run a restaurant in Paris prior to coming to SF. Test her French, if you like! The owner is quite lovely and often does the serving during the week.
Being a fan of Vietnamese soups, I have eaten them all, and can recommend each one. Maybe a slight preference for that beef soup with star anis… but they are all equally tasty. The curries are highly recommended too.
While I like the fact that I can go to this place last minute, without reservation, and not have to wait too long to be seated, I also want this restaurant to get more exposure. So here is my review for y’all.

The window sign reads «French Vietnamese». I thought, «Hm. Interesting.» Since I love both cuisines separately, I figured why not.
I open the door to a completely empty restaurant and panic. But a perfect smooth jazz soundtrack plays in the background, I’m totally digging the modern, clean décor, and and a sweet and gracious woman smiles at me. I decide to give it a go, and I’m seated at an adorable front table.
Fast-​forward 15 minutes to me sipping on a strong and yummy thai iced tea, going to town on lettuce wrapped mu-​shu chicken with spectacular hoisin, and killing some delicately-​crafted beef spring rolls with an addicting sauce. And that’ll be $ 16.
By the end of the meal, I felt genuinely puzzled: why was I the only one in this huge, inviting, restaurant with delicious, affordable food? There are too many mediocre restaurants with wait lists and unparalleled pretense for this place to go unnoticed.
If only so I can selfishly keep enjoying them, I hope more butts fill seats in this spot, and soon; I’ve found my new joint for Vietnamese in San Francisco.

Discovery tonight of the Tao Café, attracted and intrigued by the «french vietnamese cuisine». No disappointment.
The décor is simple but refined, the cuisine fine and tasty.
The rolls are fresh, crunchy, well balanced between black pepper flavors and fresh mint. The pork in green pepper sauce is absolutely perfect, well cooked but not dry, and the roasted veggies are simply delicious.
The service is discreet, polite and efficient.
A very good table.

I always get the same thing – Beef Phở. It’s delicious here, but you won’t find the sriracha rooster sauce or plate of sprouts, basil and peppers. The beef they use is so nicely seasoned, and the broth so flavorful, you don’t need to add anything else.
The place is always half empty, and great for a large group. I was able to get a last minute table for six on my b-​day weekend when I was feeling lazy about making a reservation elsewhere. It was a great meal, and even though we were the second large group, they timed our food perfectly.
The only reason to doc a star is that the service is sometimes slow. It’s not a big deal, but just know that if you need to get the check, ask for it early or you might not see your server for a while.
Tao is one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants – convenient, reasonably priced (for French-​Vietnamese), and delicious!

I’ve lived near Tao Café for about five years and it has always been a pleasure to go there. The Phở there is amazing and is a nice way to warm up when its cold outside. They also have a sea bass with plantains and curry sauce I enjoy.
Inside, the space is open and the table in the front corner is a great place to sit to watch people in front of Lone Palm or the Liberties or watch neighbors jogging up and down Guerrero.
I’ve been taking friends there for years and they always walk out satisfied and some come back and have also become regulars. I’m very happy to have a restaurant like this in my neighborhood.

Sorry guys!!! I don’t get the 5 star rating.
Sure the food was properly prepared and all but many things about the place irked me.
1) Service was SLOW!!! And the place wasn’t even that packed. (Let that be a warning sign…)
2) Spring Roll — I tasted no shrimp and there’s only maybe a couple of small slices of pork. The rest was lettuce and BEAN SPROUTS!!! (And okay I’m biased but I HATE BEAN SPROUTS!!! :() Also, very little peanut sauce… and it was kinda bland too! NOT worth the $ 8.50 for it!!!
3) I did NOT see any phở on the dinner menu and that’s what I was in the mood for last night. :(
4) I had the lamb and eggplant dish. It was well prepared, but it was VERY SALTY!!! That ruined otherwise, a pretty decent dish.
Sorry Taos! I tried… (As much as I hate the service at Out the Door takeout at Market St., I would consider going back for their spring roll!)

Disclaimer… I live above this place. As such, there are many nights when I want to eat out but am too lazy to get dressed up… so I stumble downstairs.
Lucky for me, the food here is delicious. I’d had Phở before in Ktown of Los Angeles and they must have been making it wrong because I held a grudge against Phở until trying it at Tao. Fresh and flavorful would be the best alliterative words I can come up with to describe the ingredients. I usually get the Bun with beef which is a bowl of noodles, beef and assorted veggies. The Vietnamese Mojito is divine as well.
Tao is just a really clean, fresh tasting restaurant. It’s great for people who have never tried Vietnamese food and want to test it out.

This place is unbelievably good, I’ve been here four times and everything I’d order has always been amazing. It’s inexpensive, and the service is great.
What I don’t get is that pretty much every time the place is empty… only one or two tables. It’s a mystery… great spot for a time when you feel like not going to a crowded place, i guess
Try it!

A couple friends who live a 15-​minute walk away introduced us to this place. They go there all the time, and they have the means to go anywhere. Our first experience was awesome. I’ve never been a huge fan of Vietnamese food, but absolutely loved everything we ordered, and so did everyone else at the table. I also noticed, to my delight, that as I was making funny comments (at a normal, conversational volume) with our fun group, our server, who was barely within earshot, was laughing along with us. Call it a stereotype, but middle-​aged Asian women servers don’t often get my humor. It made the evening all that more enjoyable.
Since then we’ve brought a couple dozen friends who’d never heard of the place and they’ve all raved about it. One group of 3 friends from San Diego said they talked about it the rest of their stay in the City. Every dish we’ve had has been superb, and the only 1-​liter bottle of white wine on the menu is a fantastic value — not the best wine you’ll ever have, but probably the best you’ll have at a restaurant for that price. Six of us had our fill of amazing food, plus 2 bottles of that wine for Under $ 150.
I don’t like it, so I never order it, but for anyone who likes Phở, apparently it’s not good here — based on other reviews. So do yourself a favor and to here but order something else! :-)
The only way I give 5 stars is if it literally can’t be better. Parking is sometimes an issue and, well, it’s not free, so there’s room for improvement, right?

It looks simple from the outside, but inside it’s cozy and artsy eclectic. I like it.
The food was authentic and well-​done, but I’m no Vietnamese expert. There are a lot of vegetarian and vegan options…

In searching for a new phở place, I stumbled upon Tao Café and after one meal, it’s decided: this place is going in my Rolodex. It’s a super cozy date night spot, ingeniously kitty corner to both Lone Palm and Liberties Café, and honestly, with food this good, it’s hard not to want to eat for two. Seriously.
My boyfriend and I are, however, trying to be the completely disgusting gluttons we usually act like, so we only ordered one dish each, no appetizers. I told myself not to worry, and it’s true because after tasting the deliciousness of Tao’s food, I know we’ll be back in a snap. Boyfriend ordered the ginger chicken with coconut sticky rice and I ordered the roasted pork noodle soup with baby bok choy and a fried wonton-​wrapped shrimp. Mine was divine. The broth was out of this world, the roasted pork, tender and lean and glazed to perfection, and even the baby bok choy was tender enough to not have to tear apart with my hands. I wanted the soup to last forever, but coincidentally it turned out to be the perfect portion size. I didn’t want to die of a food coma after eating, so that’s a plus. Boyfriend loved his food as well, he only wished there was more.
Why’d I say it was a date night spot? Because it’s a little on the pricey side for a regular hang out, but that’s what makes it special, you know?

If I wanted a bland dinner served to me by someone who seems to hate the fact that I’m near them I’d go visit my mom.
But instead I paid the Tao Café to do just that. And they made sure to include the tip on the check.
The appearance of the Tao Café gave me high hopes. But those hopes faded as soon as the cranky hostess threw poorly photocopied menus at us.
We hoped the food would make up for it, but it tasted like something you’d eat at a friends house who was attempting to make a French Vietnamese dish for the first time after finding a recipe online.

Friends recommended Tao Café to me after noticing the note on the bottom of their menu that said most of their dishes are gluten-​free. I love Vietnamese food and I love it when restaurants take care with allergies, so I had to check it out.
It was hard to choose from the menu — everything looked lovely. My date and I shared the crêpe, which came with chicken and shrimp and was made of rice and corn flour. We wrapped slices of crêpe in lettuce leaves and dipped them in fish sauce — delicious.
I had some kind of fish (I forget already) over fried plantains with a lemongrass-​coconut sauce. It was absolutely lovely. The sauce was a bit too salty, but intensely flavored and good. My date had bass in the clay pot, which he liked very much, particularly the sauce. We shared a special dessert, the pavlova, at the end of the meal.
Tao Café mixes its own cocktails with soju. I’m not a fan of soju as a replacement for «real» booze, but tried one anyway and was pleasantly surprised that the drink was quite strong, but still tasty.
The ambience was great — mellow and quiet. The dining room is peaceful, with a gorgeous pressed-​tin ceiling that has been painted over, but you can still see the pattern. They played a mix of French music and classical, adding to the mellow atmosphere.
I’d love to come back here.

This has instantly become a favorite for my girlefriend and me. I am vegetarian (she is not) and we both found the food very good. It was all fresh, creative and tasty. The décor inside the place is nice designed and comfortable. We spoke with the owner for a bit: female owned Vietnamese woman who went for it alone and is awesome.
Definitely try the spinach roll thing where you make it yourself, and the soups were awesome.
Highly recommended.

I was delighted by Tao. A calm, soothing ambiance. Delicious menu options — rarely do I find myself struggling over a large variety of appealing sounding choices, but this was one of those times. (Usually one’s a dead winner, with a few potential second choices.) But at Tao, there there were multiple potential #1s. And interesting cocktails.
I started with the warm ginger-​flavored sake, but realized I wasn’t a fan, so I switched over to the Saigon Sangria — a much better choice. We all shared this fresh, interesting salad — it may have had jicama on it, I cannot recall. Also, we shared the shitake & tofu lettuce wraps. For my main, I chose the «piping hot bass» in a claypot, with some kind of carmelized sauce and basic amazing-​ness. I loved it.
I can’t wait to come back here, b/​c the food was unique and delicious, and the prices were affordable. Also, pluses go to Tao for being quiet, and not super noisy. Since we had a group of 7, it was nice that we could actually hear each other talk.

Neighborhood joint and not really crowded. I came last night around 6p.m. and were comfortably seated in the second room. We ordered the veggie crêpe and wrapped it in our own lettuce. The crêpe had a nice curry flavor to it. We also had the green papaya salad with beef. The beef was really tasty and almost had the same taste and texture as beef jerky. The table next to us ordered three orders of that. I had the chicken noodle soup since I was feeling a bit under the weather. It had cellophane noodles and veggies as well. I thought the broth was a tad bit salty for my taste so I poured a tiny bit of water in it to dilute it out. The names of the dishes are quite unique and funny as well.
It’s a good local neighborhood joint and Thuy, our server, was efficient and very nice.

I’m currently on a Vietnamese kick, this is my second Vietnamese place I’ve been to in a single 7 day windows. I was excited to try the best Unilocal rated place in the Mission since that’s my hood. Jeremy S and stopped by for some grub on a Monday. The women was very friendly that seated us. She assured us that the seat near the front wouldn’t get cold because it was close to the heater. I was happy with that.
The place itself is pretty cozy. I could see why neighbors that live a few blocks would like it. Being that we had to find parking and walk more than a block I was expecting something great! Sadly, the phở was just ok. The noodles seemed to be little overcooked, I will attempt the beef was quality. I was a little bummed I didn’t get a plate of veggies to dump in (basil, sprouts, etc…). Maybe that’s only thai soup places? Also, they didn’t have the hoisin (plumb sauce at chinese restaurants) cause that is a sauce I love with phở. Man I was missing that. She did get me a tiny side of something like it, which I appreciate. The veggie spring rolls we ordered were decent but not as good as this sketchy place I ate with Dik S. in the chinatown.
Jeremy S ordered the bird’s nest looking thing (see the picture labeled «bird’s nest»). He was actually still hungry after he finished. It just wasn’t big enough. He’s usually full without much food. This was a surprise and we have to dock something from the overall score. The desert was actually surprisingly great. We got the banana tart. It was really tasty. Completely unexpected. You must order it.
Overall a 3.3−3.4. I didn’t use the bathroom though. When I come back I’ll report it here.
Full disclosure: I work at Unilocal as an engineer and these guys are advertisers.

Some of my favorite Unilocalers love Tao (Hi Miriam! Hi Frisco!) so it pains me to write such a mediocre review. But that’s the thing, everything about our dinner on NYE was mediocre. First off, they had a special 2 or 3 course menu for the occasion at either $ 34 or $ 39. While I have no problem spending money for a good meal those prices seemed out of whack considering the choices and quality of the food. The apps were decent but two of the entrees came out luke warm and two of the three desserts were straight up bad. The only saving grace was the pumpkin crème brûlée which was cute as a button in a mini, hollowed out pumpkin and oh so tasty.
The regular menu looked much more reasonable so I might be willing to give Tao another shot on a normal night out. Can so many Unilocalers be wrong? Stayed tuned.