And now, your featured food critic presentation: Tao

Hi everyone, amid my hectic daily schedule, brought on by the time known as the end of the semester, I decided to take a little bit of time out for some good eating. After my lengthy preparation for my weekly piano lesson, I once again enjoyed a wonderful meal at Tao. As some of my loyal readers remember, I have already experienced the great food of this “Pan-Asian” restaurant on a previous occasion, but please allow me to tell you about my latest gourmet feast:
Tao
42 E. 58th Street
New York NY
4.5 out of 5 stars:
My attempt to revisit Tao came at a perfect time, they currently have an excellent lunch special. I started by ordering their Peking duck spring rolls: these crispy treats were filled with savory and delicate duck and excellently accompanied by a sweet and tangy hoisin sauce. As an entree, I was excited to try their wok seared New York sirloin steak with shiitake mushrooms and Szechwan potatoes. The steak was expertly prepared, it was juicy and tender and I could tell that it was a high quality cut of meat. All that I can really say is that the sauce was extremely interesting: no, not “interesting” as in it was bad, or I didn’t like it, no I mean it was interesting in the purest form of the word. The sauce possessed elements of sweetness, spiciness, and a very unique flavor. If this description does not serve this dish justice, then I recommend that you try it for yourself! In addition, I sampled some of my friend’s kung pao chicken, which I found to be quite delectable: chunks of chicken cooked with peppers and onions in a sweet and spicy sauce. For dessert, I decided on the banana bread pudding which was really tasty but was different than I had imagined and not as I expected. (At the time, I devoured it and was thankful for the tremendous flavor and sugar rush, now after looking at the menu online, I can say that this dessert was accompanied by a tempura banana and fortune cookie crust, both of which were superb).
I can’t say enough about this fabulous lunch and plan to go back to Tao in the near future. It can be a little pricy for dinner, so my recommendation would be to go there for the out of this world lunch!
Dan