Tao Restaurant serves yum Mediterranean food

Not the religion but the restaurant in Beijing named TAO. In Chinese, it's called 乐道西餐厅. I had my birthday dinner here with Daniel last week. After trawling the net for reviews on the latest hot restaurants in Beijing, I concluded that many of the new joints are over priced and probably over rated. Then I stumbled on a review on Tao. Diners seemed to have good things to say about the food so I thought, "why not?" 

It was quiet when we got there. In fact, it appeared that we were the only diners that night! This has probably got to do with the restaurant's location. It's situated on Lucky Street which isn't top of mind for dining and there's very little foot traffic - none now considering the cold weather. The restaurant's decor was ok. Could have been  cosier if crowded and with more soft furnishing ( curtains, cushions etc) 

The food though, was very promising. TAO offers set dinners like Alameda and has a dessert and non-dessert option at 188RMB and 168RMB respectively.  I had a starter of Black Truffle Chicken Broth with poached egg which was very tasty. Daniel had the Terrine of Foie Gras  served with Grapes. The tartness of the grapes were a great complement to the rich terrine and made it easier to polish off. 

For mains, we both had the Australian Tenderloin and boy was it tender! 2nd best steak I've had in Beijing ( best is at the JW Marriot's CRU Steakhouse). It was served medium rare like I asked - the outside was evenly seared and the inside was rare and tender!!! It came with a side of roasted potatoes flavoured with a sprig of rosemary. 

Rounding off the meal I had the pear cake for dessert. It was a pancake of sorts served with slices of chinese pear. Daniel had the panna cotta served with cinnamon ice cream. I found dessert to be disappointing after the great starter and main course. 

Complementing the meal was a bottle of Spanish Crianza (248RMB) which was on the chef's recommended wine list. I'm no wine connoisseur so all I can say is that it was fruity and I liked it.Generally, TAO offered pretty good value for the quality of food served. I would like to go back to try their 75RMB set lunch someday soon! 

TAO

Tel: 5867 0209