learning about tao asian fusion cuisine last year while driving through columbia on the way to summer camp, my family of 5 stopped and had a wonderful experience. busy life and busy times, i forgot to write a review. i said to myself, next time.
"next time" came over the weekend as my daughter (along with a friend) were off to summer camp again in hendersonville, north carolina. rather than a family of 5, it was just me and my 11-year old daughter, along with her 12-year old friend. north on interstate 95, then west on a construction clogged interstate 26, we finally ended up in columbia around 2 p.m. on a saturday afternoon.
my intent was to drive straight through from south florida. based on our earlier stops, i projected that we were about 50 minutes behind. far enough behind that i thought of skipping lunch and visiting tao on the way back. we could always eat in the car, i thought.
i knew the kids wanted to stop and my daughter's friend really enjoys sushi, or so she said. i decided to check out the online menu, decide what we were going to eat, then call it in about 15 minutes before arrival. the idea was to order ahead and regain some "lost time" as we wouldn't be waiting in the restaurant for service, ordering, etc. upon arrival, the food would be on the table and we could immediately start eating.
i called around 12:30 and spoke with a pleasant female. i inquired about ordering ahead and explained my situation. long story short - i wanted to eat at tao but needed to call ahead so the food was ready upon arrival. after clarifying that we were eating in, i was advised to call back when we were about 20 minutes away.
calling back at about 2 minutes out from columbia, we ordered 1 crispy thai shrimp roll at $5.95; 1 "any 3" roll (california, philadelphia and mango shrimp) at $11.95, 1 edamame at $3.95 (which was reduced to $0 as we "liked" the tao asian fusion facebook page; and 1 plate of chicken fried rice at $7.25. the "any 3" came with miso soup and a salad. to drink, we each had water. total check before tip was $27.41.
food was on the table when we walked in about 18 minutes later. shay was our server and met us at the door with the question, "you called in, right?" yes, shay - we called in. thereafter, we were immediately taken to our table which was fully set.
food was great and the three of us shared the meal family style. although we stayed about 45 minutes, we probably saved about 30 minutes between the sitting, menu delivery, idle talk, ordering of food, then the wait for food. shay rarely came back to the table and i debated rating down 1-star, but said to myself - "there was no reason for the server to come back as the table was entirely set and we needed nothing."
as with any travel, i reminded the kids to use the restroom and did so myself. bathroom was clean and well stocked. no issues and i didn't hear any complaints from the kids.
the kids and i ate about 90% of the food and opted against take-out as we were traveling and i didn't want a fish smell in my suv. on the way out, we ran into a couple at the outdoor menu board debating whether to eat at tao or not. my daughter told them how good the food was and they decided to go inside after thanking her.
we will definitely return to tao asian fusion when passing through the area again.
william e. lewis jr.
vero beach, florida