by Jerrod Salado on This place is great. Tucked away just off the bustling Cahuenga strip, it's an amazing alternative to the bars located there. Dark inside, with a great (and cramped) side patio, the people inside are friendly, the music is great, etc etc. Solid bet for a weekend or a more low key weeknight. None of that "Hollywood" bullshit either, which is refreshing, especially considering the location.
by Calvin Jenny on Ahhhh, I do love Tao! I would normally give them 4 or 4.5 star, but this time I have to give a 3.5, for the extra long wait, and the good, but not great service. 3 times a year, I have several groups of 20 - 30 people that roll in to NY, and they all want reservations at Tao...on a Friday or Saturday...at the last min. Typically, I can beg and plead, and the manager at Tao will grudgingly confirm my reservations, while swearing at me, and warning me not to go over on my numbers (because he knows me, and we always do). On my last visit, the wait was a little long, so we wandered to the upstairs bar, where we were literally standing scrunched shoulder to shoulder and proceeded to down a few or 5 cocktails while we patiently waited to be seated. I kinda felt bad for the people who had tables around the bar, because there were a lot of random asses almost touching their plates, but they didn't seem terribly bothered. The food was great as always, the service was good, but has been better, and the atmosphere was festive and fun. I will definitely be back, with my unruly and growing group.
by Vince F. on This place kicked off my last visit to SF and it did not disappoint. Our friend got there early and held our place near the front of the line so we got to enjoy the museum while it was relatively empty for about thirty minutes before it got packed. We got tickets to the 6:30 planetarium showing and checked out the rain forest and saw pretty rare butterflies and fish plants. The planetarium show was sweet and the aquarium area was super cool too... but by the time we got downstairs to the aquarium, it was ridiculously crowded. seemed like more than half of the people there were just drinking and talking and not really looking at the exhibits (which is fine, but struck me as a little odd...but then again, I'd much rather go to Nightlife than a bar or club). We left after about two and a half hours which was about the right amount of time to be there... the people were cool, the music was cool, the drinks were cool, the exhibits were coo... definitely a great idea and an awesome way to spend a Thursday night. I wish they had something like that around here.
