Taos Wok & Bar
“Love their swordfish dumplings and sirloin steak on a stick apps!”
“I have been coming here for about a year, love their $4 tapas and delicious sangrias.”
“We had the sesame sticks, spicy wontons, a special roll with tuna and salmon, steak sticks, and crab rolls (like a crab spring roll).”
Taos Wok & Bar
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Unfortunately their website was confusing and i hated the layout. I just called them to find out if they had a happy hour on wednesday because i heard they did. It was not listed on the website (or on the menus at the tables) but its from 4- close which is awesome.
THe list of tapas they have during their happy hour special is insane. they must have had 30 different foods at least that you can order all for $4. how can you beat that? all beers were $3 and sangria was $4. The prices alone make me want to come back.
Drinks: 5 stars.
-nothing fancy at all but they were cold ,delicious and $3. The sangria was strong which is always a plus in my book.
Service: 3.5 stars.
Our waitress was extremely friendly but it took her quite a while to come back and check on us to see if we needed the bill or anything and there was only a few tables. Not a deal breaker at all
Food: 3 stars
We ordered the chicken quesadilla, fried calamari, california rolls and boneless buffalo wings… was anything gross? not at all. it was all decent. but it was just decent. I would absolutely come back here and eat again for $4 a plate!!! but at the regular prices/plate? … ehhh.
Honestly i cant wait to come back here because you can get a feast and get drunk with someone and it will cost you like $30 so it was awesome. I totally recommmened checking this place out for their happy hour.
Cheap and mediocre, buuuut gets the job done! We came here for Sunday Liquid brunch and it's Happy Hour specials ALL day Sunday. However, they're house wines by the glass or atrocious so I ordered from the standard menu and it was still not great. So I just got a prosecco and it was fine. My friend did get a Jack and ginger as a special and it was good.
as far a the $4 tapas go… I got what I expected. When you have 20-30 options on a menu for 4 dollars a piece you're not gonna get gourmet. Seared tuna was barely seared and far from fresh, ughh I can still taste the pastiness. General Tso's chicken was good. Rice was hard. Shanghai wings were awesome. Garlic shrimp wasn't bad but temperature was a bit cool when it arrived.
Bananas Foster's… it's a delicacy AND a show rolled into one.
Chocolate Lava Cake… meh. The cake was dry and the filling was the same as the topping which was caramel instead of chocolate so it hardened and then stuck to your teeth as you ate.
So, the weird thing is that I would actually come back. The service was friendly (not pro, but it's chill and they're nice). And now I know what to drink. As for the food, it's really hit or miss. If you don't mind a little roulette and you have a low key and low expectations kinda day, come here and relax.
Let me start of by saying this place is NOT good for groups. I repeat, do NOT come here with more than 4 in your party.
My husband brought me here to have a surprise birthday dinner with my friends (group of about 17 people). He heard 'good' things about this place so he decided to make reservations. We came here on a Wednesday night, which wasn't busy at all, but I guess for some it was since they had to serve a party of 17.
Let me begin by talking about the staff:
First of all, it took our FIRST waiter at least 10-15 mins to get drink orders (alcoholic). He didn't have problems showing how frustrated he was to have to serve such a large group of people. After our group received drinks, which wasn't even specialty drinks, we weren't waited on until probably another half an hour later. This time, it wasn't even the same waiter. We ended up getting a female waitress this time who was much more attentive than the first male waiter was.
She got MOST of our orders correct, with the exception of one friend who didn't get her salad until everyone was done with their meal. While her salad took forever to come out, it wasn't even the right salad. At this point, our male waiter comes back and argues with my friend that that was the salad she ordered and it was the same one as her boyfriends, in which my friend replied it wasn't because both salads tasted AND smelt differently. My friend ended up canceling the order anyways to make their lives easier.
FOOD:
I had the Duo of Chicken which was grilled chicken with black bean sauce and chicken in some kinda orange sauce with brown rice and veggies. My plate was pretty decent, if you don't count the saltiness in the chicken with black bean sauce. Although my plate was good, I can't say my friends thought the same. Their New England clam chowder came out in a bowl you normally put French onion soup in (again, very salty). There were a lot of appetizers that were ordered from pork dumplings, to fried calamari, which all my friends complaint were salty. One friend ordered this wasabi tuna thing which looked and tasted bland and dry. Overall, I can't say too much about the food but it seemed salt was a MAJOR ingredient in everything.
CHECK PLEASE:
Normally when you're in a large group, SOMEONE is bound to ask for separate checks, this includes our group. Most of our party wanted separate checks, which was inconvenient on our part, but many restaurants we've been to that serves large groups were able to do it with no problem. Our waitress (the female) told us she wasn't allowed to separate checks for individual couples due to their company policy, which was fine, so she ended up separating checks in three sections of the group. Unfortunately, she didn't do this so eloquently in which she placed orders all over the place. This took about half an hour to do, which she messed up. Then it took ANOTHER half an hr to get the checks correct. The only reason the waitress ended up coming back was because someone in the group went looking for her.
For those reading this review, please note this is not a biased review because it was MY party that went who had a bad experience. No one in my party had ever been to this place and based on the service we received tonight, no one was ever going back. Although there were other people at the restaurant, the two waiters serving that small section of people were extremely flustered and showed obvious frustration. Our female waitress DID apologize for the mix ups by saying she's never served that many people before, which led me to think if you're staff is inexperienced with such a large crowd, why take the reservation to begin with?
I really do NOT suggest this place to anyone who's planning of having 4 or more In a party. Two people is already too much for them to handle, let alone 4 or 17.
While our group was large, no one in my group was an a*hole about anything until the male waiter started showing his frustration by slamming on the menus, RUNNING to the bar to get REGULAR beers, and ARGUING with my friend about how her salad was the same as the other when my friend tried BOTH salad next to each other.
Like I said, don't come with a large group, and don't order too much food because the staff clearly can't handle it.
I've been to Taos quite a few times and its a nice place for cocktails. The food can be a hit or a miss. I've had curry noodles that were not spicy or flavorful at all, but the small plates are usually pretty good and at happy hour you can order a lot for a small price! I would really suggest the happy hour considering that most drinks are $4-7 dollars and all the tapas are $4!! The service was pretty slow the last time I went…
Happy hour, happy hour, happy hour! Come during happy hour!
Their small plates (which are amazing, by the way) are about $4-$5 so you can try so many things for such a great price. They come with a good amount of food you won't be disappointed.
I highly recommend: the swordfish dumplings, skirt steak skewers, spicy beef tips, and the peking dumplings!
Also, during happy hour their drink specials are fantastic. They usually have cool varieties of martinis like a "very berry martini". These are usually on the sweeter side but it's a martini so you know it's strong. For $4 you can't go wrong.
The atmosphere gets 5 stars. Very cool, asian decor. Tree trunks line the bar area, the lighting is dim, the music is not too loud.
Definitely found my new lunch spot! I've been here twice and both times have been great. First off, who doesn't like a complimentary beer with their lunch? I'll take it! It's just one per lunch order, so don't go walking in, thinking it's a drink-your-face off challenge or something. They definitely got me hooked with that free beer doe.
Honestly, I know it's an asian-fusion place but they have a lot of stuff that's not asian-y or fusion-y. I've had their pulled pork burrito and the 6 oz. burger and they were both awesome. To start, the bread that comes before the meal comes with 2 oils and they amazing! One spicy, one tangy, both amazing. The pulled pork burrito had some unusual hot sauce, can't remember what it was, but it definitely made the burrito. I don't think it would've been the same without it. Next. the burger… They say it's a 6 oz. burger but looks and feels like an 8 oz burger. It comes with 3 complimentary toppings (BACON IS ON THE LIST) with lettuce, tomato, and onions as standards (as it should be). They have an option for sides, but I stuck with the traditional fries. Burger got a little messy, but only because of it's massive size, no complaints here.
The service is great too! very attentive bartenders and servers and the food comes out really quickly. Taos has answered the age old question of: WHAT'S FOR LUNCH?
Came to Taos Wok and Bar after work one day to meet a coworker. Sadly, their happy hour special does not apply on Mondays, but reasonably priced!
FOOD: I got the half order of ribs. The food was pretty so-so. I did not find the meat to be flavored very well or quite that memorable. Looking through the menu, the place is not very specialized and all over the place. I wish places would focus on a type of cuisine, but Taos definitely is all over the place.
SERVICE: Pretty good and the drinks came, but nothing to rave about.
I would say the options on tap were sparse and the food was so-so, but with the low price, I can see the appeal for this place for some, but for me, this place is a pass.
Came here with my work crew based on a suggestion of one of my coworkers.
As everyone else suggested, come during Happy Hour. Here they have $4 tapas plates. HUGE variety. Lots of seafood items, which is a nice bonus. Also, as mentioned, don't come with a large group. The 3 of us had trouble finding a spot. It wasn't until 10 minutes later were we luckily able to scoop up an emptying table.
Looking at the tapas menu, it did seem the chef is quite ambitious.
"This could be amazing or it could be quite disastrous," I was thinking – leaning more towards disastrous.
Well, I'm happy to report the food was delightfully mediocre. What it comes down to is that the food has some great flavors, but technique is what I expected.
Things like swordfish dumplings, scallops wrapped in bacon and spicy fish (salmon) bites had great flavor, but the fish in these cases were tough. The scallops were the tiny bay scallops (was crossing my fingers for diver scallops), but at least the bacon was very crispy. I'm guessing those things were deep fried.
Speaking of deep fried, the rib tips, Tao and Shanghai shrimp were all deep fried. Those were on the tougher side as well. Only the sauce for these were not as good.
However, the sauce for the garlic fries and spicy fish bites were on point. I suggest getting those to use a dipping sauce for some of the other items.
The tuna trio was really the only thing that really stood out. 3 slices of sashimi, 3 pan seared Cajun/blackened, and a tartare with soy, chilies and green onion. It was served with seasoned soy sauce and wasabi (slightly different than your typical "wasabi"; not as biting).
Dessert was interesting. For $8.99, you can get any one of about a dozen desserts. We opted for the flaming chocolate lava cake. Not only do you get a "lava cake", but you also get ice cream, whipped cream, an assortment of fruit and lemon sorbet (which surprisingly complemented-contrasted the lava cake quite nicely). On top of that, you can opt for the flaming part which is them lighting alcohol on fire and pouring it over the cake. So the reason why I put lava cake in quotations is that it didn't seem like a true lava cake. It just seemed like a chocolate cake with chocolate syrup poured onto an indentation at the top. And the cake wasn't anything special either. A little dry, a little tough.
Not all of our food items came out. The waitress assured us that they weren't on the bill. Unfortunately, I forgot to check at the end to make sure for certain. They even have a sign warning people to check their bill before paying. You really are supposed to do that anyway, but I guess it's more common at this place that items are left off. *shrug*
Service was pretty good otherwise. Nothing else to complain about really.
As for drinks, not much to choose from on the beer front. Sangria was nice as refreshing. Not as sweet as some other places thankfully, and they did use some sort of carbonation.
Overall, this really isn't a place I'd suggest going to. I wouldn't be opposed to going here if someone wanted to check the place out. At least I know what to get and what to expect.