Tao's Restaurant @ PoMo

Tao's Restaurant is actually set up by my primary school classmate, who is a Taiwanese. It opened sometime in 2003, and offered a unique proposition - a six-course set lunch (seven for dinner) at an affordable price. The set lunches cost $21.80, which is really value-for-money considering how much you get from it. 

Starter - Bacon & Mushroom Gratin

This didn't taste as good as I remembered it was a few years ago. Today it was just decent.

Salad - Huai Shan & Tofu

Supposedly a new addition to their menu. The tofu was quite normal, but the huai shan（淮山 - Chinese Yam) was an interesting dish, as we don't really eat it so often. However, I didn't really like the dip for it - it was a bit too sour and overpowering.

Salad - Japanese Cold Noodle

I thought this was pretty ordinary, actually.

Beverages - Ice grape mallow tea, and iced rose apple tea

Both beverages were good! Cool, refreshing, and yet not too sweet. The portions were very generous too and easily lasted us through the whole meal.

Soup - Cream of Pumpkin

This tasted rather watery and my gf complained that it had the "instant-soup" taste, which I do agree.

Soup - Japanese Fish Consomme

To be honest, I couldn't taste any fish inside and the soup was too bland.

Main Entree - Grilled Sea Bass with Japanese sauce

The Japanese sauce was actually teriyaki sauce, and was a bit too overpowering for the fish. The fish was also not really fresh enough.

Main Entree - Tao's Steak

This was incredibly tender - in fact, so tender that it tasted a bit... artificial. I suspect that tenderiser was used to achieve that effect. Still, this was pretty good, mainly because of its doneness - perfectly medium rare! The sauce was also not bad.

Superbly medium rare.

Dessert - Tiramisu

This was disappointing. Beneath the cream, the tiramisu tasted tough and dry. We left it half-finished.

Dessert - Green tea ice cream

The green tea ice cream came with some raspberry fudge on top, which made us wonder - why raspberry? Why not red bean? Wouldn't that be much more suitable?

Overall, I thought today's lunch was below expectations. I have been here around three times (well, over the past eight years) and this time it was the most disappointing. I wouldn't dismiss them though; the crowd on a weekday lunch justified its popularity. Will give it a try again next time.