Tao‘s HotPot & Shabu — Restaurant in Folsom

We were for adults and one eight year-old kid. When the bill came, it looked like any other restaurant in the fact that they have spot at the bottom for a “tip” The system conveniently calculates various tip Amounts for you, 18% 20% 25% that kind of thing. Then I looked further up the Tab I noticed they had already added an 18% “gratuity” BEWARE OF THIS. Because after the food, tax, gratuity, and total bill, they’re still appears a very normal “tip“ At first I had skipped to the bottom line and was calculating what kind of tip I would leave… Only to realize it had already been added to the bill automatically under the heading “gratuity“

Now a few comments about the dining experience. There are six or a different kinds of “soup“ which is what they call the broth in the hot pot. The problem is, your whole entire dining experience is based on which soup you choose. Unless you’ve been there before With a bunch of people and tried all their Different varieties, you make your choice and have to live with it. Roll the dice and hope you pick the winner sauce/Broth. I mistakenly chose mushroom…

Finally, something must be done about providing each guest with some kind of a plate on which to put there hot, soaking wet and dripping food after it comes out of the pot. I tried to be as neat as I could be, but every morsel that came out of the pot left a big mess all around on the table. I had to double down on a bunch of napkins to make a bib. Puddles of stuff everywhere. Plus, quite a few of the meat and vegetable items cannot be eaten in one bite. So some kind of a plate would not only be more neat and sanitary, but it would allow you to consume the food without having to gulp the whole thing down and one big wad. Maybe I’m just an uncoordinated old geezer?

I would like to conclude my remarks by commenting about two Positive things: The owner and one other person, Female, We’re both bilingual. Both were very nice, accommodating, and believe it or not had a good sense of humor. Both were very helpful. Nobody else spoke English. Second, the food itself seemed to be very high-quality and...

We came here with my parents who live nearby, we were excited that a hot pot place finally opened locally and we didn’t have to drive all the way to Sacramento. Unfortunately the entire experience was extremely uneven and unless major improvements can be made.

First of all the menu & the ordering process. The menu is All You Can Eat with restrictions. You can order up to 3 meats at a time and select other items for 90 minutes. This would be fine expect Each order came with 5 pieces of meat while we had 4 people… you don’t have to be a genius to do the math on how little meat that is per round. The quality is very good I will give it that. Service was EXTREMELY slow, we waited a whole 30 min from ordering to our first round of items. If each round took 30 min we will still be starving by the time we leave The menu is very limited compared to most hot pot places and each portion was so small.

The owner was very apologetic about the situation as we weren’t the only frustrated table in the restaurant. It was a busy night and many people had issues with their orders. I understand it’s also the owners first restaurant so of course there’s a learning curve. A few pieces of advice Have a serve yourself sauce bar, there’s a reason why most hot pot restaurants do this. This has been a tried and true model, it reduces the time staff has to attend to your guests (especially helpful if you’re short staffed). It gives the guests something to do, so they’re not sitting around wondering why their food is taking so long. Make your staff specialize in tasks, have someone just fill water for example. The entire time we ate there no one refilled our waters even after asking. Have a better ordering system. There’s not enough variety on the menu for such a restrictive ordering system. Either add more variety or increase the amount of food per order.

I hope this place improves and succeeds! It has the right elements and just needs...

I recently visited Tao's Hot Pot & Shabu, and unfortunately, my experience was less than satisfactory. (Party of 6) While the restaurant's ambiance and decor were pleasant, the food and service left much to be desired.

One of the biggest issues I encountered was the limited selection of broths. Apart from the tonkatsu broth, most of the other options lacked flavor and depth. Additionally, the meat choices were also quite limited, which made the overall experience feel lackluster.

I also found that the shrimp balls tended to fall apart when placed in the soup base, which was frustrating. The service was also incredibly slow, with extremely long wait times between rounds of meat. On several occasions, our table was forgotten, and we only managed three rounds of meats before we were left to wait for an unreasonable amount of time.

Another disappointment was the lack of side dishes, which could have added some variety to the meal. Additionally, the tableware and chopsticks were limited and had to constantly ask staff for more, which detracted from the overall dining experience.

One major issue was that the meat came out before the actual soup, which meant we had to wait even longer to start our meal. It was around 15 mins when the raw meat came out when we received the actual soup. To add to this, our waiter forgot to give us the check, and we had to hunt them down to pay our bill. It seems the restaurant is understaffed for the amount of traffic it is receiving.

Overall, while the ambiance was nice, the food and service were lackluster, and I wouldn't recommend Tao's Hot Pot & Shabu, unless you are feeling something different. With limited meat choices, unappetizing broths, and long wait times, you are better off spending the time to go to Sac/Elk Grove hot pots for a better...