TAO Asian Bistro & Lounge — Restaurant in Montville

We recently drove an hour to dine at Tao Asian Bistro and Lounge at Mohegan Sun for my spouse's birthday. The host at the front desk acknowledged our special occasion when we arrived, but this acknowledgment didn’t translate into any special service or offerings during our meal. It made us wonder why they even asked about the occasion during the reservation process.

Located on the second floor, the restaurant features an ambiance rich with Asian-themed décor, albeit somewhat dim lighting that made us cautious while walking. The red accent lights create a warm, reddish hue against the red carpets. The tables, especially those for two, are extremely compact—barely enough space for two plates and entrees. We had to push the candle to the edge of the table to make room, making us feel quite cramped. It seems the restaurant prioritizes maximizing the number of diners over comfort, may be, but something to keep in mind when you reserve a table.

Here’s a rundown of our order:

Mango Chili Cocktail: Disappointingly, this was just mango pulp mixed with tequila. The chili was more for presentation than flavor, making it one of the worst cocktails I have had at a restaurant of Tao’s reputation.

Hot and Sour Soup: Accompanied by shrimp toast, the soup was more sour than we usually encounter at Chinese or Asian restaurants. The shrimp toast, fortunately, balanced out the flavor.

Bamboo Steamed Vegetable Dumplings: These dumplings were delicious but could have used a bit more flavor or spice.

Tao Vegetable Lo Mein: This dish was bland and we noticed it did not have Tofu. It wasn’t particularly memorable.

Black Pepper Chili Chicken: This was a highlight with its flavorful sauce and bell peppers. However, it wasn’t spicy as expected. The dish doesn’t come with rice or noodles, but the portion was sufficient on its own.

Mandarin - Orange Mousse: We loved this dessert. Novel and unique, it looked like a mandarin and had a delightful orange flavor. It was the best dish of the evening and a strong reason to visit.

We requested hot oil and a spice rack, but were given two sauces along with hot oil that were only mildly spicy. The service was decent; our server was courteous and attentive. However, we noticed another server explaining the menu and daily specials to first-time guests next to us, which our server didn’t do. This inconsistency in service was noticeable.

Overall, Tao is an expensive restaurant with decent ambiance and service, but nothing particularly special. While we enjoyed the drive and the novelty of the Mandarin dessert, we wouldn't rush back for...

Had a weird experience here with friends. Food was very tasty but overpriced- which we expected and had no issue with considering you're paying for the ambiance. Our main issue was with the service. Our server started off strong, she was friendly and helpful with ordering- and then completely disappeared at one point for no less than half an hour, it honestly mightve been longer. My boyfriend ordered a cocktail when our entrees were dropped off, 20+ minutes later we're almost done with the entrees and our server comes back and informs him that his drink will be right out. She stated the wrong drink but walked away before he could correct her. Another 25 or more minutes go by and we've all been done with our food for a while and wanted to get the check and get on to the casino. We all start looking around for our server, making it pretty obvious were ready to leave. 10 or 15 minutes more go by and we still haven't seen her. We all start wondering if something went wrong or if she went home because of how long it had been since we even saw her in the dining room. Finally she comes out with my boyfriends drink- just liquor on the rocks- not what he ordered. It had been MINIMUM 45 minutes since he'd ordered, based on the time of our reservation and when we got our food it mightve even been over an hour. He didn't even want it but our server seemed a bit off at that point and we didn't want to bother her. We just wanted to get the bill and to leave. We still tipped over 20% because we're all in the industry and understand things happen that are out of servers control , but it left a bad taste in my mouth that the excessive wait time wasn't explained, or at least my boyfriends drink could've been taken off the bill. I'm a bartender and I would never charge someone for their drink if they'd been waiting an hour for it. One of my friends stared at the guy who appeared to be the manager multiple times hoping to get his attention as he'd checked on our table earlier, and it seemed odd that despite making eye contact with him multiple times he still never came back over- and in my experience managers are supposed to help out if their servers are overwhelmed or busy. The whole experience was just odd and left a bad taste in our mouths. Despite the food and ambiance being great we'll probably try another restaurant next time...

I had to write a review on how terrible the food and the customer service was. I was so very excited to be going to Tao for my birthday. From the very beginning when arrived the hostess was rude and didn’t want to take time away from gossiping with a co worker to show a disable customer where to place my scooter, Weeks before going we called explained about having a disability and not being able to walk far just to have to walk very far. The entire time I was scared I might fall because of the long walk to our table. We asked for a sushi roll as our appetizer which we would never receive. We placed our order and our waiter informed us that the lobster rice was spicy. He said we could could have the cook mix it with vegetable rice to help the spices, We received cold old rice with a billion green onions on top. We tried to mix it with the Thai shrimp to help it did not help the rice was still old and cold. We could only eat 2 bites.We finally spotted our waiter and waved him over. This was the the only time he ever came back to table not once did he ask if we needed a refill on our wine or glass of water. He asked if we were done and said he would go get a take away container. We reminded him that he never brought our appetizer the sushi roll. He looked us and said you wanted that. I have never in my life had service and food so bad. We should have complained asked for a manger that night. We did return the next day to let the manager know what service and terrible food we received for my birthday.I thought about all night. The manger we spoke to was very dismissive and just didn’t care, This was suppose to be a wonderful memory for my birthday instead it was a terrible memory. If I could give this restaurant a negative zero I would. They treated this paying customer received was terrible on my special day. I strongly recommend that your company really needs to train your staff teach them customer service skills and how to be kind to customers no matter if they are disabled or not being. Kindness never hurts anybody and it doesn’t cost anything but in this cast cost your company 2 customers. Very...