The wife & I headed out to Fields around 9PM last night(01/18/14) to grab a bite to eat. Red Star won the vote and we headed over there and plopped down in our seats. I was pretty uncomfortable being the only white boy in the joint that was currently full of pakastini's, turks and other middle eastern men who gave me some pretty hard stares. They were out of stock of Tahini and that meant no hummus or falafel so we left and I suggested we check out Tao - as I have not visited the joint yet.
When we got to the entrance of Tao - there was at least 6 or 7 girls at the entrance plus Kuya. No one greeted us - nor even opened the door for us. Kuya was busy chatting with some girl on the right side of the door and one of the door girls actually stood in the way of the left side of the door and was too busy with chismosa with another girl to even move. The girl reluctantly moved out of the way and gave us a brief annoyed look as we entered from the left side.
As we entered, a girl in the inside motioned us to enter the 1st floor and I told her we were going to grab some sushi and headed towards the second floor. Then I realized it was on the third floor but didn't notice the stairway leading up. Another girl on the 2nd floor motioned us to sit and I told her we were grabbing Sushi (having realized at this time it was on the 3rd floor) I asked the girl "if the sushi was on the third floor and we could head up there?" She actually said, "Wait" and walked off for what seemed a couple of minutes before motioning us towards the stairs leading to the third floor. WTF?
When we got to the 3rd floor it was almost desolate. There was a couple sitting at a table and an older Filipino man chatting with them. When we started to look for a table, the older Filipino looked up at us and acknowledged us as we sat down. There was not a single waitress or anyone else for that matter on the third 3rd floor and eventually the Filipino man snapped up one of the waitresses that had come up the stairs to grab an order.
I ordered the Smoked Unagi Roll, Spicy Salmon Roll and the Deep-fried sushi The "itamae" came over to our table to let us know that he was out of stock of Unagi (Damn). So I replaced the Unagi with the Creamy Shrimp Roll. The prices for the sushi were reasonable and comparable to the prices of most other Sushi joints in Angeles as well. We told our waitress at this point that we would head back to the first floor to watch the show and to please deliver our order there.
We headed down to the 1st floor and the joint was pretty crammed and I was beginning to think that there would not be anywhere for us to sit until I noticed two empty tables near the dance floor. Excited at this point that I would be able to watch all the girlies on stage wiggle their rumps while eating my sushi I proceeded to navigate through the mob. That's when I came across another Papa-san. He greeted my wife and I and motioned us towards the table.
Our waitress on the first floor was not too much of a looker - however she had a very bubbly attitude and smiled literally almost the whole time, was very pleasant to be around and made sure we were well taken care of and with that personality she scored more points in the look-a-meter.
I ordered a SML for both my wife and I - while we waited for our sushi and we kicked back to enjoy the dancers on stage. I was impressed with the girls on stage as they danced and tried to synchronize their dance patterns to each others and most of the dancers seemed to be enjoying the routine which is rare nowadays compared to most dancers on stage in other bars. The girls were great and it was a nice change of pace to the vast swaths of bars in Angeles where most of the dance girls just stand on stage looking like dead Betty's or standing their with their arms crossed and slowly swaying back and forth. There were quite a few girls on stage that could stand to lose some weight and very few toothpicks. For the most part - a good majority of the dancers were what you could consider "healthy" but still definitely fuckable. We all got different styles of taste when it comes to girls but from a Goldlilocks perspective you could say the majority of the girls were "just right" - lol.
I was almost on my third beer when our food finally arrived and it was more than I expected. So we had quite a feast to chow down on. My wife had just finished her first beer and was already a little tipsy (lol). There were small amounts of Wasabi on each tray about the size of a small red seedless grape. I would have preferred just a little bit more wasabi as I like my Sushi extra hot but it turned out to be just enough for me as my wife does not like hers quite that hot.
After mixing the wasabi and the soy sauce together we began our chop stick flurry chow down. I was impressed with the consistency of the rice. More times than I would like, have I ordered sushi only for the rice to fall apart due to improper preparation of the sushi rice. We had no problems whatsoever even with our shaky hands and both being tipsy at this point - the rice held its formation and was quite firm.
The spicy salmon roll was perfect and the best I've had in the Philippines thus far. The creamy shrimp roll was pretty good itself, but was a bit to sweet for my taste and had just a tad too much sugar mixed in with the mayo. The deep-fried roll reminded me of times spent when I was living in Atlanta back in 2005 from a sushi joint out there that specialized in deep fried sushi and as I chomped down on it - I recollected all the wonderful times I had in the Korean Asian massage Parlors in downtown Atlanta - haha.
Throughout our experience in Tao - the Papa-san that greeted us on the first floor from time to time would walk by and give us a questionable nod or hand gesture to ensure everything was okay. Our waitress was wonderful, the sushi was some of the best I've had in the Philippines in the past 8 years that I've been here and the dance show was very enjoyable. Especially the dance team with the furry outfits (Evil grin).... Even at this late hour of the night there was still quite a few stunners in the bar that I would have loved to stick my chopstick into!
Over-all we had a great time and I would give Tao 4 out of 5 stars. The only improvements I would suggest is making sure that the door girls are more attentive and friendlier to those entering the place and having a waitress on hand on the 3rd floor at all times. Of course this very well may have just been a rare quirk we experienced on our visit.
My wife actually enjoyed the experience as well (which is rare). For those of you visiting Angeles in the coming months. I would definitely recommend Tao as a MUST SEE bar to stop into on your mongerin' trip. It by far can be said to be one of the best bars at the moment in Angeles City in terms of friendly waitresses, papa-sans, cultural dance shows, Bar Girls, great sushi and a decently enjoyable atmosphere.