Tao Tao Cafe

Came here for my father’s bday celbration last week. He loves their chicken salad, so this was his place of choice. I have never been here before, but I love chinese food.
After being seated we decided on what we wanted: chicken salad, combo fried rice, lemon chicken, chicken won ton soup and tao tao beef.
The chicken salad was quite heavy on the mustard side, which is why my dad loves it so much since hes a mustard lover, and it had a LOT of cilantro in it, but after picking around most the cilantro, I enjoyed it. Fried rice, yum! Lemon chicken was crispy and tasty. The tao tao beef was pretty yummy, although the serving size was very small! The best thing, I thought, was the soup. We ordered the chicken won ton soup, which I guess is different than regular won ton soup. The broth was a thicker brown broth. It was SO tasty! This alone will bring me back to this establishment.
The only real downside to this place was the service. The waiter seemed like he was on some sort of downer drugs. Spoke very very softly and we could hardly understand him. At the end of the meal we asked him for more water, since he had not served refills throughout the meal, he came back with the water and asked again if we wanted water… yes we do… that’s why we asked you for it. It just seemed quite strange.
All in all, it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great. I will be returning for their soup if I get the craving for won top soup. Probably the fried rice too!

Special place. Their Mai Tai’s are nothing I’ve ever had! The best! I love their vegetable egg rolls too.

I am a LOVER of Chinese food (even some Chinese fast food), but I was not at all impressed with anything about this place. The food was meh, and the service could have been WAY better. I asked the waiter about a free glass of wine as advertised here on Unilocal by checking in, but they would not honor it. The waiter said the offer is valid only mon-​thurs. The worst part about dinner is that we order sweet n sour prawns and got a plate full of pineapple and bell pepper and only 5 or 6 small prawns. I really wish we had chosen a different place for my birthday dinner. I most definitely will NOT be back again.

Used to recommend everyone. loved the Chinese chicken salad but the last two times I got it it was full of broken bones, gristle and all the chicken was so subpar it was just too disgusting to eat.

Tonight, we went to our favorite chinese restaurant, Tao Tao. We used to come here all the time over the years & were never disappointed. We got there when the doors opened & we were the first ones there. We ordered a half plate of chicken salad, the BBQ pork chow mein, oyster sauce beef & some white rice. The chicken salad was good as always; they always use a little too much hot mustard but that’s how they make it. Then the meal goes south from there.
The waiter bought out the BBQ pork chow mein; it was tasteless & the noodles were on the greasy side. Then came the beef in a brown oyster sauce & it had very little favor in it too. Needless to say, we were both disappointed. We usually order the Tao Tao beef & combination chow fun, but we want to try something different. We should have stuck with our usual order.
I can put up with bad chinese food, but I can not put up with bad service. Our waiter was busy taking care of other customers; making sure everything’s okay & bagging their leftovers. We waited & waited & waited & he won’t even look our way. Good thing the busboy came by & bagged our leftovers. Our waiter finally came & gave us our check. When we paid the check, we still didn’t get our leftovers. He went in the back, grabbed our leftovers & toss them on the table. That was fucking rude; good thing I only left a dollar tip.
This used to be our favorite chinese restaurant, but now, we have to cross them off the list.

I would give this place a negative 5 star if i could. Service here is terrible the lady in the front counter is the really rude and would not even acknowledge you if you approach even if you are the first in line. About the food, i would suggest you eat out of a trash can then from this place. Terrible place, terrible food, worst customer service would not recommend anybody to go there.

I’m down to eat here anytime. It has my favorite Chinese Chicken Salad which I could eat as a meal alone. However, the Tao Tao beef, chow mein, and fried rice are always on point! I haven’t tried anything else because I always go back to these favorites. If you’re in Sunnyvale and want Chinese, everyone knows you’ve got to head to Tao Taos.

My friend and I came here for dinner last night. From the outside it looks closed because the glass windows are black but when we opened the door it was opened. This Chinese restaurant has been here for many years. I was here in the 80’s. They have the best Chinese chicken salad. Now I am a vegetarian so I ordered vegetable Spring rolls. They weren’t that good. I could only taste cabbage and that’s it. My friend had a Chicken dish and he liked it. The best thing was that I got a free glass of wine. I don’t think I’ll be coming back.

The short: appallingly, spectacularly terrible food
We ordered the veg spring rolls as a starter. About what you’d get from the frozen food aisle. Not bad, but not good. My co-​worker had the Mongolian beef, which was ok. Fried rice was mush with way overdone pork.
Sesame chicken? I don’t know what to say. Their version of it was offensive. When you order sesame chicken, you expect sort of a less spicy version of General Tso, with some sesame seeds. Google image search on sesame chicken if you need a frame of reference. They brought out boneless chicken breasts that were breaded and fried, and coated in this weird milky looking white sauce, topped with enough sesame seeds to cover the entire dish. This sauce not only looked like a bodily fluid, it tasted like flour and water. One bite, and I sent it back.
To their credit, they took the chicken off the bill. It was so offensive I couldn’t see them not doing that though.
Why didn’t we eat across the street at Dish Dash? Why, oh why?

I can’t even say how bad this place was. If I could give no stars, I would. I went to lunch there with a friend and we ordered 3 dishes – Kung Pao Tofu, Chicken Chow Mein, and Sweet & Sour pork. The Kung Pao tofu was not cooked – raw pieces of tofu dumped a soup of brown sauce with what seemed to be frozen vegetables. I have never seen peas in chinese food unless they were snow peas. It tasted horrible and after eating a few bites, I just couldn’t take it, so I ate the rice that came with it. The soup was in the category of mystery soup and the waiter didn’t bother to tell us what it was. My friend ate a few bites and deemed it basically hot water with things floating in it. The sweet and sour pork was like a frozen dinner microwaved for lunch. Pork looked fake (all pieces were way too evenly sliced as though shaped by a machine or something) The chow mein tasted like nothing.
The food was horrible, the service was even worse – they brought the check after we took two bites of our food (here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?) And never even asked if we wanted anything else, was everything ok, or anything. After flagging them down for water we sat for a little while longer and decided we were done. The waiter came back and asked if we wanted a box to take the food home. We said no. If the ENTIRE PLATE OF FOOD is sitting there basically untouched, would you not ask if everything was ok? No, apparently not. We paid the bill and left 3 giant plates of food on the table.
NEVER going back again. Oh – and the bathroom needs to be cleaned. Looks as though it never has been.

During My Time Off From Work And I Came Here With My Family On A Week Day Which Was Last Thursday On A Beautiful Sunny Day While Taking A Fast Ride From The Cal train San Francisco… And When We Got Here At The Sunnyvale’s Downtown There Was A lot Of Restaurants To Choose From Like American, Chinese, Italian, Korean, Irish, Mediterranean, And Etc… As We Were Walking Around And Looking Around What Would Be A Good Place To Eat Lunch So I Made Up My Mind And Said Lets Do Chinese…
So We Went After Tao Tao Café And We Were So Lucky That It Wasn’t That Crowded Yet So We Didn’t Have To Wait That Long For Our Table So The Hostess Took Us To Our Table Really Fast!!! Since We Were So Hungry We Ordered 2 Rice Plates Which Was The Broccoli Beef, Lemon Chicken, And We Also Ordered The Chicken Chow Mein As Well… And The 3 Rice Plates And The Chow Mein That We Ate For Lunch Was Cooked Really Good And I Really Liked It As A First Timer Eating At The Tao Tao Café!!! In The Beginning As We Got Here… We Didn’t Think About Going To The Tao Tao Café For Lunch There Were Other Chinese Restaurants At The Downtown Sunnyvale But We Have Decided To Go After The Tao Tao Café!!! And Also Wanted To Mention That As We Were All Done Eating And Just About To Leave… That’s When It Really Started Getting Busy With A lot Of Locals, Office Workers, And Etc…
Tao Tao Café For Me Is A Really Good Chinese Restaurant To Have Lunch And To Sit Back With Your Family And Enjoy And Forget About Everything Especially My Work Place During My Time Off From Work!!!

This review is based on take out– specifically, their Chinese Chicken Salad. It is fantastic! I get it everything I’m in the neighborhood. It has the perfect amount of dressing and is NOT sweet. My favorite.

Great menu, food is perfectly seasoned and a pleasant quiet atmosphere. The prices are really reasonable and portions are ample.

I hadn’t been to Tao Tao in YEARS but my friends are totally addicted to their chicken salad and their won ton soup and they insisted we stop by while in the area. We were there pretty early so the place was a ghost town. As mentioned by others the staff is a bit odd but other than that we enjoyed our meal. We started out with the chicken salad, luckily my friends warned me to use the spicy mustard that comes on the side sparingly. You just need a little bit, it packs a punch! We also enjoyed the fried rice, the won ton soup, pot stickers, garlic and the tao tao beef. Be warned, the garlic noodles take awhile. They came out so much later than the rest of our food that we were sure the order was forgotten. They are listed as chef special but I didn’t find they were worth the wait. Next time I’ll stick to the Chicken Salad and the Tao Tao beef, those were by far the best part of our meal.

This Unilocal review is specifically for a woman named JESSICA. You were so rude and inconsiderate when I called to make reservations. You even rushed me off the phone because you complained other customers were waiting. I’M A CUSTOMER TOO! I wasn’t even on the phone with you for more than 3 minutes! We could’ve canceled our reservations and not give you our service! But I won’t cancel it because I would love to talk to your manager when I go in. Customer service is a big thing Jessica! Don’t be so rude over the phone with a nasty attitude! I am so livid at your behavior. I wish I can give ZERO STARS.

This review is based on my encounter I had during the lunch hour only. The lady working at the front counter is very rude and seems angry at her work. I called in for a 11:30 pick up, spoke to her and sounded like she was in a hurry to get off the phone. Arrived at the restaurant 11:45 and she told me it wasn’t ready. Waited 15 minutes and she gives me the same answer. During this time she answers calls and talks to them rudely telling them she had written their reservation and she had to get off the phone because other customers are calling. Horrible customer service! Waited 30 minutes longer for food.

Fortune cookie futures require far more meetings with strangers than I’m comfortable with.
Outside of that, Tao Tao is solid Chinese-​American fare.
Always order the Tao Tao Beef, even if you want to try something new. It’s a table-​pleaser and consistently delicious.
Know that this is family-​style feeding with a huge Lazy Susan in the middle, specifically for sharing food.
I’ve had the Fried Rice, Fried Wontons and some noodles here and there. None of their food is overly sweet, spicy, salty or sour. Consistently balanced menu and lots of options.
I enjoy coming here for lunch, because the wait is usually not bad and the parking is more tolerable. But I’ve been here for dinner before and I’ve been here with large groups.
I’ll say this about Tao Tao, that continues to stand out among Asian restaurants: I don’t have to wait long for food and service is always prompt.

Came back for dinner last night and had a blast. My friends and I ordered rounds of Mai Tais, chicken salad, beef, brown rice, and of course, the famous honey walnut prawns.
The Mai Tais are amazing here and probably the best I’ve ever had! They don’t skimp on alcohol here so be prepared. The mix isn’t sweet either which is a plus!
The chicken salad is great too! The salad is finely minced as well as the chicken. It’s almost like slaw but with dressing. The spicy mustard pairs great with this and should be used in minimal fashion. A bit more mustard and your tongue is burnt and flavor is overtaken.
Overall these new items I had were great and is love to come back for more!

Sitting outside verses sitting inside was a hassle
Having a glass of wine was difficult due to the over priced cheap wines and the location of our seat, presented by our hostess. The hostess didn’t walk us to our table but rather told us to «go find a table»
Ivan-​our waiter, saw the un-​satisfied service we were being delivered and apologized more than five times. He was a great server, being very attentive and asking questions, but I felt that his great service would have been appreciated by a better owner.
I love a good Chinese food restaurant-​and was told to go to this location based off my roommates suggestion. We got non-​vegetarian egg rolls (which were burnt, and Im no food critic) and a chicken/​mushroom/​prawn meal. I was disappointed due to the fact that the meal was heavy, heavy, heavy on the sauce and mainly onion based.
I wish to find a good Chinese food place in Santa Clara-​any suggestions would be nice

Great place for groups. Not so much for an intimate event. Fairly loud environment, more due to the patrons than the restaurant. Have a full bad also, and everyone seems to appreciate the mai ti (sp?). Personal favorite here is the chicken salad, a large is perfect for 4 people and then get some entrees to share also to round out a good meal. Staff is quirky, but tries hard, so thats good overall. Just uhhh dont try and joke with the staff, may not have the desired outcome.
Parking is available but hard to come by. Might want to consider parking over at the macys lot and walking across the street. Plenty of other places to go as well on Murphy street, so can make a night of it if you eat here and hit up a bar or maybe shoot some pool.
Reasonably priced compared to PF changs. This is a sit down place, not just some fast food type Chinese food dive. They do have large round tables in the back that can easily accommodate larger groups of 10 – 12 if needed.