What Happens in Vegas...

...happens because of the Food Network.

I'm in sunny Vegas this week for work! Yay, I get to see some summer weather this year, although it's not in Oregon.  This week has been pretty packed with meetings so far, but last night we split up into groups by work territory and went to dinner.  My group picked Tao, to my delight, for dinner.  I had first heard about Tao on the Food Network show, "Best Thing I Ever Ate...".  That particular episode featured the Chilean Sea Bass over asparagus from Tao and ever since I've wanted to go.  Lucky for me my work peers wanted to go as well.


It was a pretty interesting night because Tao also has an adjoining nightclub so the mix of people there was kind of funny. We were seated and instead of ordering separate dishes, we decided to do a family style 3 course meal.  It. Was. Fabulous.  Everything we ate I absolutely loved.  It was also SPENDY.  I will not tell you how much it cost for a group of 7 to eat dinner, but it was almost my 2 week paycheck. 

Giant Buddha in the center of the restuarant

Since it was a group dinner we decided to have the dinner served family style in 3 courses instead of everyone ordering separate dishes.  The first course was a Kobe beef tartar, a Tuna tartar, and a chicken potsticker.  I was hesitant to try to Kobe beef since it is RAW MEAT, however I was pleasantly surprised and truly enjoyed it.  The flavor was akin to a very rare steak instead of the bloody-iron taste I exptected.  The potstickers and the tuna were excellent as well.

The second course was a sushi and sashimi course.  They brought Kobe beef and avocado rolls, and Surf and Turf roll with Kobe beef and assorted fish, and then a shrimp roll with fish.  All were fabulous and I would have been happy to eat more of the same for the main course.

The main course was immense.  I wasn't expecting that much food and was already pretty full  when it came.  We were served thinly sliced marinated Kobe beef (I think it was just seared) with shitake mushrooms, pork fried rice, Kung Pao chicken, Thai chicken, Chinese sausage fried rice and Chilean Sea Bass over asparagus.  I was in absolute heaven.  That Chilean sea bass was like butter.  No joke.  Every single dish was amazing. 

I pulled the waiter aside at one point and let him know that we were also celebrating the promotion of my NEW BOSS, Ryan, and I wanted to have a little something special sent to him at the end of our meal.  The wait staff blew me away and brought Ryan a chocolate pudding parfait and a huge tray of special desserts for the table to share, free of charge.  There was a giant fortune cookie filled with vanilla and chocolate mousse, coconut ice cream and a fortune for each person at the table, little milk/dark/white chocolate Buddhas, chocolate ganache filled "spring rolls" with citrus dipping sauce and a few other little cookie and chocolate items that I couldn't identify. 

I would definitely go back, but I think I can only afford the Chilean Sea Bass and one other item... but totally worth it.

Mini chocolate Buddha... too cute!