TAO: Bathroom or Asian art museum?

One thing that sweetens the pill of working in Las Vegas is the team dinner before our event officially kicks off; we get a last hurrah of Vegas five-star cuisine before switching gears to three meals a day of hotel-catered food. This trip, we went to TAO at the Venetian, where we enjoyed endless courses of Asian fusion food, watched over by an enormous Buddha, along the lines of the one at Buddha-Bar in Paris (which I’m sad to see I didn’t blog about…)

TAO’s restroom was pretty incredible, both inside and out, with lots of beautiful artwork, making it seem almost like a mini Asian art gallery: photos of monks in red and yellow robes; paintings of ladies dressed in silk gowns; a line of wooden statues; a candle-flanked shrine. Dark floors and bright-orange walls were a beautiful backdrop for the art, as well as red velvet Dr. Seuss-like chairs in the area outside the men’s and women’s rooms. Which brings me to one of my favorite Porcelain Press moments. Both doors had identical yin yangs on them, and neither door was stamped with a giant “M” or “W.” I paused outside, wavering, uncertain which door I should push. One of the doors swung open, and a guy walked out. He laughed. “The statues,” he said. Aha! A wooden statue stood sentry at each door, and one was clearly a woman and the other was clearly a man. Problem solved.

We had a family-style meal, so I didn’t read TAO’s menu and therefore don’t know what we ordered, but it was all fabulous, especially the fish on a stick. Best of all, the meal at TAO ended with chocolate fortune cookies. I’m a sucker for a trashy, cellophane-wrapped fortune cookie – even though I always get the worst fortunes – and a chocolate version is even more delicious.

Restroom Rating: [rating=5]