Tao 飯点
The dumplings are the reason this exists as a separate restaurant: the Infatuation says they are what the team's Cedar Park room does not have.1
Why go
Tao opened in late March 2026 at 9033 Research Blvd, on the US-183 frontage where it meets Burnet Road, in the unit Mikado Ryotei left, from the same people who run Hunan Bistro out in Cedar Park.21 The menu is two menus on one card. The Sichuan side opens cold with fuqi feipian, sliced beef and ox tongue under chili oil at US$14.95, and runs through Chongqing spicy diced chicken, twice-cooked pork, poached fish in spicy oil, dry pots of bullfrog and intestine, and whole grilled fish. The other side is the Chinese-American card, General Tso's chicken at US$15.95, orange chicken, sesame chicken and beef with broccoli.5 I haven't found a review of this room, so the case is the parent's. Nicolai McCrary scored Hunan Bistro 8.1 in December 2023 and told readers to order across both sides of its menu. Matthew Odam put it among his ten best restaurants in the Cedar Park area in April 2026.34
Order this / avoid
- Order: the housemade dumplings, because that is the stated reason this room is not just Hunan Bistro again: pork soup dumplings six for US$11.99, and the Sichuan wontons in red oil, eight for US$10.99.15
- Then, on the parent's record: the Hunan-style stir-fried pork, US$16.95. Matthew Odam's line on Hunan Bistro's version is
thin-sliced shoulder and bacon tossed with the grassy notes of sharp green peppers that sting but don't overwhelm the palate.
And the mapo tofu, US$12.95, which McCrary told Hunan Bistro's readers to take home because it eats better the next day.435 - The heat test: Chongqing spicy diced chicken, US$19.95, the dish where a Sichuan kitchen either commits to the dried chili and the numbing pepper or backs off them. General Tso's is US$15.95 off the same line for anyone at the table who wants it sweet.5
- Avoid: reading any of this as a rating of Tao's own kitchen. The Infatuation's page is a preview and says
We haven't been here yet, but want you to know this spot exists.
The grilled fish at US$45.95 and the lobster plates are sized for the table, not the box.15
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation's Nicolai McCrary named it on 1 April 2026, and gave the two facts that matter:
Tao is a Chinese restaurant near 183 and Burnet Road, from the same team as Hunan Bistro. The menu is similar to its Cedar Park sister spot, but with the addition of housemade dumplings.
That is a lineage and a differentiator from a registered Austin byline, and it is not a review of the cooking.1 - On the sister room, not this one: McCrary's Hunan Bistro review, 8.1 in December 2023, ends with
grab an order of mapo tofu to go, we like it even better the next day.
Odam's Cedar Park list describes the same kitchen asa variety of regional Chinese cuisines, along with a broad offering of more generic Chinese and Chinese-American dishes.
34 - I haven't found a critic who has eaten here.
Good to know
- Where it is, and when: 9033 Research Blvd, Suite 100, 78758. Open every day from late morning into the evening, on the storefront as of September 2026; the August listing had it dark on Wednesdays. Walk in, or order pickup through the online storefront.5
- The name is not a menu. 飯点 is the ordinary word for a restaurant, not a dim sum or rice house.
- Hygiene: no record for this tenant, though the city does know the unit. The previous restaurant in the space, Mikado Ryotei, scored 82 at its last inspection in August 2023, and that score is not this kitchen's. Tao opened in March 2026 and Austin Public Health has published no inspection for it, which is missing data rather than a clean bill of health.6
Verdict
could-visit — A Sichuan kitchen that opened in March 2026 at 9033 Research Blvd, in the room Mikado Ryotei used to have, from the same team as Hunan Bistro out in Cedar Park. The Infatuation's Nicolai McCrary flagged it in April and named the thing that separates it from the sister spot: housemade dumplings. The card backs that up, with eight fillings, three kinds of soup dumpling and red-oil wontons, sitting alongside the cold Sichuan opener fuqi feipian, Chongqing spicy diced chicken and a row of dry pots and clay pots. Closed Wednesdays. It stops at could-visit because McCrary says plainly that nobody from The Infatuation has eaten there, and because Austin Public Health has published nothing under the new tenant yet.