Let me say, as someone who lives in Belltown, I used to adore Tavolata for it's casually sophisticated decor, prompt service and reasonable prices. It used to be the hidden gem in belltown where locals can eat authentic homemade pasta in a chic, modern atmosphere. But I fear, as this place has become a faint shadow of it's former self... About a week ago, I took a friend to Tavolata on a Thursday night around 8pm. Despite the restaurant only being half empty, we were told it would take 45 minutes to get seated, so we decided to have drinks at the bar. After 15 minutes, we decided to order some olives to snack on while we sat on the bar. The olives didn't arrive until 30 minutes later. Olives. How hard it is to scoop olives from a jar?? Once we finally got seated, we had to instruct our waiter to bring us basic dining essentials like silverware, water, bread and napkins. On each of these requests, he forgot so we had to flag him down again, where he would apologize and forget again. Finally when we got all the before mentioned items, we had to wait an additional hour for our food to finally show up. And when the food did show up, it was mediocre if that, not at all what I remember the food to be. I suppose what irked me about the dining experience was the lack of empathy by the staff. They really didn't seem to care whether we waited 2 hours for our dinner or we had to ask two times for water and silverware. At the end, the bill came out to be around $100. You could probably go out for Thai food 4 times for the same money and probably get much better service. Or spend a tad more and go to a high end steak house. I'm sure many people will have mixed experiences about Tavalota, but a place is only as good as it's last experience and mine was awful. Mediocre food seasoned with terrible service. Everyone, think twice about bringing a date here because you'll be at the mercy at some very arrogant, incompetent and indifferent servers.
Pros: Trendy atmosphere
Cons: Not enough servers, noisy, slow service, can't make reservations
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