Tavola Italian Restaurant Leamington Spa — Restaurant in Warwick

Laughably bad food. I’m not sure how it’s possible to overcook every dish and for it to be served lukewarm in a basically empty restaurant. The restaurant was like eating in a sauna, and none of the windows opened. We asked where the coolest place to sit would be, and were told to sit anywhere.

Photographed here is a very dry overcooked piece of duck, served with mush asparagus and tinned orange pieces. This was originally my friends dish, but we swapped to see if he could stomach the carbonara I ordered (worse than a ready meal, stodgy and sticky with little to no flavour… I love carbonara and thought it would be a safe bet. It was not). He took a few bites and quickly decided it was equally as inedible as the duck. The steak ordered was a £27 sirloin served with salad. It was thinner than a minute steak (about half a centimeter thick, and not medium rare as asked - another overcooked dish)! We immediately sent this dish back and knew the rest of the mains were probably going to be as tragic. The truffle fries were abysmal. £9 too, and I have had better for less in Leamington. We couldn’t eat them. Service was friendly but unusual. Only one person in our group finished his 2 tablespoon portion of tomato pasta (£16), he said it had very little flavour but he was too hungry and just decided to get on with it.

I’d love to show you the state of the carbonara, but it was so ashamed of itself it seems to have deleted itself from my phone.

We swapped the steak for some bread and some carpaccio. The carpaccio dish was very weird. Rolls of half cooked beef, both warm and cold at the same time (not a quality we would expect) and this didn’t get finished either.

The chef sent out 2 desserts as an apology, however we still had all of the uneaten dishes sitting on our table, presenting like some sort of food graveyard with the four of us in mourning. So now we had two extra plates of food added, one a tiramisu which I have easily made better at home with very little effort, and a panacotta that had too much gelatine in, and was not complimented by a raspberry coulis but something that tasted IDENTICAL to that raspberry mr whippy sauce!!!

Our first warning should have been the warm bottle of rose we ordered, that wasn’t poured for us and just plopped on the table. The wine was nice, but for £37 i would have expected it to have been in the fridge, especially since the restaurant was not busy on a Friday night, and there were enough staff. Our mains took about an hour to come out, and before they arrived we heard a nearby table grumble about their mussels pasta dish. We were not the only unhappy table that night.

Starters were fine, although the cheese and meats for the sharing board weren’t something that needed any culinary skill to prepare.

Although I appreciate the servers trying to make our night better, it was just abysmal. We had fun with our friends but unfortunately that’s because the food was laughably bad. We did not pay full price for what we had ordered, but we still walked away hungry and with a bill of £133. What we received wasn’t worth anywhere near that, let alone if we had paid for our mains.

The chef knows something is wrong, and the staff do too. Whoever owns this place really needs to take a look at what’s going on here. 4.5 stars on google must be an inside job, you’ll get a more satisfying meal at mc Donald’s.

Worst food in Leamington. Avoid at all costs.

I’m sorry to have to leave this review, but it’s genuinely really really awful and I regret giving this place a go when there are so many fabulous restaurants in Leamington. It takes a lot for me to leave a review (good or bad) and I’ve been thinking about how bad it was every day...

Any restaurant experience can be broadly summed up with five criteria: the decor, the atmosphere, the food, the staff, and in certain situations, the prices. Unfortunately, there was a sixth one for us: getting scammed out of our table by the manager. And it was this that has reduced what would have been a 4/5 star review to 2. To cut to the chase, the food was very good/excellent, well priced, and the staff were efficient and friendly. However... When our group of four arrived we were taken to a very nice top corner table, which was well located. Indeed, one of the best tables in the restaurant. As we were settling down, the manager immediately came over and asked would we be prepared to move tables, as another customer "with walking difficulties" needed a table close to the door. We didn't consider this an unreasonable request and agreed to move. We were assured that the table we were being relocated to was, quote, "Just as nice." It was not. It was located in what is basically a short corridor between the bar and the back seating area, near the gents' toilet and with heavy foot traffic. Indeed, it was the worst table location in the place. There was also a large crowd behind us who were pretty noisy. Just enjoying themselves of course, but there was no such noise at our first table. All this would not have been so bad, if it were not the case that the group who had been allocated our original table were all clearly fit and healthy, and we had been relocated purely out of blatant preferential treatment. In essence, we had been "had" by the manager to give up our table to them. We don't know the reason for this - whether they were regular patrons, or were known to the manager, or as my wife believed were threatening to leave unless they got a better table, but it left a very bitter taste in our mouths. It reminded me of the restaurant scene in Fawlty Towers when Basil asked a family to move tables as, "This is Lord Melbury's table. He always sits at this table when he stays with us." I was going to complain, but as it was my 63rd birthday and my daughter who was with us had arranged the evening, my wife (who incidentally IS registered disabled) convinced me otherwise. As stated previously, the food and staff were very good and having had a great evening up until that point (and after) we were not going to let this put a dampener on the occasion, but that was down to our own high spirits, not because of the restaurant ambience. Advice to the manager: this was a dreadful management decision. In a highly competitive business, your pandering to one group of customers has most certainly lost you another (we eat out at restaurants 4 to 8 times a month). No customer wants to feel "second best" or taken for fools, but unfortunately that is exactly how we felt. We will not...

I think the restaurant will do well, as the food is really tasty; but the service was not up to standard.

We visited the restaurant on Saturday 30th November, a 6pm booking as we had later plans. So the restaurant wasn't too busy.

It seemed to be a challenge for our server to find our booking/allocate us a table; but eventually we were seated.

We ordered our food - though was disappointed the option to add meat to a veggie dish wasn't an option (which you would normally find in other Italian restaurants) but, not a deal breaker.

We ordered cocktails - as the drinks menu showed 2 for £12 cocktails must be the same. No reference to timings or specific days of when this promotion runs. So we ordered our drinks.

The food came & it was delicious. Though there was no offer of parmesan; we had to ask for it. Whilst I had finished my food, the waiter came to clear the table when my friend hadn't finished her meal. She had to say, no I haven't finished yet. Never experienced that in a restaurant before.

We wanted desserts & ordered 2 more cocktails to go with the desserts. This is when it got strange; the waiter said, you do know the 2 for £12 offer isn't running (no, no one had advised us of this) I pointed out that it's not stated anywhere in the menu about times/days where this promotion runs - therefore it's false advertising. The waiter just said "it's what I've been told to say by the manager". So we went ahead & ordered 2 different cocktails.

Our desserts were brought out by another waiter; we spoke to him about it & you could tell how frustrated he was by it. It's not difficult to reprint a menu, or add in timings when the promotion runs. But it turns out, the promotion is run on manager's discretion. I.e. if the restaurant is too busy, he will stop the promotion. If you're too busy to keep up with demands, remove the promotion. Or add it in for quieter times. Don't just do it when it pleases you.

When the bill came; we did get 2 for £12 on the 1st drinks & then not for the other 2 (as we ordered different ones) I wonder if we would get the promotion if we had ordered the same? It was totally bizarre!!!

To summarise; food was great. Service was...