Tavolino Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Arizona

I had very high hopes for this restaurant and was very excited to try them out, but I left utterly, completely, frustratingly disappointed. Abysmal food, poor service, and a fruit fly infestation. I would not recommend AT ALL.

We made a reservation for 5pm on the Saturday after Christmas to celebrate my hubby's birthday. It was not very busy so we got sat right away. But that's where the positives end. Right away we noticed that they had a fruit fly infestation. We collectively killed 6 throughout the dinner and still had 4-6 more buzzing around the whole meal. As you can probably imagine, it was offputting to have to shoo away a bug from your drink or your food every few minutes. When we told our very "meh" server (who clearly did not want to be there) that we were having an issue, he said that management already knew about it and that "he could not control nature."

Regarding the food, we ordered the beef carpaccio, one of their special appetizers (crab stuffed artichoke), the veal piccata, and the butternut squash raviolis. The carpaccio was a joke - it should have read "large plate of arugula salad with a side of shaved beef and two pieces of parmesan shavings." It was utterly disappointing and unmemorable other than the sheer ridiculous amount of arugula on the plate. If you've had good carpaccio, you know what it should look and taste like. This was nothing. The special appetizer was tasty (and I'll give them that they give you a TON of crab meat), and the only bright spot about the food, though nothing I would recommend or get again. But the veal "medalions" was actually one very long gray iece - more like the length and thickness of a shoe insole. The picata sauce so was overpowering you could even not tell it was veal. And my hubby joked he didn't know he ordered lego bricks with dinner - the "semolina cakes" were huge blocks on the plate and tasteless. My butternut squash ravioli (which i usually LOVE anywhere else) was supposed to come in a brown butter and sage sauce. What I got was limp, grayish lumps in butter water. Nothing had any taste - from the pasta to the sauce. I ate two pieces and made them take the plate away. I don't even remember the last time I hated a meal so much that I had to ask them to take it back.

When we talked to the manager about the meal, she did take off the cost of the ravioli but appeared to not care that the rest of the meal was really no better. So $100 later and we left utterly disappointed. For a restaurant with such high reviews on the north side, we expected really good italian food. This was nothing even remotely good. I'd recommend you go to Olive Garden...

Horrible experience. I can't believe I paid so much to feel so awful. I was accompanied by a good friend and we were seated at a table/banquette adjacent to the bar. Our server was Ryan and he was exceptional. He answered questions and was very cordial and attentive. We were enjoying our entrees and a couple was seated right next to us, although the restaurant was virtually empty! We soldiered through the meal and listened to the other couple's conversation and they listened to ours. The tables were very close together. It was uncomfortable for both tables. We asked Ryan why this happened and he said he didn't know. I asked for the name of the hostess. Afer asking a few times he told me it was Melanie.

We could have asked to be seated elsewhere at that point but did not want to offend the couple seated next to us as they could hear our every word. Eventually they left and feeling relieved, we decided to order dessert, after dinner drinks and lattes.

The tablecloth was changed on the table that the couple next to us vacated, and about five minutes later the hostess attemped to seat a single gentleman there. My dining companion spoke up and said, "This table is saved." He eventually took a seat at the nearly empty bar.

To give some context, there are three tables adjacent to the bar and we were seated at the table on the right. Why not seat the next guests on the table on the left, leaving a bit of space between us? Or anywhere else in the nearly empty restaurant? Tavolino is a fine dining restaurant. When a friend or family member comes to my home, I treat them with respect and go above and beyond to make them comfortable. I expect the same when I am a guest, especially when I am paying for the experience. It's not that we are unfriendly people; we are ok with a communal table if we know that going in.

Please know that I did leave a gratuity for Ryan that was almost equal to amount of the check. He did a great job but was visibly uncomfortable by the situation and this was not fair to him. I felt terrible that he was uncomfortable. They did comp a cocktail and we made sure to give the bartender a gratuity that was more than the cost of the cocktail.

On the way out the gentleman at the bar had unpleasant words with my dining companion. So there were five guests and one team member...

Not terrible but, at best, MEDIOCRE from start to finish. Service is lackluster, slow and the food is nothing special. Tavolino used to be a good italian restaurant which I enjoyed on many occasions in the long ago past, and I wish it still was, but it's not. That was confirmed on my most recent visit last night.

We arrived and were immediately seated, the restaurant was perhaps 40% occupied, and then we waited at least 10 minutes for our waiter to mosey over to our table, when he did we ordered 2 glasses of wine - about 15 minutes later the wine showed up. Geez, here we go again. Someone placed bread and olive oil on the table, the bread was limp, mushy and cold - like it was half-baked and left in the fridge. We ordered 2 appetizers - the Mussels and the octopus with olives & potatoes. They arrived soon after but to our surprise there were no Mussels in the Mussels - just dried out fragments or skeletons of Mussels - there was nothing to eat inside the shells. I'm guessing they were precooked and sitting around for who knows how long and someone stuck them in the microwave and nuked them to death. The squid & potato appetizer was at least edible, but nothing more. A less than encouraging start to our evening at Tavolino. When our waiter finally found the time to drop by we ordered two pasta dishes, Penne alla Boscaiola & Penne ai Funghi. As they cleared the plates of the half eaten appetizers I ordered 2 more glasses of wine. 10 minutes later, still no wine. I found another waiter and ordered the wine again. Another 10 minutes and no wine. Yet another server brought our entrees and asked if we would like another glass of wine. 'Well,Yes we would' and we've ordered it twice from two different waiters and as you can see we still don't have wine. The two pasta dishes were OK but just OK (the kind of preparation and presentation you might expect in tourist trap off 42nd street in NYC). Both pasta dishes were smothered and swimming in sauce and the only mushrooms in the Penne ai Funghi were crimini or plain old white button mushrooms. I couldn't detect a single porcini in the smothered pile on my plate. The veneer, trappings and prices of a good restaurant are still there but the substance is slipping away. Tavolino, much ado...