Taverna — Restaurant in Austin

This was one of the most horrible dining experiences I have had in years. We had a reservation for early dinner and we were excited when we took our seats. First off, their were employees camped out at a large table in the dining room loud and showing each other videos on their phones during service. Not to mention there was one employee vaping INSIDE the dining room and trying to hide it. We kept hearing dinging sounds in the background which later proved our suspicions to be microwaves.

We ordered our drinks and appetizers and were asked if we wanted to just get our entree orders in, assuming they would take a while. Barely a minute or two after we got our appetizers our main entrees came out. Our server had to apologize because he did not expect them to come out so quickly. Again, this was obviously because they had to be microwaved right away and served.

I had an appetizer that had fried calamari that seemed to be old and cold. The calamari was so rubbery that I could not even chew it and not even coated in fresh batter like it was fried that day. I am not sure how many days it had been there. This also goes with the eggplant Parmesan which could have definitely been days old as it was mushy and obviously just cut out of a pan and thrown in the microwave. I don't know why this is called eggplant Parmesan as there is no cheese or breading, just mushy, congealed eggplant with no sauce. This dish also gave my partner extreme food poisoning. I had the Salsiccia and it was completely inedible. I don't know if it was off or what.

There were two managers on duty. I was kind of surprised when one manager awkwardly came over when we were at the end waiting for the check and asked how everything was when it was apparent I had a full plate and mostly full appetizer and not putting two and two together that this food was garbage. All in all, save your money and don't go to this place. The food is atrocious and with these prices you're better off getting food poisoning at...

We are regulars at Taverna restaurant in the Domain. We will not be dining here again for sometime for the following reasons.

Despite having reserved a high top table earlier in the day, we did not receive the said table when we arrived. The service from our waiter was extremely subpar. It took over 40 minutes for our food to arrive after ordering. We came in very hungry so this made the mood extremely worse. On top of this we asked for bread, which we were excited to have all night, and the waiter did not even acknowledge the fact we never received it. It was never mentioned or explained to us why.

On top of this our water was never refilled during a pretty hot night and the waiter took my girlfriends drink before she was finished drinking it, he had already touched the cup by that point we were totally over the experience. I asked for the check early and it took the waiter over 20 minutes to pick up my card to pay. We have things we wanted to do, this was extremely frustrating. Other diners around us were complaining about the lack of attention they were given on the outside right side. For what we pay and tip to dine here, it’s unacceptable service to be given, especially when you are trying to treat someone you love.

I don’t have the best patience, but I was getting extremely frustrated with lack of care an attention to not only ours but others table due to all the above reasons.

Please do something about your wait service, the food was great, but it doesn’t mean anything if you have to wait 45 minutes and undergo all these irritating experiences when you are trying to have a nice night out. Especially for a place such as Taverna which is usually known for its good service and good food, it should...

Service was terrible. We HAD TO ASK for everything from utensils, napkins, parmesan cheese, chilli flakes.. standard stuff in any Italian restaurant. We were handed out utensils from a tray, they werent even rolled in a napkin (pointed part facing us!). Not even any kind of bread as starters for our very long wait. No olive oil dip.We told them when we reserved for 7 people, it was our joint 40th wedding anniversary, 40th bday of my daughter, and bday ( next day) of her boyfriend--- but we got NOTHING SPECIAL . No acknowledgement, no greeting, no "free" dessert which is standard in supposedly higher-end restaurants. We were all very patient, we just wanted better service. It was busy, but not THAT busy to not even have utensils ready! It was a Tuesday night, not even a busy Friday or Saturday night. When we asked for parmesan cheese, a lady came to our table to grate the cheese onto my husband's pasta--- but she didn't even BOTHER to look at the other person in our table that also already got his pasta to ask if he wanted some. If I sound like I'm whining, it's because we got really shoddy service from everyone. We were excited for a 3-reason celebration, but we got a terrible disappointment instead, especially since we had 2 kids too. Suffice it to say, we will not patronize this place again. We tried this place coz of the ambience, but we were SORELY DISAPPOINTED. Food taste and portion was also not worth our agony. Yet, all seven of us were very patient, understanding, and kind to our servers, despite all these. None of us showed rudeness nor frustration--- to be kind. We all left the place feeling...