Tavola Trattoria — Restaurant in Bentonville

My wife and I had an exceptional experience this evening! The food is always outstanding and the service is always great! This evening was a different experience though…. We ordered our food and I ordered my favorite drink from the bar. The waitress (Addison), which also did a fantastic job came back to the table to let me know they didn’t have jalapeños for my drink. At the same time, Josh, the manager on duty came to the table to let me know they didn’t have jalapeños, but he gave me an option!

I manage over 700 plus employees and always tell our teams the options are NOT yes or no when it comes to customer service. The options are either YES or YES with options! Josh gave me the Yes with options answer instead of saying No. They easily could have said we don’t have jalapeños, would you like something different? Instead Josh said Yes, I can make it happen! The option was that I’d have to wait for a few additional minutes while Josh runs to a local store to buy some jalapeños for my drink.

I couldn’t believe what was happening! Josh put his jacket on and literally ran (did not drive) to the store while it was raining to take care of us. Josh created the ultimate customer experience this evening! The smallest gesture goes a long way with customer service. These are the things I have done for years and wondered if this kind of service still exists. Josh did 1000% the right thing and didn’t say No. This experience and post should be shared with every employee and manager to never say No to the customer. It’s either Yes or Yes with options!

Josh went above and beyond and there are many Managers, Waiters and Waitresses that could learn something very valuable from Josh at Tavola Trattoria! Thank You to Josh and Addison for giving my wife and I the experience I haven’t had in a long time! Not to mention, that was the hottest drink I’ve had in a while! LOL…. LOVED IT!

If you like it hot, ask for the Jalapeño Margarita the next time you go to Tavola Trattoria! Be sure to muddle the jalapeños! It’s not on the menu, but Josh knows how to make it right!

For the record, we’ve never had a bad experience here and any waiter or waitress we have had has been great! This location is definitely doing...

Had a really unfortunate experience here for my birthday this winter… I chose to come here with my girlfriend for my birthday dinner because I’ve otherwise had GREAT experiences at Tavola.

Unfortunately, on this visit, several things went wrong. I wouldn’t usually write a review over one bad experience, but the way the supposed “manager” handled it really left a bad taste in my mouth.

For starters, my mom had called ahead and ordered (and paid for) a bottle of Prosecco to be waiting on the table at our reservation… well, that didn’t happen. In fact, if my girlfriend hadn’t know that mom had done that, I wouldn’t have EVER gotten a bottle. Now let’s add to it that the bottle we received wasn’t only the incorrect bottle, but also ~$20 less than the bottle that was bought, paid, and tipped on. So, roughly 20 minutes after being seated, we finally got our incorrect bottle.

The next issue we had that night was with our waitress… she was a nice enough lady, but there was such a significant language barrier that she could not understand my questions about the wine selection or the menu as a whole. Probably not the best choice to wait at a place like that.

That minor complaint aside, my girlfriend called the restaurant a few days later to bring these issues up to the manager that she had spoken to before our night out, and was instead dismissed rather rudely and flippantly by a woman who couldn’t have cared less about her concerns.

It’s really unfortunate to have experiences like this with a place that you love, and like I said before - if it hadn’t been for the rude follow up call that happened with the supposed manager (and I only say it like that because my girlfriend had spoken to a male manager before), I would never be writing this review. But messed up wine service combined with mediocre dinner service and absolutely rude follow up service is TOTALLY beneath the level that Tavola should be at. I chose this place as my birthday dinner for a reason, and now I’m not sure I ever...

We will not be returning to this restaurant, and I do hope that other prospective customers would reconsider. At least until there is new management.

My husband and daughter took me to this restaurant for Mother’s Day this evening, we were very eager to try somewhere new! The aesthetic of the restaurant was very charming and promising upon entrance. We ordered an appetizer and each of us selected a dinner entrée. Our waiter was incredibly professional and very courteous! This waiter/waitress’ service was wonderful.

On the other hand, the complementary bread tasted less than fresh, the appetizer was a poor attempt at a very traditional dish and each of the entrées were regrettable.

But really, what made the dining experience most unsatisfactory was the uncomfortable and aggressive energy radiating off of the manager, Vanessa, who was working within the open space in front of the kitchen. All throughout our time at this restaurant, this manager was belittling the waitresses, waiters, and other support staff by reprimanding them with a tone of condescension that came off more like a tyrant than a respectable leader. At one point during dinner a nicely dressed man, who I can only assume to be other management, did approach Vanessa and ask if she was doing OK- she promptly stated she was fine and did not need any assistance.

This was the kind of organization you walk into and slowly begin to realize few of the employees here actually love their job here. It was incredibly tense and it made dinner quite uncomfortable. I actually felt empathy and sadness for our waiter/waitress. Our waiter/waitress was incredibly professional, again nobody was spoken ill of to us, these were simply very apparent observations we were making from our table. our waiter/waitress was the only aspect of this restaurant that was enjoyable.

We will not be returning to this restaurant, and I do hope that other prospective customers would reconsider. At least until there is...