Taverna Rustic Italian Wilmington — Restaurant in Bethel Township

UPDATE Still didn’t receive the refund that the manager promised my friend I would receive, for their mistake and my treatment. Not that I’m surprised! Definitely not true to their word here. It’s been over a month and I’ve checked my statement several times. The manager assured my friend they were rectifying this situation and they had meetings and were receiving training because of this and other situations. Word of advice, the training isn’t working. I will be passing this along. Sad.

Horrible experience at this location. I’ve been to the Newark restaurant and never had a bad experience, this place was the total opposite. A friend called in our order and I was supposed to pick it up on the way to her house. Took about ten minutes for someone to acknowledge me. When they finally did, I asked for my takeout order. The girl tells me they don’t have an order under my name. I say my friend ordered 45 minutes ago. Sorry, we don’t have it. I call my friend who assures me she called it in. She calls the manager and after making excuses, he says well there wasn’t a last name and so many different orders with this name so we got confused. Huh?? The girl said we don’t have any orders, other than this guy. So where were all the others with the same name as me? And he knew who my friend was, so you don’t check to see what the order is or follow up if you’re confused? Made no sense. My friend said the girl, Molly or Holly admitted they never placed the order when she called. The manager says I’ll go out and take care of this with your friend (my friend was on the phone while I waited at the bar) he never came out to me. Then the girl behind the bar threw the bill at me and said do you want to take care of this now? So I gave her my card, it fell inside the glass/ice case. She was looking all over for it. Proceeded to empty the whole case to retrieve it, huffing and puffing. The manager (I assume) finally brings it out to me after I ask another employee about my meal. I waited an additional 45 minutes when the order was placed almost 2 hours prior. I am kicking myself that I just didn’t leave before paying. The tiny 2 meal dinner certainly wasn’t worth the aggravation and the $60! I will never go back to this establishment. Very unprofessional and the staff was not friendly. Not one smile among the group. And when the manager came out, he handed it to me and when I started to explain the mess I endured, he said yeah I know what happened. A last name wasn’t given and we had a lot of call in orders with your name. That’s funny because I was standing there for 45 minutes and not another soul came in for an order. And that excuse made no sense whatsoever. The girl told me there were no orders. Don’t lie about it. Own your mistake, someone dropped the ball. Don’t be rude. Fix the situation. Admit you messed up. Don’t go here if you want a nice meal and a professional atmosphere. You will find neither. The manager proceeds to hand me my stuff and said hope you enjoy and walks away. Wow. Never again. I should have told him to keep it and give me...

Surprisingly delicious food, and I mean that in all the best ways possible. The decor and staff uniforms lead one to the idea that the food is going to be very 'gastropub-like' in that it will be good and filling, but unremarkable and indistinguishable from food at other nearby places. This isn't the case. We started with the fried calamari and the veal meatballs with creamy polenta. The calamari was crispy and light, with the perfect amount of sauce. And that sauce, while having just a hint of spiciness, had a great touch of sweetness in the finish. The meatballs were fantastic. Brown crust, hot to the center with a small amount of red sauce over creamy polenta. The polenta was thinner than most places make it, almost like cream of wheat in consistency, but it was fantastic. Swiping a piece of meatball into the polenta was a great combination of savory and sweet. For dinner, my wife had the cheese tortellini and I had the rigatoni and sausage. The portions were VERY generous, and the food was delicious. The sauce on her meal was completely different on her entrée vs mine. What I said about gastropub-like atmosphere made this a surprise where a typical place would have the same "base" across dishes and add cream, or peppers, or cheese to change it from dish to dish. Not the case here and that made all the difference. Hers was the perfect spicy Calabrian that combined flawlessly with the cheese in the tortellini, and mine was a simple crushed tomato sauce that allowed the seasoning in the sausage to come through in each bite. We both had full bellies and 2 large to-go boxes filled with leftovers. Unfortunately we had no room for dessert, but this experience has me wanting to go back and try something else - maybe the cacio e pepe since I LOVE old-world italian recipes like that - but leaving room for dessert. For the service level we received and the quality of our meals, the price point made it all the more enjoyable. We ended up buying a gift card for my parents since we've been to a couple other places within the restaurant group and been equally as happy with...

Dinner with Bestie. Unfortunately I was not impressed with the food, but as always the company was amazing! Not sure I’d go back, which is disappointing given bc its other platinum dining locations are some of my favorites such as Eclipse and Capers and Lemons. Had high hopes here.

Atmosphere ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️- was beautiful and comfortable and clean.

Waitress ⭐️⭐️⭐️- was attentive overall, however when she asked how the food was and I told her my noodles were undercooked and sauce was soupy she gave a look then walked away. She literally said nothing and did nothing. Quite disappointing. I liked that they bagged your left overs, but not that they just hand you a container with no carry bag. (Cringe)

FOOD ⭐️⭐️⭐️Bread with dipping oil - bread Was soft (not warm)oil was tasty (Complimentary) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ FRIED MOZZARELLA Delish and crispy in a very good marinara with fresh parm on top (love fresh) ⭐️⭐️ SHELLS AURORA organic chicken tossed with spinach in Taverna tomato-cream sauce, shell pasta sauce lacked flavor and was soupy, shells were way too undercooked, chicken was overcooked and dry, counted about 5 leaves of spinach… ehhh. Given other revered pictures mine was deff off. ⭐️GNOCCHI GENOVESE basil pesto, parmigiano Gnocci was mushy, no density which it should be. Sauce was soupy as well. Jess...