Tavern & Grocery — Restaurant in Charlottesville

I came here with my sisters to start baby sister's bachelorette weekend. I made reservations on OpenTable quite easily for 8pm. After a long drive to Cville, we easily found parking and headed inside to a cozy looking space.

We got seated at our table and given menus, but the waitress made a point to say that were short of a drink & cocktail menu. Odd, but okay. After looking at the menu, I was ready to order their house fries with garlic aioli & spicy ketchup. There was a wait to get a waiter to the table. A waiter appears eventually and I put in my order as well as remind him that we needed a drink menu. The drink menu appears and after some interpretation of the faded menu, I order the Ultraviolet.

As we wait for the drinks, we noticed more people come in to either side of us. It feels like they are getting service a lot quicker than we are, but we just brush it off. A different waiter appears to serve our fries and takes our entree orders. We also remind them that we're still waiting for our drinks. It's not til around 8:45pm that we get the drinks we order and my water glass has long been empty. Whatever, I finally have alcohol and it's a decent cocktail. Unfortunately, my big sister had ordered a Sprite and we had to remind the staff that we were waiting on her drink still.

More waiting for our entrees and I almost finish my entire alcoholic beverage during this wait. A different waiter appears to deliver my entree and baby sister's entree. Right when she gets to the table, she spectacularly drops my sister's plate of food on the ground just missing my other sister's seat. At this point, we are dumbstruck with how the night is going. It's been a long wait and now there's more waiting to refire my sister's food. Big sister gets her order of pork chop and she cuts into it to still see pink. At this point, I flag another waiter down to say the dreaded words "I need to speak to your manager."

Manager Drew appears to ask us how the night is going and my response was that it was horrible with a big laugh because it has been that bad. I was honestly amused at how bad our night was going since it just seemed to be a curious string of bad events. He apologizes profusely saying he has a new staff that needs training and says he hopes to make it up to us the next time. I point out we're from out of town, but he says he'll take care of us to make it right. I also point out that we have had a different waiter to our table the whole night, but we can't figure out who is our actual server. He mentions they do a group effort to take care of tables. Some effort there...

So we all get to our entrees... I ordered the scallops - my plate only had 3 scallops and my plate was not hot. I did enjoy the flavors of everything presented, but it most definitely would have been enjoyable served hot. At this point, I don't even want to point out another fault in this disastrous night. Baby sister ordered the snapper which was decent. The winning dish of the night was big sister's pork chop meal, but mainly because it was hot. We finish our meal and a lady comes by the table to ask us how it's going. My table laughs because it has been the most terrible dining experience to date for any of us. We relay this the lady who turns out to be the owner. She is genuinely shocked by our poor experience, but what resonated with the entire table was that we seemed to be the "anomaly" in terms of dining experience tonight. Okay. She apologizes as well and it felt genuine, but further thoughts on the night make me question it.

Overall, we got there at 8pm only to wait close to an hour for drinks. Food was dropped and undercooked. My water glass was left empty twice. The manager did comp us some drinks and gave us a discount on food, but our impressions were so bad that I feel like my reputation on recommending a place to eat took a ding that night. Also, if I have to address a manager on service - I personally as a manager would make sure to attend to them to make sure there are no further missteps in their experience. Bottom line:...

My husband and I had reservations for Wednesday evening at 7:30PM to try out this restaurant for the first time and to celebrate a date night. We arrived on time and were seated promptly. When the hostess seated us she immediately asked what other drinks she could bring us. We hadn’t had a chance to look at the menu and there wasn’t a wine list available. So, we said we needed a second to look because we weren’t familiar with the cocktails and had only just sat down about 10 seconds prior. She went to get a wine menu and when she returned she said our server would be by to get our orders. About 15 minutes later they sent over a gentleman who said he was ready to take our food order. We expressed that we had some questions about the menu and food recommendations and he said it was a “Restaurant Week” fixed menu - fine, but this was the first we had heard of this. We asked if it would be ok if we put in a drink order instead and now that we more understanding of the menu and food suggestions we would need a minute to make our decisions. The gentleman said he could only take our food order and our server would take our drink order. My husband and I were so confused as to why he couldn’t accept a drink order and at this point and still had no clue who was providing our service for the evening. Meanwhile, I see other couples who were seated after us having their orders taken and drinks brought to them. At this point it was after 7:50PM and we still weren’t able to place a beverage order and hadn’t met our server for the evening. We have never gotten up and walked out of a restaurant, but we did that evening after over 25 minutes of little to no service.

I’m unsure if this lack of service and disorganization was because of it being a Restaurant Week event, but it would have also been nice to know when making the reservation that they would be running a different menu and things would be different for that evening. Likely we would have just chosen to come a different evening, but again this wasn’t communicated to us at any point. We are unsure if we will return, but may try out the Lost Saint downstairs to see if the experience is better than what we...

Update 11/6/23 - Had reservations (Family Weekend) and once again disappointed with the service, but this time it was universal, not just the beverages. No one at the host station for 5-10 minutes. When the host finally showed up, told we'd have to wait for our table for another 5-10 minutes (only a few tables appeared to be occupied). After being seated, waited and waited. Tried making eye contact with the one person who appeared to be waitstaff but she avoided looking at us, just shuffled on by. Finally got water from the host. Waited and waited to order. Host took order (along with chit chatting with the guitarist, seemed to be doing multiple duties). Beverages finally came out and minutes later our food order (food was good but grits were cold). Then when it was time to leave, waited and waited to get the bill. We were not the only ones in this predicament. 4 entrees (20-22), a side a fries, 1 beer and 1 Bellini for 140. I couldn't tell if they put in the gratuity. We wanted to pay cash and because we didn't want to wait any longer for change, left a pretty hefty tip. Hope it was split with the guitarist, as his playing was lovely. Service was slow the last time we were here, but food was better, thus higher rating earlier. This time service negated the building's charm and the music. Just doesn't seem like they care all that much for the diners, as if you're lucky to eat there. Won't be back.

Original review (Oct. 2022): Delicious brunch, best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had and wonderful Spanish guitarist playing during our meal. The only reason I’m not giving it a 5 is because beverage service was incredibly slow. Our wait person appeared to be stuck not only waiting tables but also hostess and answering calls to the business, so not her fault. The bartender seemed to focus all of his attention on the one woman sitting at the bar versus looking out for the waitstaff. Lobster rolls and pork belly & grits were consumed and absolutely perfect. Love the interior and the music was much appreciated. Will definitely...