Tavern Blue — Restaurant in Coralville

We usually always like Tavern Blue and they usually always have good food, but this time around was a miss. We went specifically for the pizza, thought we would give it a shot. Would not get the pizza again. I love a good wood fired pizza, and they have a good crust, but that is basically all you tasted. The ratio of toppings to crust is unbalanced. I got the chicken alfredo pizza. The alfredo is a super thin, almost milk like, consistency which easily evaporated when cooked so you really only had an oil base. The amount of toppings only covered the most inward section on the pizza, leaving a good amount of plain crust on the outside. not a lot of cheese. Also tried the seafood pizza, which had the same issue as far as flavor and toppings and topping to crust ratio. Partner didnt like how squishy the crab was, but i thought it was ok. I was disappointed in my pizza to say the least. Partner agreed he wouldnt get the pizza here again. The rest of the food was great though. Just not a fan at all of the pizza, and we love pizza. Service was fantastic. Love the new specials they are doing every day of the week! I'm giving 4 stars because we really like Tavern Blue, and the service was good! If based on pizza alone, I would give this a 2. Update: Went for their lunch buffet. $15 all you can eat. They have a really nice salad bar! I would maybe add things like cottage cheese or pasta salad or some things like that, but all in all was happy. Then came the pasta. When I got there (about 1:15), there was lasagna and was starting to turn old, and something else that they ran out of. The lasagna was ok. Basic noodles, layer of meat and sauce, layer of noodles, layer of meat and sauce, cheese. Not sure what it was that they ran out of next to it. Next dish was speghetti and meat sauce. I passed, but my dad said it was good. Next was fried chicken that was old n starting to burn, and fries. I passed on this also. Next was pizza. Many types of pizza, however, most of the ones I would go for were old and did not look appetizing. There were hard old breadsticks at the end, and then cookies. I went back up for seconds, and got the chicken alfredo. This was good! And they had changed out the old pizza for fresher pizza, so I grabbed a slice of the white pizza. Had better flavor and the crust was good, but I really think they need to add more toppings as the toppings are over powered by the crust. My opinion hasn't changed on that end. I would be back, but I'd be back earlier when the food was fresh. Also, it was very dimly lit. I feel there needs to be a bit more light. Love the fact that they carry Pepsi products. Visit 3: Went for the 7/4 buffet. Arrived: 1240pm. Sat right away. And we sat, n we sat, n we sat. the table next to us sat after us, n was served right away. Finally, our server arrived at 1253. Order placed: 1 beer, 1 mai tai, 1 sprite, 2 h20, 1 kids grilled chz, 2 adult buffets. Partners beer dropped 10 min. H2o n sprite dropped off after about 3 min. After abt 20 min I flagged down manager to ask where my daughters meal was. they made it on the fly. I expressed my concern on how long it took to get her meal, was given an apology, and then the manager continued to talk about their viewing party and their small game room.... complete disregard to the fact that it took 25 min for my daughter to get a grilled cheese. we needed refills, I still hadn't gotten my mai tai, n another server walking by over heard me saying we really needed refills. He stopped to offer to grab refills. I told him to tell our server that I did NOT want my drink since we never saw her after she dropped off our 1st drinks. I went back to the buffet for my last plate. Came back n there was my mai tai that I did not want. Our server finally came to check in n I told her it took 40 min to get my cocktail. She asked me to try my drink since she had to make it herself. I took a sip to please her, never drank the rest, and was still charged $9. My partneR received a free 2nd beer that he never asked for, for "his service". WILL...

This place has so much potential but we always have issues when we go here. Each of the handful of experiences I've had here has been what you would expect if they had just opened up but they've been open for quite a while now. I'm not sure if it's because they have a high turnover of employees or if they need to implement better training practices but it's confusing to not have any idea what to expect each time. One minor example is their silverware. The 1st time we were given a spoon, fork & knife when we were seated. Pizza is what we ordered so we didn't need any of them. The next time, we got the same silverware but after we ordered, still didn't need them. 3rd time we were sat with just a knife & fork, etc, etc. This last time we were seated with only forks but about 10 more than there were people in our group & we had to ask repeatedly for knives that we obviously would need for our food. Almost every time we've been here, we've had an issue with something being cooked incorrectly & almost all of the pizzas have looked half hazardously thrown together. Some with a very small clump of ingredients in the center and not even cheese around the outer 2" (the pepperoni pizzas seemed to fare better than the rest as far as that goes, fyi). At least twice we were randomly overcharged. As you can see in the picture of our receipt from our most recent visit, there was a $3 up charge to add protein to a salad that was listed as only $2 on the menu! The time before that they charged us $3 more for the same pizza we got this time! Last time we ordered a Taco Pizza & it didn't come with the chips, tomatoes or taco sauce that it was supposed to. This time we ordered 2 Salads & 2 Pizzas (1 Pepperoni & 1 Supreme). They were all ok. But they easily could have been really good with a few tweaks. I mean they have a really nice Pizza Oven so it shouldn't be too hard but toppings on the pizza just shouldn't be this sporadic & inconsistent after being open over a year. Same with the service. Our server barely checked on us & forgot to bring us stuff (like more than one drink for our entire table) numerous times despite the place being dead. There is such unique decor & so many cool games to play here (Miniature Golf, Jenga, Foosball, Darts, Connect 4, Checkers, Chess, Giant Chalkboard, etc). I just wish they could get it together so I could eat here & enjoy it instead of just being disappointed again. I haven't tried their alcoholic drinks but it seems like it would be a cool place to have a couple with friends...also that's harder to mess that up. At this point I can only recommend sticking to that & a...

My family tried this place for our first time tonight. Myself, husband, and 11 year old daughter. We sat at the bar to order drinks and look over the menu as we were mostly there to try the mini golf. Our bar tender was friendly and awesome. This, however, is where the compliments end. The mini golf area was out of control. I could see it was a pit for basically parents to leave children from the ages of 3 to 12 un attended. Children were climbing all over the boats as we were trying to golf that certain area. Many times, a random kid would come pick our balls up. Kids throwing sand and kids shoving people who are actually trying to play the game just so they can climb on the boats and do God knows what. We rarely get time away together as a family, and this experience made me regret to no end choosing this place! There absolutely needs to be some sort of control by staff. It's super obvious the parents can't do it. After about 15 minutes, we skipped most of the holes because of how terrible it was! We then decided to get my 11 year old a snack before we headed out. She ordered the pretzels, and they arrived burnt.... not an amazing ending to our night either. I don't recommend coming here unless you wish to spend money to get a massive migraine. Also, if you're an irresponsible parent reading this, please note this is not chucky cheese. Please also note EVERYONE needs to have respect for ALL other PAYING customers. There's a huge difference between children having fun and children with no supervision left to be rowdy and disrespectful to others. I'd also like to point out the swinging benches should not be used for a contest to see who can smash into each other the hardest. Please let your children do this in your own home with furniture...