Davani's — Restaurant in Greenville

My husband and I had a terrible dining experience at Davani’s yesterday evening. I reserved this restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary, and had requested bar seating. Things started out fine. The atmosphere was pleasant, the lighting was appropriately dim, and the ambient music was nice. The bartender (also pleasant) opened our bottle of wine and brought us bread and our fresh mozzarella and tomato appetizer. The mozzarella was dense and bland. The tomato was pale and also lacking in flavor.

Little did I know things were about to get worse. A group of bar patrons came in and sat in the two seats next to us, with the other members of their group standing. Minutes later, the hostess came over and asked if we could move down a couple of seats. This has happened to us at other establishments (why do we look like the “move down” couple? I have no idea), and it is FRANKLY a bad restaurant practice to ask customers to do this. We may have been willing to move if we’d just sat down, but we had our whole spread of wine, bread and appetizer before us. I looked at the hostess and said, in dismay, “But it’s our anniversary.” She wished us a happy anniversary and went on her way.

Shortly afterward, one of the men in the group next to us started complaining LOUDLY about how we wouldn’t move down. Even though the hostess had brought him a chair, he was relentless in his loud complaints. When our food arrived, the harassment from the adjacent patron had gotten so bad we lost our appetites. I approached the hostess about the problem and she offered to move us to a table. I told her we didn’t want a table. We had RESERVED this restaurant for bar seating, it was our anniversary, and we had gotten there first. She offered nothing else, when she should have AT LEAST asked the obnoxious patron to please lower his voice. The hostess was completely unhelpful.

By then our dinner experience was ruined. I had two bites of my sea bass (it was tough and not at all the light dish I’d expected) and my husband had perhaps one bite of his scampi and scallops provençal (which he said was mediocre at best). My husband asked for the check and we were charged for EVERYTHING. Even the meals we’d barely touched and the bottle of wine we hadn't been able to enjoy. Even though the bartender and hostess both were aware of the unpleasantness we’d been subjected to.

I would give this restaurant negative stars if I could. Save yourself the trouble and dine at one of the many fine Italian restaurants...

What a pleasant experience. From the classic fine dining atmosphere to the broad selection of enticing cocktails and port and the extensive wine list, everything at Davani's invites you to an enjoyable dining experience. I can be a picky eater and often have trouble finding more than two entrees on a menu that I would enjoy. This menu was made for me. They offered multiple veal selections, duck, lobster tail, lamb, seafood, and pasta among other temptations. The numerous appetizers allowed me to choose among my favorites. Their escargot with puff pastry was so unique, with a cream sauce that was wonderful. I have never had anything like it. All the flavors at this restaurant were awesome. Even the olive oil and spices to dip bread in made me smile. So unique and delicious. We had dinner early and the restaurant started out quiet but as the sound got a little louder it was so joyful and happy with laughing and talking and just a pleasant place to have dinner. This is now one of our new favorites. The service was awesome as we sat by a painting entitled Winter and were served by a waitress named Spring. She was patient with our ordering as it was hard to decide among the many selections. She showed up when we were ready and kept our drink glasses full. We never had to look for her or flag her down. And when I made a last-minute change she patiently accommodated me without a fuss. The desserts again offered a wide selection that I was able to choose from, not having unnecessary nuts or other extras that limit my options. We chose the bread pudding and enjoyed the uniqueness of their homemade version. Overall the meal was wonderful and the whole dining experience just made me smile as it was so enjoyable. And the prices for fine dining food were very reasonable in this economic environment. I highly recommend this restaurant, but please save us a table. Also, it was my first time using the Open Table app to make reservations as available on Davani's website and it was...

Had dinner here with MIL who has lived in GVL for 5 years and had never been to this place even though it's only 5 min from her home. Rave reviews--everything we had was delicious! We have a 6 month old and it isn't the kind of place I'd suggest taking a baby, but she does go everywhere. They parked us in the back of a separate room where the stroller wouldn't be in the way, she wouldn't disturb other diners if there was an unexpected meltdown, and we really appreciated that.

Our server Tyler was excellent. When we couldn't make decisions, he made suggestions. Service never suffered even with us being seated in probably the most remote area of the restaurant.

For apps, we had calamari and oysters Rockefeller-both good. For entrees, we had the Wagyu meatballs, chicken fettuccine Alfredo, and salmon. Husband was not impressed with the meatballs, but fettuccini and salmon were very good! We got tiramisu to go and it was kind of underwhelming--they put whipped cream and sliced strawberries on it (never seen that on tiramisu) and the portion was pretty small.

We spent over $300 including tip. The atmosphere and service made up for the "meh" on some dishes. MIL will definitely return and tell others about Davani's and we hope to visit and try some other things next time...