Tavernonna — Restaurant in Kansas City

I took my mom to the "Nonna's Thanksgiving" meal at Tavernonna. We had never been there so I anxiously made our reservations. The online information said that it would be $30 per person. However, when we arrived it was $49 per person. I wasn't overly concerned about this though and simply looked forward to their chef inspired delicacies. We were quickly seated and soon our waiter appeared. He was a surly fellow, and sadly his demeanor only got worse, as he served each course of our meal. It's not like we asked him for much, but instead he simply seemed angry, that he had to be working. The food from start to finish was by far the biggest disappointment. It was paltry, lacked flavor, and less than impressive. Some of the dishes did not even seem heated to the proper temperature. If this dinner was truly chef inspired, it was clearly created, by an uninspired chef. When it was all over, I had been charged $40 more than expected, served with an attitude, and presented with a meal that any grocery store kitchen could have easily prepared. I wouldn't go back to Tavernonna, and after reading this, I hope you choose not to patronize their establishment either.

(Follow- up 1/17/20) I received, an interesting email from Google this week, regarding my Tavernonna review. The email congratulated me, on generating 1061 views, since the day the review was posted. I have never revisited my comments after that day, but with that many views, I wanted to see how Tavernonna management responded to my concerns. So, this morning I looked up my review, and was dumbfounded. Tavernonna management made no attempt to respond to my post. At that point, I understood why Thanksgiving had been such a debacle, and it can be summed up with one simple word ,"Details."

All they needed to do was plan better, execute, and ask every customer for their feedback or simply put, pay attention to the details. Had they done that their Thanksgiving meal could have been a success. However, if they cannot even take the time to respond to a customer review, please do your family a favor, and spend your hard earned money. at a restaurant that...

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Google does not allow 1/2 star ratings 3.5 out of 5 stars

Atmosphere: Easily date-worthy as the ceilings are high and tables separated with large panels of glass, keeping the sound down and the light warm yet dim and moody. The building faces mainly large high rises so the view is not spectacular. A downfall that we felt noteworthy was that the passing of foot traffic seemed to be interested enough to stop and look in the glass. It made us feel at times like we were on display. The restaurant was very clean and elegant with a simple decor that made it feel more inviting as if you were in a nicer establishment. The waitress was amazing. She made perfect suggestions and took the time to speak to us about the food that we had not experienced before.

Food: The dishes were all large enough to share, yet small enough if you were hungry to easily feed one. The noodles were cooked to absolute perfection. We enjoy a firm or al dente noodle. As there is a thin window of time before a noodle is a mush and al dente our hats are off to the chefs. Our salad was extremely fresh almost off the plant fresh. The arugula blend with goat cheese and mandarin oranges blended together to create one of the best salads that we have ever had. Did you know that fennel was something you could eat? We had no earthly idea what we were even eating at the time and had to ask the waitress for help. Our dessert was not the most amazing dish we had experienced before, but I feel like there is a limited amount of Italian desserts to chose from. Maybe we need to research some epic Italian dessert locations.

Overall, we believe that Kansas City has a limited diversity in the Italian restaurant venue. Tavernonna is a great addition to the Kansas City Downtown area and we will be exploring more with the dishes...

Before I go complaining, I first want to say that our server (Larry) at Tavernonna was first class. He was helpful and eager to work around the challenges he faced to make our dinner pleasant.

Now, about those challenges: Many items on the menu were not available--the drink my sister wanted to order, for example, and a simple cup of decaf coffee. Larry provided our decaf drinker with a decaf cappuccino instead, but was unable to find a properly sized cup for it, so it looked like a tiny serving in a huge cup.

As for the food, all four in our party agreed it was not what we expected for the price. None of us were interested in taking home our leftovers-- pasta, soup, or salad. The fresh pickled vegetables on the roasted Romaine salad were tasty, but couldn't save the overall dish from being bland and mushy. The smoked carrot soup was not smoky at all, but was edible, albeit with a monotone of sweetness that really needed something for contrast. I didn't try any of the pasta dishes my companions ordered, but they all agreed that they were mediocre at best and that the meatballs were especially disappointing.

I would like to think we simply experienced a bad night at Tavernonna and it's certainly possible that the food wasn't to our taste, but would please others. Nonetheless, I don't...