Tavola — Restaurant in Minneapolis

My family from NYC came to visit my wife and me on our wedding anniversary. We are a diverse family of mixed Latino (including Sicilian) and African American descent. I do not write this review lightly, but I believe our primary server at Tavola's is either racist at worst or clueless at best. I do not write this review lightly, but for service this blatantly bad I see little other explanation.

BTW - he can get away with this because they build a 20% tip into your check without your consent...more on that coming up...

Our relatives from NYC decided to try some MN Italian food and set a reservation for 10 here on a quiet Thursday evening. Huge mistake! Our primary server repeatedly failed in the following scenarios:

1. To bring water then refills to the table even after several requests;

2. Bringing my wife chilled dry red table wine in an Italian eatery;

3. Not even offering oil, bread or specials - we had to ask for bread 10 minutes into the meal;

4. Delivering every meal to our table but my African American wife's with no explanation until I forced them to give one (she made the mistake of requesting her sauce on the side and waited nearly 15 minutes longer than the rest of us for it to be done over again);

5. Repeatedly ignoring us throughout the meal, necessitating an older gentleman from the kitchen having to deliver food and drink to our table;

6. Holding our entire table hostage for over a half an hour trying to figure out a 10 person evenly split bill paid for with cash and 3 credit cards. I had to hunt down another employee to get a manager so we could get our cards back. She tried offering my poor wife a measly $20 credit and told us the chef would call to discuss. He didn't.

The food was excellent but under portioned. There is less than no excuse for selling half a chicken for as much as they charge without adding sides as part of an entrée. They however do.

If you like poseur-pretty, lazy servers with attitude like ours was, small plated food with a high cost per ounce and just enough culinary authenticity to sort of qualify as an Italian eatery, please do eat here. If you want anything real Italians pride themselves in when it comes to their cuisine and eatery experience, don't bother. They don't have clue 1. There is a term in Italian that comes to mind: "FUGAZZI!!" If you don't know,...

Please note, some of the one stars are from children, and children shouldn't sit at the bar

This place, certainly as far as the bar was concerned, is GREAT. When a drink list is passed my way, I always ignore it at first and ask about whether the bar has specific alcohols/liqueurs necessary to make the classic cocktails that any well trained bartender will know how to make ie Last Words, Aviations, Mai Tais, etc. Before I had gotten far into my questioning Niel realized I wanted a Last Word and simply asked if that was what I was after. He didn't look at his phone for the build or any of that nonsense either, and was able to make a few other classics with ease. Straw pulls, truly good liquor even on the rail, and quite reasonable pricing;....this place is a MUST for cocktails. The kind of place that knows that Gin is the primary alcohol in a Martini, not vodka because that's a Vodkatini, an entirely different drink (same goes for Gimlets, folks). If you don't understand the classics/history, you can't possibly create a good drink list, which is why I 'start off' the way I do when at a bar/getting cocktails.I can't really speak about their food as my girlfriend and I were just there killing a bit of time and had just eaten, but we will certainly be back soon to check it out!

Now, let me address the children:

To Dr. D and Brian Thornson ( one star reviewers): Brian if you can't 'handle' what's being said at the bar and also can't handle asking for a change of subject...you should NOT sit at the bar. Did you whine about 'locker room' talk during gym class, too? There's a reason that some people chose to sit at the bar, and others at tables....and usually it has something to do with being away from people with sensibilities as fragile as yours. Go get a table next time, or speak up. Don't give a negative review on google cause you can't hack where you chose to sit.

Dr. D's post can completely be ignored because he thinks it's appropriate to just throw some random amount of money down without knowing if he's even 'settled'. Under no circumstances, whether they be backed up and busy or otherwise, is that Ok......it could have been the worst service he's ever had, if you're not sure if you've settled up and you still leave that's called theft so I'll advise folks not to heed either of...

Recently visited Tavola for the first time and I was overall impressed with the delicious food! I was not expecting much based on the reviews but I was pleasantly surprised.

Nestled inside the Elliot Park Hotel, the ambiance was beautiful with an open concept and beautiful light fixtures. It was moody with dark walls and very modern. I loved it! Pro tip - enter through the Elliot Park Hotel entrance, since the Tavola entrance is locked. I learned that the hard way! ;)

We had a group of about 8 including kids. Everyone loved what they got! For an appetizer, we got the burrata and fries. The burrata was decadent with plenty of buttered focaccia bread slices. The fries were perfectly crispy and the aioli that it came with was divine.

Most of us ordered the Ratolo - consisting of ricotta, spinach, and a sweet & spicy tomato agro dolce sauce. It was so delicious and better than expected. I loved the side salad and dressing as well. Overall a 10/10 meal. I also got the berry lemonade which was amazing! One of our friends ordered the mushroom pappardelle which was equally delicious. I appreciated how there were vegetarian options on the menu.

We were here celebrating a couple friends' birthdays and the server surprised us with slices of a rich chocolate mousse cake. It was melt-in-your-mouth good!

The reason I docked a star is because service was incredibly slow. It took a while for our server to take our orders. Additionally, our kids were starting to get fussy since it was getting late with bringing the checks. The restaurant seemed relatively empty so I wasn't sure if it was a staffing issue or otherwise. However, our waiter was incredibly friendly and the food was amazing so it was overall a...