Tavern on State — Restaurant in New Haven

Way too much hype, here. We came here based on both personal and public reviews of how strong of a local player this restaurant has become. Unfortunately, I was serially disappointed. The best part of the meal was definitely the appetizers - we had the beet salad was artistic but also tasty. The octopus - one of their signature dishes - was almost as good but had a bit of a mealy texture to the meat that I wasn't sure to make of (questionable meat quality was an ongoing theme). Even though we had taken our server's suggestion and placed the entire order upfront "to help with timing" there was an enormous gap between appetizers and mains. Even after the appetizers were cleared, we had about a 30 minute wait before the mains came. When they finally came, there was very little acknowledgement from the staff of the wait and notably, my dining partner's meal was piping hot and mine was table warm at best. The pork chop was flavorful but full of gristle to a level that I have not previously seen and a 1/4 of the cut was left spit out on my plate. The turbot also rated highly but the server was basically overcooked flounder with a massive amount of caper-based crusting that overpowered any other flavors in the meal. In addition to the semi unpleasant strength of the capers, it also excessively salted the dish. Speaking of salt, the salted caramel pie dessert was also so salty that the chocolate and caramel sweetness were entirely eclipsed - it's rare that I leave a dessert uneaten and we left 2/3 of it on the plate. Looking back over the entire meal, nearly everything was at least salty and half of the dishes were so salty to not be enjoyable. The wait staff was friendly but at such an expensive restaurant they should have picked up on the fact that one entree was cold and dessert went uneaten - but instead they largely ignored the obvious missteps.

A final point that soured the meal, is that the restaurants busy-ness has clearly gone to its head. When you book a reservation, you have to hold it with a credit card that warns you will be charged if you cancel. Fine..I get that. But even after they had my credit card and potential cancellation fee, they proceeded to send me multiple reservation text reminders that required a response for my reservation to be held. Finally, as we're pulling up to the restaurant I get another text that warns me that there is a table time limit that is being enforced - which now post-meal is laughable since the only thing that threatened our amount of table time was that we spent more time waiting for meal between appetizer and entree than the entire time we spent eating.

Final note. I did offer my feedback directly to the restaurant through their (again text message) solicited request where I described the above. That was five days ago...did not get any kind of reply. I realize it's the holidays and the restaurant business is tough these days, but when you're charging what this place charges in New Haven and listing on the NY Times, the...

An overall solid recommendation (4 stars), but we decided to round up to 5 for the sake of fact the restaurant wowed us with food inventiveness. Food was largely excellent (5 stars) though the service was average. Not bad, by any means, just not at the same quality as the food. (3.5 stars). $125 for 2 people with several share/appetizer plates, one entree, and a cocktail each.

Many dishes and cocktails with inventive ingredients and complex taste profiles. For example, we ordered a beef tartar share plate, which was made and served completely unexpected as a mix with several tangy flavors and a cream like mix.(probably from the grana padano). Almost like a "beef salad" mix much like you'd see a lobster or crab salad mix. Tasty and very interesting, and not what we expected. Recommend adding a few more bread slices though as the 4 included run out before you've gone through 1/3 of the dish.

A weak dish was the heirloom melon plate. Whether the melons have a heritage past wasn't that evident as it was several half slices of what looked and tasted like two kinds of melon. The seasoning sprinkled on them (Aleppo pepper spice) helped add interest where the runny ricotta left the dish a bit short.

A medium dish was our entree, the bone-in pork chop. Nice and salty, and the cut of meat was tender. I might suggest searing it to add some texture and crunch.

A strong dish was the scallops. What first interested us is the use of a peach kosho (a variation of a Japanese chili paste more often made with yuzu) that provided a strong tangy appeal. The scallops are served as thin slices, which was actually a good idea so you could prolong the plate as a share. Cumulatively, there's probably about two scallops worth of slices on the plate.

It seems the restaurant has a daily rotating menu based on fact today's date was written on the menu (digital through their website), but we weren't sure.

Cocktails are excellent and equally complex with ingredients. For $14 you should certainly try one or three. They also supplied a number of...

What an absolute hidden gem. My beau and I visited last night and had a pretty stellar evening all around. The atmosphere is wonderful and cozy. We were lucky it was a beautiful night and with the door open, it was just perfect. (I would suggest dressing in layers. Warm nights are probably very hot inside!)

To the food! We sampled all across the menu. We shared half a dozen oysters which were just the right amount of spicy and bright. Consistency was perfect and they were beautifully cleaned. The burrata came after with honeycomb and it did not disappoint. As goes with any place, I always wish they gave you more bread but that's just being nit picky lol.

For our enrtrees we had the rabbit which was spectacular. The sauce mixed with the farrow was earthy and rich. The scallop crudo was next and that was superb. The little peppercorns and dill were all beautifully complimented against the thinly shaved scallops. Then for dessert we had caramel chocolate pie on what can only be described as an oreo crust and my God was that good. Perfect balance of the two flavors and the consistency of the caramel was pure heaven. I could have easily eaten another slice without hesitation.

The cocktail were fantastic. The Violette hour, I believe it was called, was divine. It was a lemon and lavender drink that tasted like a Creamsicle with a lemon kick.

They seemed a little overwhelmed when we arrived, but the food all came out hot and delicious. Evening took about 2 hours start to finish which we were fine with. Service was perfectly spot on and all the staff members seemed genuinely happy about working there which says a lot about management. Total bill was $150 with tip for 3 alcoholic drink, 2 apps, 2 entrees and dessert and absolutely worth every penny.

I cannot recommend this place enough. If you're lucky enough to snag a reservation here, go. You won't be...