Savona’s Trattoria & Bar - Poughkeepsie — Restaurant in Town of Poughkeepsie

So wasn't impressed with our first experience a few weeks ago. Service was awful and food was not much better. But we chalked it up to it still being a fairly new place and on top of that everyone still getting the swing of things with changes due to Covid. So we decided tonight to give it another shot. I made reservations for 8pm. Arrived promptly at 8 and was told they were just waiting for our table to clear to seat us. To me it didn't look like any of the tables were near completion but Ok, I'll play along with what seems to be a canned response they give to anyone who would like a table. 5 mins goes by, no one gets up, 10 mins goes by still no open tables. 15 mins and still no one moving. The hostess asks my name again and I tell her, Mark for 8pm reservation and she said sorry we are just waiting on our table to clear to seat us! Ha, how original! At 8:20, that's right, 20 mins after our reservation time we finally told them we were leaving to go eat somewhere else. Hostess apologized and said have a nice night.

It's bad enough you messed up the reservation but then didn't even do anything to salvage the opportunity. It's called service recovery. Mistakes or unforeseen issues happen all the time. How you handle them is what matters. No offer to buy us a drink while we waited, no manager, nothing. Just sorry, I can't do anything to help you nor do I seem much like I care anyway. Needless to say we left and had a good dinner down the street at Tomato Cafe where the service was excellent as was the food.

Can't comment on the food this second time as we never made it past the hostess but if it was anything like the first time we didn't miss much. Pasta was not good and the meatball had an awful metallic taste and was inedible. We're talking about a meatball, one of the simplest, most basic things to prepare for an Italian restaurant.

Anyway, I won't be giving Savona's a third try. Two horrible experiences is enough for me. -Mark The 8pm party of two...

Last weekend I had the pleasure of eating at Savona's while in town for a training. Seriously some of the best food I've had in my LIFE! I started with a generous glass of Sauvignon Blanc which paired deliciously with an appetizer of fried zucchini flowers. They were absolute perfection dipped in their amazing red sauce. I had eggplant rollatini with penne pasta. It was a generous helping (leftovers to take home) and absolutely fresh and delectable. My girlfriend had the Sunday Sauce which she claims was equally exquisite. My favorite had to be the bread sticks! Oh my heavens! Served with an olive oil dipping sauce and spices, I truly thought I had died and gone to carb heaven! The perfect blend of crusty and soft! All of this deliciousness was served by the friendliest waiter with a killer smile and personality. We loved Jerry! He even brought us extra bread sticks!!! (Shhhhh). He made our dining experience so pleasant. We sat outside at a lovely table and watched the Vasser students as they celebrated Founder's Day! And as if that weren't enough, a medical crisis occurred for a patron while we were there and the staff was calm and professional and we were barely disrupted at all! I would highly recommend you check out this wonderful eatery. You...

So I felt like having some authentic Italian food for my birthday today. I was sick for about one year and really wanted to celebrate and enjoy dinner with my family. We researched, looked at yelp and spoke to an Italian friend of mine. We decided on Savona's near Vassar College...big mistake. Don't know if it's because we are black but it was the worst service I've ever received in Poughkeepsie since living here since 2014. We were seated on the West side. There was only one family already seated there, after the appetizer we waited and watched other people came and left while we were still sitting there. Never got served until we got up and asked what's wrong. Then we got the wrong salad. Then my chicken was undone. We had told them it was my birthday twice and they ignored that, yet brought cake and song Happy Birthday to the table next to us. The manager came and promised free desert. As if that would automatically compensate for everything. My folks said their fish tasted good, but my replacement shrimp scampi's pasta was still bland. So disappointed right now. If you are white you may enjoy it there....