Tavern On The Square — Restaurant in Vail

Can you give less than one star? I wish.

One of the WORST dining experiences we’ve ever had. The two of us and our young (9 and 7) daughters checked in with the hostess at 6:30. We were told there was a wait and to provide our phone number and they would call us when our table was ready.

We asked if we could sit in the bar for a drink while we waited and we were told that the bar tables were also part of the restaurant seating, that my wife and I could sit at the bar if we could find an opening but the children’s could not. So we had our children sit within eyesight in the hotel lobby while we waited and ordered a drink from the bar.

I feel like we were MORE THAN PATIENT, but finally at 8:30 we approached the hostess and asked when we should expect to be seated. She clearly had totally failed to enter us into the system. Now, we could try and blame this on “staffing challenges“ or “Covid” but there were always between three and five people hovering at the reservation desk. Obviously at this point there were plenty of open tables. So they sat us immediately.

The “manager“ approached us to apologize for the delay in offer us free dessert, if we were so inclined, as their apology for the mishap. My response was, “Aren’t we putting the cart before the horse? We would appreciate food first.”

If you have kids you know, at this point we had two hangry tired kids…much less us adults, so we’re we’re just trying to avoid meltdown mode. We ordered our food.

I worked as a server once upon a time so other than the outright lie regarding the bread, I feel for him and was more than polite.

The French onion soup was lukewarm (not even hot enough to melt the cheese topping) and devoid of actual soup…..no doubt the liquid had evaporated from a night spent overcooking in an open pot on the stove in the kitchen.

The fruit cup for the kids was barely edible it was so unripe.

They delivered the cheese plate but neglected the bread that accompanies it. When asked about it, the waiter told us “it was almost through baking.” He heads for the kitchen and returns with bread that is not even room temperature….it’s cold….like out of the refrigerator cold. I ask, “So this was the bread they were just baking?” He responds, “Yes sir!” I hand him a piece of the bread and ask him if that feels like fresh baked bread. He lowers his head in shame and says something about “ that’s what the kitchen told me” as he slinks away from the table with the cold plate of bread in his hands. He returns 2 mins later with CLEARLY the same bread stating that he returned with fresh warm bread. It had obviously been microwaved.

Listen, this is not to brag but we eat at nice restaurants all the time so we are perfectly accustomed to $200-$300 or more bills for great food and great service. I have always said I would much prefer that bill for exceptional food and service than the $50-75 bill at Chili’s. Maybe it would be considered “first world problems” but it is what it is. We work very hard to provide a nice life for our kids and don’t take it for granted.

With the absolutely terrible meal, we didn’t dare roll the dice on desert. They did discount our total but, truthfully, they should have been embarrassed to give this meal to us for free.

Before anyone thinks I’m unreasonable or casts judgement here, we were polite to our server and tipped over 20%….I was a server once upon a time and understand the challenges.

We will never return. Absolutely...

Here is an email I sent to management detailing our experience.

I’d like to bring to your attention the experience my family and I had at your Tavern restaurant around 10:30 this morning. My family and I dropped in for some breakfast and we’re shocked at what we saw/experienced. The first issues we came across were associated with the buffet. The buffet was out of eggs, fruit, waffles, biscuits, nearly out of juice, nearly out of potatoes, and out of plates, glasses, and the women’s bathroom didn’t have any soap. The bacon was so undercooked that it wasn’t even edible. We were told that they’d put out two bowls of fruit and that was all that was left in the kitchen, which seems highly unlikely and frankly, unacceptable for a breakfast buffet. There were several of us in the buffet area speaking with the woman whom I thought was the hostess, letting her know that the buffet was nearly out of everything. She presented a poor attitude and excuses to each one of us that complained about there being little left to eat short of sweets. Likely because she was busy having a long conversation (over 30 mins)with what was clearly her friend lounging around the hostess stand, rather than doing her job. After finally getting the eggs refilled, I sat down to eat. I immediately noticed that there were two hairs in my eggs. At that point my family and I decided we were done attempting to dine at your restaurant and asked to speak with the manager. I was shocked when the same woman from the hostess stand walked up. I talked her through my concerns and her response was that the restaurant had several parties and we’re too busy to deal with the breakfast buffet and also gave excuses as to why they were out of food, no apology, no offer to remove items from our bill. When I explained that those issues are her problem, not mine as the customer, she further gave us attitude and didn’t even apologize for having multiple hair in the eggs being served. I let her know that we were done eating and she needed to remove the buffet from our bill. Her response was “fine, and I’ll have your table cleared immediately,” which was very clearly stated as a threat. She then sent staff over who appeared to be mortified and took out plates. The staff was great, and the waiter even dropped by to apologize for her actions (which is why I left a tip. It’s amazing that the staff’s level of professionalism vastly exceeded that of the woman that is suppose to be managing the restaurant. As I’m sure you can understand, my family and I won’t be back (we’re CO natives and in the area regularly) and we will be passing the word of this experience along. I would like to make sure that these concerns are passed along to the executive level given the scope of her actions. Hopefully this serves to provide some useful feedback as to how things are being run in...

I have to say I’m not one to give reviews but I read the review by Mike Jacobs, from 2 weeks ago, which is completely inaccurate of the actual events. This guy stated he came at 10:30am and items were almost gone or empty. The buffet closes at 10:30am. My husband and I were inside at the buffet when this guy and his family came in. The 2 people at the hostess stand told him the buffet was ending but then he replied very rudely, so my family and I can’t eat? The manager came out and explained the buffet was at its end but they can get whatever they want to eat from the buffet and from the kitchen. All he and his family had to do was order from their server. We were sitting outside and this guy with his family happened to be sitting next to us. We heard every word him and his wife were saying, more him. This man is not nice and maybe he had a issue with people speaking more than one language but he was overly rude to the manager, as a woman glad she told him to not speak that way to her and she tried to give this man every opportunity to enjoy his food then he said something about hair in his food and when this nice young lady asked to clear out these plates he and his wife claimed to be so inedible, HE REFUSED! I highly doubt there was a hair from the kitchen. Probably his as he kept stroking his beard over his plate. The manager, kept her cool and still offered to give him something to eat at no charge but this man kept talking loud saying “I’m not paying this food, it sucks” (in a nut shell) funny cause they ate pretty good and so did their kids before he complained. This review is a complete joke and the opposite of what actually happened. I will say hearing him say how he should have listened to the reviews I think he just wanted a free breakfast and he got it. Maybe they should stay in Denver. Oh yeah this guy never tipped the server. Can’t believe he said on the review he did. Don’t recall this guy saying anything unless he was complaining.

I gave this place a 4 only for the fact they did not have GF pancakes or was unavailable that day but the fact the manager went to go check and tried to make all accommodations for my husband who is celiac. However she came back offering us GF French toast instead. We would like to see a few more GF options on the menu and that’s why we give a 4 otherwise the service was great.

I will say I’m sorry for not seeing this review sooner, but this restaurant did just fine with everything especially the manager who kept her poise even when she was being yelled at. So thank you Tavern on the Square. We appreciate your patience and the good food and service we get every...