Tavern 109 — Restaurant in Williamston

Our family has been wanting to try Tavern 109 for awhile. The last time we made plans to go, we unfortunately chose graduation weekend, and the line was out the door and then some. Today we picked a much more opportune time in the late afternoon, and we weren't disappointed.

We had a wonderful experience here. It's a very family-friendly restaurant, which is perfect since we have two younger children. The kid's menu has some variety to it, and they give you crayons and some twisty-toys to keep hungry wee ones thoroughly occupied before your meal arrives. I appreciate any restaurant that does that.

The service was excellent. Our server was attentive and checked up on us regularly. He did a great job and was very personable. The restaurant overall seemed to be well-staffed and prepared for a Friday night. It wasn't busy while we dined, and I'm curious to see how the atmosphere and experience here changes during busy periods.

The food was great, too. I had an olive burger, and though the thickness of the actual burger was a tad conservative, it was still delicious. The ingredients were definitely high-quality. I don't usually like too many ingredients on my olive burger (many times I feel just olives and sauce is perfect), but the tomatoes and onions and greens complimented the sauce quite well here. Also, there were spicy bread-and-butter pickles on the side. I thought the burger itself had plenty on it already, so I ate the pickles separately. I'm not one to usually rant about pickles, and I want to keep this short, but wow, those were some mighty fine pickle slices. Luckily I wasn't given a whole jar of them to eat or they may have taken over my whole dinner. Yeah, those pickles were THAT good.

My wife ordered the margherita pizza. Tavern 109 doesn't tout itself as a "pizza place" as far as I can tell, but my wife shared some of her pizza with me, and it was incredibly delicious. The tomatoes(not the sauce, that was pesto) were top-notch and almost unbelievably flavorful. The crust was that perfect balance of chewiness and crunchiness that you look for in a crust. I might just share a pizza the next time we come back. I'm not sure...there are many intriguing items on the menu that seem worth trying, too. Decisions, decisions.

That leads to this question: will we return to Tavern 109? Most definitely. It's a little on the pricey side, so we won't eat here regularly. But I'd like to try it out as often as feasibly possible, and I can't say that about a lot of restaurants these days. But Tavern 109 just made our very short list of rotating ideal...

Pretty good! My s/o and I had heard from so many people to give Tavern a try and we’re glad we did.

We called and made reservations ahead and our table was ready for us when we arrived, which was nice. It was pretty loud in the restaurant so it was a little hard to hear each other, however, we went on a Saturday night so a busy place is to be expected.

We did wait quite a while for our server to come greet us and get our drink orders, and then waited quite a bit longer to get our drinks, one of which was forgotten. The drinks were okay. I honestly expected a little better given the reputation of the restaurant.

We both loved our appetizer of the Tavern Truffle Fries! A must try! Unfortunately, the water we ordered when we very first sat down didn’t arrive until after we had already finished our appetizer which would’ve been nice to have with it.

My s/o really enjoyed his Chicken & Waffles, however, the menu indicated a side of either soup, salad or coleslaw, and when I asked about that he said that he normally doesn’t ask about the side because other customers normally don’t eat it and he ends up throwing it away. I can definitely understand not wanting to waste food, but when you’re paying for a meal including a side, you should at least ask if they want it and if so, what side. They could at the very least bring it home.

My food was okay, at best. I ordered a plain cheeseburger and it arrived with everything on it, which is not a huge deal but again, not expected given the reputation. The burger was also burnt. I ate a few bites and then was finished. My side of macaroni and cheese was wonderful.

Overall, not a bad place to go and we will be going back. The service could’ve been better, but most of the food was delicious. I would recommend (at least if this is your first time going) to maybe try on a less busy night to go. I’m sure the atmosphere would be different, the kitchen wouldn’t be so rushed and careless, and the service would be better....

We visit Tavern 109 a couple times each year for dinner because the service and food are always top notch. Tonight… not so much. We ordered a couple of cocktails and they were fine. We also placed an order for an appetizer. The restaurant was very busy so our drinks and appetizer were slow ( and that’s ok, we get it). However, we asked for waters and didn’t receive them. We placed our food order when the appetizers came out because everything was so slow. Of course, our food came out instantly, lol. However, at this point, we never received our waters, my wife didn’t get her salad, and I never got my soup. My wife ordered the fish and chips and they were great. I ordered the bacon wrapped meatloaf, which I had ordered before on previous visits. Tonight, bacon was undercooked and underneath the meatloaf and the mashed potatoes almost seemed like instant potatoes they were so runny. The vegetable with the order was the chefs medley, which tonight was green beans with grilled mushrooms. I got about 10 green beans with no mushrooms at all. We never received our salad or soup. Never had our water refilled. At the end of our meal, when our server was grabbing the bill, I informed her of the salad and soup and even she noted that my potatoes looked bad. She came back and gave us the ol “ I talked to the manager and they are willing to give you a dessert”. So, they gave my wife a piece of the peanut butter pie to go. When she got home, we noted that the pie was a square piece about the size of a small brownie, see pic.

Overall, a bad dining experience. I never understand why managers ( if they were actually told) think that giving me a free pie reverses all of the mistakes during a dinner out. I pay for the dining experience. It’s supposed to be special. I can buy my own pie… the manager never even came and saw us....