Tavola Restaurant & Bar

Similar to other yelpers my party experienced incredibly slow service.  The food wasn't horrible- wasn't the best.  Sometimes at a casual outdoor bar you don't mind slow service.  I still had one of the worst meal experiences at Tavola- here's why:

We opted to go for happy hour on a Friday and pick up an early dinner.  When we arrived the hostess asked us for a reservation.  When we told her we did not have one she scoffed, looked over her should and said "I'll be right back, need to check with my manager to see if I can fit you in."  She left for about 3 minutes then returned and said, "we have a table that faces the wall, is that ok."  A little confused we looked at the nearly empty patio but we were hungry and wanted to try it out so we agreed.  We were shown to the strangest table (long rectangle with two individuals on each end and one individual in the middle).  As promised the table did not face the golf course, rather it looked directly at the cinderblock wall of the Marriott Courtyard.   To top it all off, there was a small outdoor speaker located at the base of the wall that made communication nearly impossible.  

We stayed and it was horrible.  There was a special on margaritas so I order one and got the most vile cheap alcohol / margarita mix I've ever tasted in my life- it didn't even have salt around the rim.  As we ate the restaurant did slowly fill but by the time we were finishing our meal (about 90 minutes later after waiting nearly 50 for our food) the "please wait to be seated area" the restaurant was till only at half capacity. I laughed to myself as I ate my ice cream egg roll dessert (actually pretty good- the best part of the meal).  Anyone who makes a reservation for Tavola needs his / her head examined.

Tried them a second time bc they have the outdoor patio now.  OMG...I don't understand how this place can have such beautiful grounds and such terrible food.  I had the steamed clams and had to pour salt on the sauce to them to give them some sort of flavor...lacked any sort of taste whatsoever.  The shrimp pizza w arrugula was sooo dry I almost coughed up an arugula ball.  Drinks also lack imagination!

Contrary to everyone else's bad reviews, I enjoyed a nice lunch on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The patio has excellent seating overseeing the gold course. The service was excellent and always made sure I was tended to. The food was probably about a 3, but it did the job. I'll update my review after I have dinner here.