La Tavola Cucina Restaurant
“Easily becoming our favorite dining spot in the East Brunswick–and even New Brunswick–area.”
“My husband's wild boar was cooked to perfection and I had the best mushroom ravioli I have ever tasted.”
“The rabbit ragu was particularly good, since I really like game meat.”
La Tavola Cucina Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Happy Hour: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I want to love this place. Strip mall Italian Mom and Pop. Very nice people, full bar. The drinks are great. BUT.. A big but. The staff is frazzled on a busy night. The marinara sauce tastes out of a can. The decor is tired. The management does not manage. Would I go back? Yeah…just cause they are good people, it is easy with the kids, the food is decent, it is clean and the vodka flows.
3 is a little bit of a stretch. I'm thinking more like 2-and-a-half.
We recently dined at La Tavola with another couple on a Friday night. The place was pretty dead, save for one other table and some older folks at the bar. Tavola is run by a husband/wife team, which I always see as a generally good sign. Wife runs the front of the house, and hubs cooks in the kitchen. Service was excellent from the moment we were greeted.
Now… on to the food. I will try and be fair here and say that I was generally the lone dissenter. My wife and our friends thought their meals were pretty good. We started with the sausage, escarole and cannelli beans — not bad, but also nothing to write home about. We also split two large salads — a Caesar, which was also fine, if not remarkable, and a panzanella salad. I prefer traditional panzanella salad with chunks of real bread, whereas this one was made with your more standard run-of-the-mill croutons. But to each their own.
My wife had the salmon entree, which was cooked to a perfect medium rare, as she requested. But overall she thought the dish was very bland. My friend had the rabbit ragu over fresh pasta and thought it was pretty good, if a little gamey. His wife had the pork osso buco, which was an impressive display, and possibly the best dish of them all. I had the NY strip, which like the salmon, was cooked perfectly, but lacked the kind of flavor you'd expect from a great cut of meat cooked medium rare. I also found the quality of the meat to be meh — a bit on the tough and chewy side. I would not order a steak here again.
We were happy to see that Tavola has a liquor license, as the drinks flowed all night, and we managed to save room for dessert, which we all thought was very good. So overall we had a nice time and agreed to come back and give them another try. We peeked at the lunch menu while we were there and it looks even better than the dinner menu. Plus, they do daily happy hour specials in the bar, so I'd say that's what we'll shoot for next.
To sum it up, I'd recommend Tavola as the kind of place you come with your parents and your kids for a decent family meal, where you'll have plenty of room for everyone to spread out and take their time dining. But it's probably not going to knock your socks off if you're looking for that killer meal.
I should've listen to my trusted Yelp friends. This place is hit or miss, definitely more miss from our latest experience.
Dated mustard yellow walls with the bar strangely placed at the entrance surrounded by the rest of the dining area. Ceiling high red drapes divide the raised dining area from the main floor, kinda like a Soho lounge from the late 80's.
Rabbit ragu sounded appealing on a bed of pasta at $20. About as dry as the Mojave desert, I sent it back. Duck breast @ $23 was good, but not worth that price although it was much better, but far from great with a parsnip puree along with broccoli & carrots. The seafood fra diavolo was a travesty, devoid of flavor & heat with over cooked shrimp. The marinara sauce or gravy if you may, is a lil too sweet and a bit watery. The eggplant rollantini was visibly burnt at both ends and they still served it to us (see pic). Undersized portions for the high prices.
3 of us were celebrating our Birthdays which was expressed upon entrance to the hostess and were completely ignored. A piece of cake with a candle would have been a nice touch ,but not here. Kinda cold service combined with sub par cooking and clueless management makes for a unpalatable recipe.
As much as I wanted to love this place they made it impossible. Your best bet is to pass & save your $ for a better venue. We will not be back.