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The Tavern

The Tavern
1310 Orange Avenue
619-437-0611

Familiar comfort food and a full bar.

Post a review or read some below.

Tags: american, bar, burger

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Permalink Reply by Lynnda Shepherd on August 10, 2011 at 6:39pm

My husband and I went to The Tavern tonight for dinner. A disclaimer before I post about our experience. I know this is a brand new restaurant - open barely a week.. So we will give it another chance.. in a month or two.. once they have time to get things running smoothly.

The restaurant decor is awesome. Perfect for a neighborhood bar and gathering spot. We were seated by a very friendly gal and within seconds had two waters dropped off at our table.

Our waiter arrived and we ordered. Burger - medium for the husband.. Chicken sliders for me. We also ordered two iced teas.. when they came they were a bit warm and had no ice.. We also had no sweetener for them. We waited.. trying to catch someone's eye to get some sweeteners but I finally gave up and went to the bar for them.. Once I returned I realized I should have asked for a glass of ice for the "iced" teas.. We tried again to flag someone down and were finally able to get that taken care of.

Our food arrived after a short wait.. wasn't quick.. but wasn't extraordinarily long, either.. And I should mention that about 1/4 of the tables were occupied.. And there were about 7 staff members milling around (not counting the folks behind the bar).. When our food arrived my husband waited for about 5 minutes for the ketchup.. hmm.. burger.. ketchup.... again.. it's a new joint.. so growing pains.. I get it.

When the ketchup arrived he bit into his burger.. medium rare.. and actually more rare than medium vs the medium he asked for.. My chicken sliders were odd. The 'bun' was homemade biscuits but the bottoms of them all were burnt so they were a little hard to eat.. Also there were three of them.. on one of them was a shiny sticky coating.. but the other two didn't have it.. so I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be there and the other two were missed or if something dripped on my biscuit.. I didn't eat that one. The fries were good, though..

We waited around for someone to get us a refill of iced tea but we couldn't seem to catch anyone's eye.. we must have had 5 people walk by but they all seemed to be in a hurry with their eyes averted.

We kinda had flashbacks to the Firehouse opening months when the servers would stand around talking in groups vs waiting on anyone. Either the staff was clustered around the 'desk' at the front door or they were all over by the bar waiting for their drink orders to be filled (I hope) and talking.

We WERE able to get our check rather quickly and we paid it and left.. All in all not a steller experience.. I might go back just to get drinks at the bar... see if I can talk the bartender into making me my new favorite drink.. Absolut Citron, Grapefruit Juice and muddled basil with a packet of Splenda.. in a tall glass over ice.

And we will go back to give it another shot.. The post on the main page of ecoronado says that they have a limited menu for now.. but it will get bigger.. So we'll go back in a month or two to see if the kinks have gotten worked out. We only live a few blocks away so this place would be perfect for mid week dinners once our daughter goes back to college and we start eating most of our dinners out again..

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Permalink Reply by Lynnda Shepherd on August 18, 2011 at 8:49am

Since writing the review above - several friends have gone to the Tavern.. They all report great food and great service.. Looks like the the husband and I got caught in some sort of bad food/service pocket in time.

We'll definitely give it another try.. I really really really want to like it.

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Permalink Reply by Another Captain on September 2, 2011 at 5:06pm

OK, I had two great times at the tavern over the past three weeks. Each were Friday happy hours which are my crowd's standard for socializing. My friend Steve who is a beer expert and I rode our bikes up to the Tavern last Friday as our wives cooked back home. We left the place saying that the eggplant, and other veggie sandwich was so good that we felt for a fleeting instant that if all veggie food tasted like this we would go Vegan.

The beer was great.... I followed Steve's lead on that. We met many people we've known over the years and chatting was great. I like a place where I can stand up and move around to converse. You can do that at a part of this place near the bar.

Prices were heroicly cheap. $9 for Friday night dinner?

People watching is kinda cool in a creepy way as you look up towards the sidewalk with a semi up-skirt view of walkers who don't know they are being spied upon.

The other time we went with several couples and the orders got confused and the well dones were served rare, but it was entertaining to be served by the sweet soft spoken brand new waitress that was so nervous and insecure as she tried to figure things out.

Really hard to see it from the street while driving by so it seems that those who do find it are more likely to be locals. At least that's what ran through my head.

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Permalink Reply by Abigail Buckley on September 3, 2011 at 4:15pm

We loved The Tavern!!!!

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Permalink Reply by SBGrad on September 23, 2011 at 1:22pm

Have eaten here twice, once on opening night, and once within the past 3 weeks.

Service was iffy both times. As others have said, it is very hard to get anybody to check up on you, we ran out of water both times and it took some time before we could get them refilled-- as I recall both times the bus boy saved us, waitress was nowhere in sight.

On the more recent trip, I asked if the chicken sliders appetizer came with fries. Menu made no mention of fries. Waitress didn't know, didn't ask, so we ordered a side of fries. Sure enough, sliders came with fries AND we got the side order. For her part, waitress offered to take the side order away and remove them from the tab, but we said we would work on them and take the rest home.

The food is actually quite good. The sliders were served on Hawaiian rolls and they went great with the chicken. The fries were crispy, not soggy. We haven't tried the desert yet becuase we haven't had room for it.

Decor is nice, they open the windows so it feels very airy and well-lit for a place half underground. Sit by the bar or ask for a table near the bar if you want to watch a game on the TV. The Tavern has multiple TVs and usually there is a different game on each TV.

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Permalink Reply by Another Captain on October 3, 2011 at 10:20am

Another great time at the tavern yesterday although there always is something mention :)

We were served by a kind but weak waitress again. She served the calamari (best I've ever tasted on Coronado), then the drinks and 7 meals to our table.... all good but no napkins, forks, knives or spoons.... even for the mushroon soup. Please don't get upset if it happens, they mean well. As long as they keep the prices down and food quality up enough, lets put up with it!

Great entertainment again, football everywhere... neighbors connecting and laughter. Biggest moment came when a large brown termite fell from the wood beams above our table and missed the mushroom soup by 6 inches and landed on a menu instead! Looked like a wiggling long grain of wild brown rice and definitely would have been eaten up in the soup!