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| - I live in Mt. Washington and I love my neighborhood. This is probably the best place for a night out on Mt. Wash, in my opinion. The restaurants on Grandview are overpriced, outdated, and the food isn't that good in my opinion (yes, I'm looking at you, Monterey Bay, LeMont, Tin Angel, et al.). I visited La Tavola for the third time since I've lived up on the Mount (where I've been for 3.5 years) on Friday, January 17.
I'll go over the positives - of which I find many - first. First, my main course, the veal Polina, was done very well. The veal is sliced thin and cooked (not breaded) with eggplant and proscuitto over it, and then covered with melted provolone. I thought this was tasty and seasoned well. It was not overcooked. The veal was a little oily, but not so much to find it annoying. Overall a great dish.
I went with a large party and we all brought bottles of wine. The staff was great about opening the wine in a timely fashion, and chilling the bottles of white at the table. The corkage fee isn't bad. The table ordered several appetizers for the group to share. We had beans and greans with sausage, beans and greens without sausage, fried calamari, and something else I can't immediately recall. I found these all very good and done very well. The calamari was not over fried, and it wasn't overbatted (I hate seeing that at restaurants).
Another positive was that they offer gluten-free (rice) pasta. My friend who had the gluten-free pasta thought it was done well and not overcooked.
Some of the negatives were things that I didn't experience personally. A few friends complained that their meals were cold (not warm at all). I thought the service was kind of slow. It took a long time to get our meals generally. However, the server was pleasant.
They don't split more than 4 cards for a large party, but I learned this ahead of time when I made reservations and we were encouraged to bring cash. That worked out pretty well.
BYOB is one of my favorite features here. The dishes themselves aren't terribly pricey, but if you get the whole nine yards - appetizers, entrees, coffee, etc. - you will be likely to shell out around $40 a person.
Overall, I thought it was a decent dining experience. My food was good. I think some of the negatives are service-related. I would go back, though, and likely will.
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