I have not eaten dinner at this place, but recently went to one of their late night events with DJ Boyfriend. Tavernakaya is a beautiful place and they have a great location. My friends and I were pretty impressed with the atmosphere and were looking forward to spending the night there.
Our moods quickly soured when we approached the bar for drinks. We were completely understanding that the place was extremely busy and that we'd have to wait to put in an order. However, their bartender continued to pass over us and instead served people who had not been waiting long. At first we thought it was just an honest mistake and he didn't see us, so we were a bit more assertive and flagged him down. When he finally came over to us minutes later, he took our order and we thought we were all set. Next thing you know we notice him move on to other people and he never made our drinks.
We continued to stand there for at least another 10 minutes, repeatedly watching him serve other customers before us and completely ignoring us. We are still perplexed as tow hat we did to deserve this treatment, but needless to say, it put an extremely bad taste in our mouth.
Another friend of ours, who did manage to get a drink, let us taste his whiskey ginger. For a somewhat upscale looking place, we were all shocked that this was the absolute worst whiskey ginger we had ever tasted. We promptly left disappointed and confused.
I'd be willing to give it a second chance by visiting them during a less crazy night and try their dinner. But for now, I cannot give Tavernakaya more than 1 stars based on the poorest treatment I've ever received in Madison.