Gaetano’s Tavern On Main

Food was mediocre at best. No meat on the steak and cheese, burgers were overlooked and the draft beer was skunked. Head across the street to Archie’s.

Good food, great service, only complaint was the mash potatoes with the pot roast tasted like instant … If I wanted cheap food I would have made it myself. Otherwise everything else was exquisite. The butternut squash ravioli is a must have !!!

My family and I just left Gaetanos on Main. I feel a little ripped off. I never heard of a 18% gratuity on a party on 2 adults and one child. I also left a 20% gratuity on top of that. I would think the server would have mentioned this and I would expect it on a bigger party. So I left 38% gratuity for bread that came after the meal even came and for a long wait. At this point i want to call the restaurant because I do not think this is fair.

I don’t understand why this place has 2 stars. The food was very good and, hot and fresh, great menu! I mean eggplant fries? Already a win and I am just on the appetizers. The place appeared clean and nice seasonal décor. The owners clearly care about providing a good experience. The Bathroom was in rough shape, but it was after a festival and probably more heavily used than usual.
I do recommend this place, I don’t think it’s a two star experience at all, and I eat out quite a bit at all different kids restaurants, fine to casual.

Parents weekend 2015. We were driving around Wallingford looking for a great restaurant after a fun day. Tavern on Main looked awesome from the street, so we quickly booked a reservation. We were very disappointed. Tired décor, weak drinks and very poor wait staff. It was laughable. We tried to stick with the tavern menu. We waited over an hour and a half for our food and the burger came out last. This was not all the waitress’ fault since I don’t think she was cooking dinner! Overall it was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. From the poor rating, it looks like I’m not the first to feel this way.

We sat at the bar. Two stars only because the bartender was so nice. Pastrami sandwich was soggy and not good at all with very little pastrami in it. Coleslaw was bad and everything was slow coming out of the kitchen. Certainly pricey for what we got on the plate. We don’t plan on giving it another try.

This review is based on the restaurant portion of the tavern. They have a large indoor seating area as well as a small outdoor area, their menu is broad and so far everything I’ve ordered has been well executed, and I’ve always received good service.
Last night I would say the service was exceptional — since I’ve been on my health kick I can sometimes be «that» customer who asks a million questions and needs a million substitutions. Our waitress got all of my answers and accommodated all of my requests with a smile. Typically at restaurants the server tends to seem a little annoyed when this situation occurs, so I was impressed. It really made the dining experience much more enjoyable for me.
I of course had a salad, the lemon pepper salmon, and I thought the salmon was cooked well and went deliciously with the combination of fruits that were paired with it… I actually only ended up subbing out the salad dressing, which I swapped for lemon juice and because of the fruits in the salad I don’t think a heavier dressing was really necessary.
My father had the chicken gorgonzola dish and I must say not only did he love the flavor combination, but it was also big enough that it could have served 2 easily (his words, and he can eat). My mother had the mucho burrito (mucho something anyway) from the appetizer menu and it was more than enough for dinner. She commented that not only did she love the flavors, but that she thought it was well balanced, especially regarding the amount of cheese that was used. Typically she finds at other places too much cheese is used and it overwhelms the other ingredients. TIP: This one is also on the happy hour menu so you can get it for $ 5 if you order a drink between the hours of 4 & 6 on a weekday. Great cocktail list too.

I’ve been coming to Tavern (aka Gaetano’s) for years. I stick to the bar side, so this review is not about the restaurant side.
I feel like until recently, the two places to go in town were Archies or Tavern. Tavern definitely wins when it comes to the layout. The bar is big with many places to sit and it’s wide enough to fit a few people deep without having trouble reaching the bar or walking around it. The bar seating is separated by a half wall, which can also be used to set drinks or plates on when everywhere else is taken. It’s an open and inviting space.
Most of the staff has been working there forever, so you don’t have to worry about new people who don’t know the menu or the drink list by heart. The food is also good (my favorites are the sliders and the fried dough). The beer options has expanded over time and they have a good variety without breaking the bank.
All in all, it’s a good spot for the locals. It might be a high school reunion every time you walk in, but that can be a good thing, right?

I’ve been there several times and each time I have been very satisfied. Food is great and the servers are friendly. That being said, they need to update their décor inside the restaurant. It’s very outdated and dark. If they just did some updating, then this place would definitely be getting 5 stars from me. They do, however, have a nice outdoor seating area in the warmer months.

My 2^nd review in reply to the owner :
I know some time has passed, and Unilocal allowed you to chime in — in reply to my brilliantly written review. As you can tell, I did NOT bash your business. I had both positives, and negatives to bring forward to your attention regarding how I felt as a customer and my experience within the 4 walls of your establishment. I chose to not respond, due to in part that I wanted to see if other’s felt the same way about your restaurant as I did… and in fact I was proven right. I see some other reviews that indicate that their tables were sticky, and one person actually made a hysterical and quite accurate analogy as their table being sticky as if «a child was previously seated there, eating pancakes and syrup.» With this being said, I can see you did NOT follow through with your mediocre reply to me, which was that you would tell your staff to wipe the tables better. In most recent reviews, I see that other people also agree with the service being sub par at best, and long wait times. I see you have not improved this much either. In reply to you asking me why I did not send my food back, because I know better. I work as a waitress part time and I understand what can potentially happen to food when it is returned to the kitchen. I am not accusing your staff or chefs of this type of conduct, however since I have witnessed it myself– I refuse. Sorry that is my own personal thing.
Let me quote you– «What is bothersome to me or rude is how you attacked our hard working reputation in the way you described the atmosphere and cleanliness of our restaurant. We get so many compliments on our décor and I can promise you that we clean the floor and the restaurant every single day. We have two different tiles in that room and some of it has dark grout and some light but it is clean. «
My father is a home remodeling professional and has worked for more than 35 years in the business and locally I might add. I have numerous times helped him personally install tile, in my own home and in his. I know that grout is NEVER 2 different colors… EVER. It is clear to me that you have no regard for the fact that you can’t face it that your floor is DIRTY because it is NOT CLEANED. The grout is a DARKER color where most frequently travelled, HOWEVER with PROPER maintenance and perhaps you opening up your wallet for a nice power washing, you would know that it is FILTHY and should return back to its normal color which is the light colored grout.
Let me quote you again– «have been voted best American dining in the Readers’ Choice Awards, have many repeat banquets in our banquet room and if you read
reviews, where you bought your coupon from, you will see mostly rave reviews on that site as well as Tripadvisor. I’m sure this would not be the case if our place was filthy, musky, gross and smelled like an old locker room, as you put it. «
Newsflash «co owner» this is NOT TripAdvisor, and this is NOT
.
I can see clearly that you are in denial, and I was allowing time to pass to read other reviews, in order to see what your reply to THEIR similar words were… however I am surprised to see that you haven’t recently replied to ANY negative reviews.
Let me quote some other Unilocalers :
«On about 10 accounts we were going to walk out. I am horrified that the manager didn’t even acknowledge that she had customers and was too busy gossiping. …oh and they are bashing the cooking staff and talking about their periods. Ya– pretty gross
What a shame for the first 15 minutes of a visit.» Gina C 4/​20/​15Worst place Ive honestly been in town. The bartenders are quite inhospitable. Its actually quite abhorrent the way they treat their customers. Food is substandard despite the menu being very basic yet it feels convoluted in its overall style. This place seems as though they can’t do anything right. I hope this review will help others to avoid this very depressing place. Upsetting to have this travesty right in the beautiful town center. :(«- Matthew D 5−31−15
«Best Wings in town, but the place needs a face lift badly. The décor is attrocious and the bathrooms are always dirty. Enough to deter going there or bringing out of town guests. Embarrassing. Last visit I came in on a Monday late afternoon and the bar/​kitchen area smelled like garbage. It smelled like the garbage had been sitting there overnight, really makes me wonder about the cleanliness.» Katie D 5÷6÷15
What do you have to say NOW?
Desiree

This place is your typical hometown esque restaurant. It gets some dishes right it’s staples but not others. Beautiful seating area outside with fires but very cheap plastic seating. Everytime I go here I get the Sicilian style chicken always perfect chicken is tender and just the right amount of heat in sauce. I don’t think I’ll try anything else on the menu because it seems to be hit or miss. French onion soup is good the clan always loves it from here.
Things they don’t do so well? Mojitos I don’t think they know what they really are. Risotto, pasty pile of mush. Hot Lobster Roll… well that’s what you get for not going to a seafood place on the shore.
Service has always been good here no complaints in that department.

Best Wings in town, but the place needs a face lift badly. The décor is attrocious and the bathrooms are always dirty. Enough to deter going there or bringing out of town guests. Embarrassing. Last visit I came in on a Monday late afternoon and the bar/​kitchen area smelled like garbage. It smelled like the garbage had been sitting there overnight, really makes me wonder about the cleanliness.

You are the owner?! Wow, I am even more horrified now. You were the one gossiping with the staff when we got in
You did apologize and we appreciate that, but we don’t appreciate the staff starring us down as we left and had to eat or horrible tasting food out of take out containers.
No worries, we have sworn this place off. Your staff has set the tone to your establishment.
Hope your customers like hearing about how the chefs use blue cheese on the Gorgonzola chicken and how they mess up all the dishes
Or all the profanity and inappropriate conversations.
I actually feel the need to be Unilocaling this twice now

more of a restaurant than bar/​tavern, though gaetanos definitely offers food. enter thru front door and there is lower eating tables on the left and the bar on the right. not a huge bar, maybe 8 – 10 stools. wooden bar top with a good rail. overhang includes brass glassware hanging rack. bar back is tremendous, wood frame with mirrors. solid bartenders that will make a strong drink. food is only average, i’d suggest sticking with simple menu choices. good location, but there is better food in the area.

Food was good. ordered some cocktails and a bottle of wine. The bottle came already open, not sure when it was opened but slightly disappointing as they should be opening table side. Had to ask a few times for water and bread but overall service was ok.

French onion soup was adequate. The pork tenderloin panini special and boneless Thai chicken tenders were not up too snuff. The panini was dry and the tenders had to have been frozen

Have been here 3 times, each time I have had my order wrong, over cooked steak, under cooked steak and once my dish was just «forgotten». Definitely never going back !!!

Absolutely great! Not disappointed at all! waitress was quick and friendly. Food super quick and a lot ! We came to try something new and we found a place to return. Took 3 containers home and we were full.

This place is a great location but very slooooooooooow. Fod is average, I just had a burger that was pretty much same old same old.

The atmosphere and the staff at this place was very good. We sat at the bar area and the décor was really nice and the waitress we had was very helpful and informative. She bore with us as we had several questions about different dishes and drinks.
We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to eat, partially because we were really hungry and also because there wasn’t really anything that stood out. I had Chicken Alfredo, the other 2 in my party also had a pasta.
When we got our food I instantly became nervous about the quality. The chicken was clearly frozen chicken and the sauce tasted like something that you would get out of a can.
But, the food being frozen or from a can wasn’t even my biggest knock on this place. The cost was what made this experience not a good one. I would expect low quality of product if I was paying under 10 for a pasta dish. But, when you charge $ 16-​$ 18 for a dish you should be providing fresh, quality food. Not prepackaged bland food.