Great place, much nicer than I expected on the Univ. of Delaware's Main St. Reasonably priced too. Drinks were perfect, a well curated beer list and nice selection of wines too. My Taverna Salad was fantastic (and I'm not much of a salad eater) - three kinds of lettuce, chickpeas, red onion, and other treats bathed in a perfect vinaigrette. My friend's kale salad was a big hit too. Go for the pizza, one of the best I've had (special of the day featured coppa, tomato, spinach and a mega-dose of cheese, nicely charred thin crust. Oh yeah...). Pastas looked great too, my other friend's pappardelle was a rave for her. Nice room too, not too noisy, really comfy. Eat here! read more

Very tasty fare. We had a pretty big group and they were able to handle us well with drinks and all. I had the saltmbocco. It was very good.

We go there almost every week and we are never disappointed. Great staff...always goes the extra mile to learn what you like. Sunday brunch menu is delicious....and my husband loves the pizza and their beer/wine selection is awesome!!! read more

We decided to try this place after touring the University of Delaware. I have to be honest I was surprised how good it was. As most Italian restaurants go, they served bread within minutes of sitting down. It was the kind of bread that you know is worth the carb intake plus it came with a delicious flavored oil. I ordered the chicken ravioli and believe they are made in house. Very flavorful and fresh. My daughter had margarita pizza and she seemed to enjoy it as well. I would definitely come here again. read more

Um maybe it was an off night but I was far from impressed. The "slow cooked broccoli" was nothing more then frozen broccoli which was maybe "slowly thawed" and then thrown on my pizza. The pasta had no taste and whatever sort of "smoked" cheese they had with it was more like chunks of rubber. I seriously have no idea who in gods name would give this place 4 stars but it would last 4 minutes in NY. Sorry not sorry. read more

Nice place, had very good veal parm and my daughter had chicken with broccoli rabe, also very good and nice sized portions. Waiter was nice and service was good. Will go back. read more

Had dinner there last night. Been there many times, last night the food was exceptionally ordinary. Daughter and wife ordered a glass of wine which came in a regular drinking glass which is not a big deal, but when one is paying ten bucks a small serving of the house wine, would've been appropriate to at least try to maintain the pretense it has some distinctive specialness about it by Inexpensively but impressively dressing up its presentation. Also, the waiter was nice in a generic, superficial way but not terribly conscientious. Odd moment, given that we were celebrating my daughter's birthday, and there are gifts on the table, and he neither offered to throw in a free dessert, after we had run up a 140 bill, nor even mentioned to my daughter by the way, hey happy birthday. To its credit, the ambience is still pretty nice given that decor, lighting, and kitchen drama. But the service was ordinary, the food was, at best, ordinary. So, sadly, this restaurant is off my list of primary choices. read more

The "on tap" wine is wayyy to cold so I think it is cheap wine they are hiding. Overall wine selection is meh.

Been here three times for lunch. Very professional and courteous staff. Food is good and there is a lot to choose from. Fresh bread with dipping oil while you wait. Pizza is just how I like it, thin and crispy-- and it came with a chili oil for added flavor, and fresh parm cheese. Spaghetti (add meatballs) was tasty as well. read more

One of my favorite restaurants in the area!! The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is bc on our last trip my husband got the spicy shrimp dish (which we've had several times in the past) and the shrimp were bad. They claim to get their seafood in fresh everyday which I don't doubt....it's possible for some to be bad. My husband ate most of it before realizing it was bad seafood. The manager came over to apologize but didn't take anything off of the bill which was a little disappointing even if he did eat most of it. We've been here several times and have had a great experience every other time and we'll for sure go back....just thought they should have done something about the rotten seafood they served. read more

Amazing food and service! Ordered all kinds of food (pizza, pasta, appetizers, desserts) and they were all delicious! read more

I'm sorry if I feel rushed, I am very upset right now. I have taken 30 minutes to try to calm down from my experience at taverna. I went for dinner and drinks with my friends and ordered a full dinner and two bottles of wine. At the end we asked for one more bottle after we had finished and we were rudely told they couldn't possibly serve us one more bottle. Their reasoning was that one of our dinner mates walked funnily to the bathroom. After talking to the manager, saying that we had not drank before this dinner, we were told to leave. I have never been treated with such disrespect after having a normal dinner with friends and I would not recommend this establishment. read more

Ate here for the first time tonight, everything was absolutely delicious, we will be back again!

Tucked away and pushed in between two other building is a gem of an excellent restaurant. Taverna has an original menu with an Itallian slant. The food is fresh and well prepared. The staff is professional without being stiff. Always nearly full. We went with an Itallian couple who also had a great time. Very ncely decorated and comfortable. read more

We went here for brunch about a month ago. LOVED the rustic decor. Our server was prompt and full of information about the menu. We started with the meatball appetizer- excellent! I had a pasta dish and my husband had a sandwich. Both were delicious. Looking forward to going down and trying some of the wine selections! read more

We went here on valentines day for dinner. The manager was very accommodating and seated us right away without a reservation. The calamari was delicious! Our meals were also very good. The only downfall was that we were seated by the door and there was a chilly draft every time someone opened the door. It is a little pricy but the portions are huge! read more

Loved the bread and tomato oil. Pizza was delicious. Decent wine selection. Awesome cheesecake.

Great for date night! Split the calamari (the best we think) and a margarita pizza with chicken. Perfect amount of food for 2 and reasonable! Will definitely eat here again. read more

AMAZING!!! My boyfriend and I made a reservation knowing it would be busy on a Saturday night. Stopped in around 7 for a 7:30 reservation, knowing we were early we wanted to check in just so they knew we had arrived if any tables were ready sooner. It was busy busy and the manager and kind host told us they'd text us as soon as our table was ready-as they were still seating 7pm reservations. Got our text a few mins before 7:30 while we were enjoying a glass of wine at the bar. Have been to Taverna a few times prior and nothing has been as amazing as the Rigatoni and Sausage I had this time and my boyfriend enjoyed the rigatoni and meatballs (Sat night special). He actually bragged that his was better then mine but of course I disagreed. I asked for my pasta to come extra spicy and the server immediately raved that she orders it spicy all the time and it was delicious! Can't wait to return to try the other amazing options on the menu. read more

Taverna is always a go-to. Their appetizers are great- I love their sweet ricotta bread and stuffed meatballs. Their pizza and pasta is consistently good, my favorite is the rigatoni with sausage. Taverna has a nice staff and atmosphere and is one of my favorite places on main street. read more

Excellent atmosphere and service. Details were well thought out. Enjoyable wine. Go for the homemade pasta!

Wonderful food, amazing hospitality. Very relaxed atmosphere. Greg was my waiter. Ask for him. Cool dude. I'll be a returning customer.

I've been here twice for dinner and this place is pretty good. I love the atmosphere, the wine/beer/cocktail selection (I almost never see classic cocktails like a negroni on the menu) and the majority of the food I've tried so far has been great. The grilled artichokes appetizer is awesome, the fried polenta was decent, as well as the salumi selection (one constructive criticism would be to cut cheese slices and not cubes.. it just looks more elegant) The meatballs were okay.. A little too airy for me, but the sauce was delicious and sweet. The pizza margherita was was delicious. Thin crust, great sauce, not too cheesy and they have a cool little pizza set up with chili oil, pepper flakes and dried oregano that you pull off the stem.. THe chili oil wasn't that hot, but maybe I got a mild batch? Had a good bottle of wine both times (Quattro Mani Montepulciano and Barbera) Both of these retail around 8-10 bucks so it was nice to see if on the menu in the 25-30 dollar range... I've seen places charge 50-55 dollars for this same wine. (my parents own a restaurant and I know what they pay for everything... sometimes i wish I didn't know) The first time I went I had a pasta with sausage and broccoli rabe. It was good, but it was a HUGE portion and the pasta was just dry, boxed pasta. I know it is way more expensive and time consuming to make your own, but it's worth it. So I probably won't be having the pasta again, but if you are hungry... go for it. All in all though, I like this place. I think it is the best thing to happen to main street. Wine selection is great and not overpriced (ahem stone balloon) and the service is good. I can't wait to go back and try more things! read more

Went there for a company function and have been there 7 times since. Incredible and sophisticated selections for vegetarians (me!) and super educated servers that know how to pair wines with each part of the meal without being snooty. Prices are reasonable, atmosphere is perfect. Has become our "go to" stop at least once per week. Usually end up getting our meal duplicated as a to-go order and having their food two days in a row. read more

I love their chicken pizza. Yesterday had the Baked Salmon dish delicious. Plus our waiter Mr. Bill is always awesome! read more

Hands down one of the best Italian places I have ever been to. Wine on tap amazing food and an open kitchen! This place has it all they even have mushroom pizza! Witch is to die for just saying. Definitely a spot to go to on main street for lunch or dinner read more

My husband and I have stopped here at least 3 times for late lunch/early dinner on our way to DC. The pizzas and sandwiches have been consistently great - big portions too. Each time we've gone, we have sat at the bar and had different bartenders, all who are knowledgable about the food menu and drinks. We only wish this place was closer to us so we could visit more often. As a Udel alum, this is a great addition to the Main Street restaurant options. read more

Had a wonderful dinner at Taverna last night. Had the spinach ricotta agnolotti. It was rich and delicious. My husband had a pork and pasta dish and cheesecake and also loved them both. Great meal. read more

Love the ambience, servers are amazing. It's the perfect place for a date night. Request for a seating inside and not near the bar. Food is fresh, simple and delicious. read more

Skip the shrimp and pasta special for dinner tonight. Waited over an hour for seating and another extended wait in the food. I am pretty sure the dishwashers are preparing the food. Shrimp was overcooked and inedible. Pasta was salty and disgusting. Service was inattentive. I eat here often and have typically had a good experience with the food and service, not sure what happened. It will be a while before we go back. read more

Ate here once and food was good. Wanted to go for dinner so called in advance. Was told they don't take reservations, only walk ins that night. I asked how long the wait usually is to determine how long we could expect to wait at 6:30. The woman on the phone flatly said "I have absolutely no idea". Drove 35 min to Newark and arrived to be told that they weren't accepting walk ins at all because it was Parents Weekend at UD. Seriously?!?! Why on earth didn't the person on the phone tell me they couldn't accommodate walk ins due to already high demand. Person at front desk couldn't care less that we were told to drive the the restaurant with absolutely no chance that we would be seated. read more

Had a work lunch here today. First, the service is out of this world. A little intense, to be honest, but we were absolutely taken care of from start to finish with perfect timing. I wish I could recall our server's name, because he did a great job. Also there were 2 other staff (I believe one was a manager) who asked us if we were OK. We absolutely were. I tried carrot soup...it tasted like butterscotch, in a good way. It was fabulous. My salad with shrimp was a little sparse for the price, but my co worker's pizza with prosciutto and arugula was DELICIOUS!!! No dessert, but there is a budino on the menu, which is my weak spot. All desserts are made in house, if you want to know. Prices were a little upscale, about the same as what you'd pay at Iron Hill... menu has an Italian bent and is a bit more eclectic. Oh, and the olive oil (served with the bread) and the salad dressing were both tasty and both are made in house as well. read more

We just moved from NY and this is our favorite restaurant around the area. We have gone several times and everything we have eaten has been great! So delicious and always wonderful service! read more

We came here on a Tuesday night around 7 pm; it wasn't crowded at all and we were seated right away. We were given bread with a tomato-olive oil which was insanely delicious. I normally try not to eat the bread when it comes before the meal, but I could not resist soaking up every last bit of it! We ordered a few of their specialty cocktails which were so good! I have often thought of them and wished they weren't so far away so I could grab another. I ordered the Neopolitan pizza. It was the perfect individual size pizza, I think that it would have been okay to split, but I had just enough to take home for lunch the next day. The pizza was fantastically cooked, and my favorite thing about it was that it was served with hot oil (spicy-hot) to drizzle on the pizza. I pretty much poured the hot oil all over my pizza because it was so good! Our service was really great and we would be happy to return if we were ever in the area again! read more

We have eaten here many times and are always pleased with the waitstaff and food. Service is impeccable and well organized. Ate there again tonight and wonder why they staff the front with people who are not of the same caliber. Deduct one star for the girls at the front-why are they always so unpleasant and arrogant?! They fail to represent the quality of the balance of your experience. read more

My husband and I originally discovered this restaurant during a beer event in Newark. We came back for brunch and I can't say enough nice stuff about it. The decor was simple, rustic and very relaxed. We were seated near the open kitchen, and got to watch all the food as it was being sent out. (Which, subsequently meant we had to add a few more items to our order since they looked so good!) Our server, Tim, was excellent. He was knowledgeable about the beers and wines as well as the menu and specials. He even told us how the chef had spent time in northern Italy, which influenced the cuisine. Having just returned from a cruise of the Mediterranean, this was absolutely up our alley! The regular menu had so many choices, but after he described the amazing specials on the brunch menu, I just had to try some of it. I ordered the soup special, a lovingly crafted Italian wedding soup, which was absolutely delicious. Then I decided to go way out of my normal ordering and tried the steak and eggs. I had always thought that was kind of a "John Wayne" over the top kind of meal, but my order was anything but. The eggs were light and fluffy, served with red jalapenos and some kind of lovely greenery (perhaps chives?) over their yummy house bread which had been charred just a touch in their coal fired oven. The steak was melt-in-your mouth delicious and a small enough portion that I felt I could continue the rest of my busy day. My husband ordered a side of french fries and a pizza, both of which were wonderful. The sauce on the pizza was make in such a way as to reduce all the normal acidity one would expect, and the mozzarella (which I believe was pulled in house) was light and airy. It reminded us of our travels to Europe and the nostalgia and wanderlust kicked in heavily. The wine list is short, but impressive. Taverna is the only restaurant in the state which has wine on tap. We tried their seasonal, which was a bold red. Other reviews noted that the tapped wine was too col. I would agree that it was, but this is done to preserve the integrity of the wine. Even the tap lines are treated to ensure that the wine remains cool and does not become oxidized or otherwise compromised. I held my glass in my hands a few minutes before consuming and it was just fine. We also tried another of their wines which was not on tap, the Super Tuscan, which was so delicious I could have drank it all day. For dessert, we had beers, since their beer selection was equally enjoyable and diverse. I had a Dogfish Head Namaste and my husband chose a Guinness. Throughout our service, we noticed how much thought went into everything that we were presented. In lieu of a standard ketchup bottle, a tiny bottle with a tiny spoon accompanied the fries. The standard red chili flakes were replaced by a house-made chili oil and dried oregano still on the stems. Our server was attentive, friendly and engaging. He made it a point to share our well-deserved praise with the chef, who stopped by the table to greet us. He welcomed us to stop by anytime we come back to say hello, which made us feel special. The restaurant manager also made a stop by to inquire about our meal. I can't say enough nice things about our experience here. I'm very excited to return to try their lunch and dinner menus as well as all the brunch specials I simply didn't have room for. read more

I went to dinner with my son and two of his friends. They suggested the restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised. All the meals were very good and the service was good as well. My son and his friend ordered the sausage rigatoni and they said it was delicious. One other friend ordered the pizza which looked yummy and he ate it all. The pizza was individual size. I ordered the Chicken Taverna which was similar to chicken franchese and it was delish! We had dessert too. Yummy warm donuts dipped in cinnamon and sugar with raspberry glaze and a pudding we sea salt carmel all very yummy. I will definitely dine here again. read more

Won't be back. We ordered 5 different platters. The sausage/lentil soup was good. The other dishes, altho you can tell they try to be original, and the presentation is attractive, the food just doesn't make it. In addition, the food was overpriced. The italian sandwich hardly had any meat in it. For the price, $10, you can get a fully packed large sub. The other dishes were sweet when they shouldn't have been. The flat bread was sweet and soggy. The artichokes in lemon was very tart. The roasted potatoes were served in tomato sauce (?) w/green peppers and not good. read more

Good service. Smooth wine. The open atmosphere in the dining room is well-suited for medium-large parties (4 to 8) but I do not recommend for an intimate date. The calamari is the best I've had in a long time and the braised short ribs are excellent. read more

My cocktail, (Gibson Martini-slightly dirty), that I had to explain-then answer a diatribe of questions: ("how many onions you want? how much dirty juice should I use?" I should have asked: "Why don't I just come around and make it myself!"), freezing cold & bad red wine on tap, antipasto board with freezing cold broccoli rage with burnt garlic flavor, Club-store bought fresh mozzarella passed as in-house made fresh mozz, smoked prosciutto was ok however. Hopefully its because I ate at the bar, (I hate to take up a table when a restaurant is busy and I'm alone), but this place is cool looking, next door practically to University of Delaware, & in the heart of downtown with many restaurants. I simply expected more. The veal meatballs were good, but just good. What self-respecting Italian joint uses curly parsley to garnish versus flat leaf ITALIAN parsley? The soup I had was meh and did not taste homemade. I dunno. Someone invested a bunch of loot in this place. They may have been better off investing in visionary and talented chefs/cooks and training for bartender. read more