Tavola is the bigger brother to Nook you could say, serving up really great pastas and antipastos it replaces the restaurant Tapas Tree but the owners still remain the same. It’s a great alternative if you get to Nook and the line is too long or you’re in the mood for a bigger main course.

I  stopped in over the weekend with a friend to have some good food and it was a pleasure that’s for sure.  The restaurant was packed by 7:30 when we got there with a couple big holiday party groups so we grabbed a seat at the bar, the service is great here and it’s always nice when one of the owners is in the restaurant and working just as hard as the servers and cooks to make sure there guests have an enjoyable time.

We started out with a bottle of Pinot Grigio, it was nice and crisp with a clean finish~just like I like in my beer.  It was Grillo Canapi from Sicily and priced at $34 a bottle.

For an appy we shared some fresh burrata with La Quercia prosciutto, for $16 we got a great amount to make 4 nice sized crustini.  The burrata was delish as usual, the prosciutto had a nice meaty flavor to it  and was melt in your mouth tender.

For my main I went with one of the nightly specials~a Sicilian Pork Ragu for $18.  The pasta for this was really interesting and something that I have never seen before~it was like little ribbed sheets of pasta and each one was rolled up which resulted in quite a meal despite looking kind of small.  The pork ragu was rich and meaty and was topped with a nest of Parmesan cheese.

My buddy went with one of the big plates on the menu, the Brick Chicken for $22~chicken cooked and pressed with a brick to make it nice and flat.  This was juicy and tender but the skin was kind of soft because of the sauce on the plate, on thing that my buddy commented on was the fact it was a lot of chicken and the plate could have used some vegetable of some sort, other than that it was a good plate.

For dessert I went with a lemon pudding type dessert (I can’t remember the name), it was made with Meyer Lemons so it was more sweet that sour, the consistency of the dessert was like a soft pudding was a totally delight to eat.  It was also topped with a garnish of candied Meyer Lemon peel.

We had a great meal at the end of the night and the wine went down pretty well!, if you’re in the mood for some great Italian cuisine check out Tavola or their sister restaurant Nook which is located just around the corner on Denman Street.