I think I can count on one hand how many restaurants I’ve eaten at since the COVID pandemic started in March. Of those few restaurants I’ve been to, I haven’t eaten inside at any of them. Having seen this virus affect people I know, eating inside around a bunch of strangers isn’t really something I’m ready to do quite yet.
That being said, I don’t think I’ll be going back to Tavern on the Point in Edison Park anytime soon.
The restaurant itself is beautiful, the space is amazing, the food was delicious, the service was great, but I was less than satisfied with their ability to adhere to the guidelines set forth by the governor when it comes to COVID.
We purposely made reservations for the rooftop deck so that we could be outside, since, as I said, I’m not ready to eat inside any restaurants at the moment. We arrived right at our reservation time and were told that they were just waiting for a table to leave and then they’d be ready to seat us… no problem. We grabbed a drink at the bar and waited there until our table was ready.
The only reason I was ok with sitting at the bar, inside, was the fact that there was basically nobody in the bar area, and only a couple of the booths along the wall were taken. Not to mention the whole front of the restaurant has big windows that open up to the front patio, and we were no closer than 15 feet from any other person (aside from the bartender at times).
This area wasn’t the problem, ironically, it was once we were told to head upstairs to be seated that it was pretty obvious that they were pretty relaxed about the guidelines.
Tables are definitely not spaced 6 feet apart, if I leaned back in my chair I could basically hit the guy at the table behind me. I saw a good number of people walking through the bar area and to the bathrooms without masks on. And as it got later in the night, it just seemed like most people just didn’t care in general.
I know I’m being a stickler for the rules, but of all the restaurants I’ve been to since March (which is like 4), I’ve yet to see one as jam packed as this one… which is a shame, because as I said, everything else about Tavern on the Point was awesome, and I’d love to go back, but it’s just not going to happen quite yet.
With all that being said though, let’s talk about the positive aspects of the restaurant.
Tavern on the Point – Restaurant Space
From what I understand, Tavern on the Point is a brand new building. They tore down the old one that stood in that space and started from the ground up… and it shows. The building and the space are beautiful. Super high ceilings inside, a modern feel, a great little front patio, and an amazing rooftop patio with bar. Definitely a different feel than anywhere else I’ve been in Edison Park.
The Food
Apparently it is Edison Park Restaurant Week this week, which we had no idea, so there was a special restaurant week menu that you could try, if you wanted.
Nick and I opted to order off of the normal menu, but Iman decided to splurge and go for the restaurant week menu, which was actually a pretty good deal.
For $35 he got an fried calamari appetizer, Surf N Turf entrée, and a raspberry cheesecake dessert.
I will say though, the calamari appetizer that they have was probably the best fried calamari I’ve ever had. The calamari itself was great, but the sweet chili sauce that was drizzle over it just took it to another level.
Typically you just get cocktail sauce on the side with a basket of fried calamari, but that sauce truly made the dish incredible. I would order delivery/carryout from this restaurant just so I could have that appetizer again.
Normally I don’t gush about food like this, but it was really that good. So I would highly recommend the fried calamari if you check out Tavern on the Point.
As for the Surf N Turf, I’m not an expert on lobster, but from the looks of the plate it seemed like the lobster outshined the filet by a large margin. The lobster tail was a good size and Iman seemed to enjoy it, but the filet seemed a little pathetic. I would say it was maybe 3 oz. at the very most… it was probably the smallest cut of filet I’ve ever seen, and I’m notorious for ordering the smaller size whenever we go somewhere nicer.
Iman’s plate was clean by the end of our meal, so I’m guessing it was decent, but I can’t really comment since I didn’t try it.
Nick ordered the Southwestern Chicken sandwich, which is a grilled chicken sandwich with swiss cheese, avocado, bacon, and pesto mayo. Again, I didn’t try his food, but his plate was clean by the end, so I can’t imagine it was bad.
And as for me… SURPRISE! I got a burger.
I did the build your own burger and got cheddar cheese and a fried egg. Pretty basic, but it was actually pretty good. I think next time I’ll probably forgo the egg, only because it was a bit messy, but overall I was pretty happy with it.
The burger has 2 thinner patties, but they didn’t really have that crust on them that you get with griddle burgers, which I love, so I was a bit disappointed in that. And I felt like the burger meat itself could have been seasoned a bit more, but that could have just been because the egg was a little overpowering once it exploded all over the place.
I would definitely order the burger again, and I’d love to try it with a brat patty on it, which sounds delicious.
Oh, and the French fries were perfect!
As for dessert, the restaurant week menu gave you the option of a cannoli or a marzipan cheesecake, but they were out of the cannoli, so we opted for the cheesecake… but then like 5 minutes later the server came back to tell us they were out of the marzipan cheesecake, but they still had a raspberry cheesecake available, which was totally fine.
I’m not a huge cheesecake person, even though I just tried it for the first time this year, so I opted out of the dessert and let the other guys finish it… and they loved it. So no complaints there, just not my thing.
Overall Tavern on the Point is a great space and I hope it does well. The restaurant itself looks great, the staff was very nice, the food was delicious, and we had a great time. As I mentioned before though, I don’t think I’ll be back to the restaurant anytime soon only for the fact that it seemed like nobody was really enforcing, or cared about, any of the COVID guidelines. (I would have taken a picture, but I don’t like taking pictures of strangers eating, and we were basically on top of the tables next to us so it would have been pretty obvious).
If you want to try it out though, it seemed like the front patio was a little more spaced out, and I might actually feel “ok” eating at one of the booths/tables in the bar area because it was pretty empty in there.
Of course this may not be the case when the weather gets a little colder, but I guess we’ll have to see.
Oh, and my last small little gripe, only because I deal with this stuff on a daily basis, when you scan the QR code for the menu that they have on their tables, it took me a lot longer than it should have to figure out that you have to scroll side to side as opposed to vertically to see the other pages. I don’t mind the horizontal scroll, I just think there should be some UX cues to indicate which way to scroll.
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