Tavola Trattoria Local
1131 Ashford Avenue, Cond Davinci Suite 3The purpose of this trip was the celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary. That date was our first full day in town on Thursday.
We spent the day at Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristobal so when we got in the Uber to head back to the hotel, we were ready to relax.
Dinner that night needed to be something a little special. We got ourselves up and moving a little after 6:00. We decided just to walk down Ashford Avenue to see what we could find.
I thought about maybe doing actual Puerto Rican food but that place seemed more laid back than we were looking for. J spotted an Italian restaurant across the street. I had written off Italian because we had pizza for lunch but she looked at the menu hanging outside and thought it looked good so we headed.
Tavola Trattoria Local is a fairly small but cute Italian restaurant on a very busy stretch of Ashford Avenue near CII Vendig. It shares a building with a couple of other restaurants. They are in the east end of the space right next to the public parking lot.
The sun goes down in Puerto Rico at 6:30 PM so it was already dark by the time we went to dinner. Tavola has a great outdoor area before you get in to the main restaurant. There was a waiter outside already so we asked if we could just sit out there and people watch while we ate.
J got a drink that now is only listed on the receipt as “Titos” so I don’t remember what it was. It’s really funny to me how Tito’s Vodka is really popular there. We thought maybe it was made in PR but it doesn’t appear to be so. They just really like their Titos.
The waiter said they had “local beers” so I asked what they had. The two options were Medalla and Magna. It’s true they may be local but they are both North American Adjunct lagers. The choice is essentially Bud Light or Heineken. I picked the Medalla and it was fine but one was enough.
I was really tempted to order another pizza but pasta also sounded good. There was a chef’s special that night for Ground Beef Tenderloin lasagna and as J pointed out, I do love lasagna.
The pasta was served in the bowl it was cooked in. The pasta layers were so soft that you almost didn’t realize you were eating them. It was definitely house made. The beef was layered up in the red sauce so there was more meat than sauce but I really it that way. The whole thing is covered with a super thick layer of cheese that was molten lava hot for a long time. I burned my tongue something fierce on the first bite and had to back off for a while to let it cool. That thick layer of cheese just trapped in the steam but it was so delicious. The pasta came with a side of garlic bread.
J ordered something really simple but really loved it. She got the Pomodoro. The thin, angel hair pasta is sauced in olive oil and a house made Pomodoro sauce then topped with fresh basil. She seriously was still talking about this meal on the plane ride home four days later. She said it was the best pasta she’s ever had…and seriously, she couldn’t stop talking about it. That’s how good the fresh pasta at Tavola is.
It was our anniversary and we were on vacation so we decided to order a dessert to split too. We got the cheesecake which was made with ricotta cheese. It came on a plate that was covered in chocolate sauce and topped with powdered sugar. This is another part of the meal that goes in to the “best I’ve ever had” category. The cheesecake was so rich and so creamy. The addition of the chocolate sauce to the plate was a cool idea and it got to let us decide how much or how little chocolate we wanted in each bite.
Our bill for dinner with drinks and dessert came out to just over $55.
I was a little hesitant about going to an Italian restaurant at first but J seemed really excited about it and I do like lasagna so I went with it. Tavola was one of the best Italian places either of us have ever eaten at. We got very simple, standard Italian dishes but everything being made in house makes all the difference.
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