Tavern On the Common

Used to be decent but last 2 times been slow as hell. Waiting 20 minutes no drink… what happened?

We all had salads tonight. My wife’s Cobb salad was great and I had Caesar with grilled salmon. The salmon was cooked perfectly and Caesar was equally well done.

So I pulled into town on Sunday looking for a late lunch. Rutland has been celebrated for over a hundred years as being the geographic center of Massachusetts. Damm that sounded cool. I wanted the T-​shirt! I searched high and low at convenience stores, gas stations, etc. But nobody had the T-​shirt.
I sauntered into this kind of old fashioned tavern and sat at the bar. The first thing I did is ask the bartender about a T-​shirt but nope, no T-​shirt. She did give me my adult libation and a giant menu and then stood as far away as she could with her hand on her phone. I think she thought she had a whack-​a-​doodle in the house.
I perused the menu and noticed a ton of typical American stuff, a huge page of Italian classics, and a huge page of sushi. What the hell! A sushi menu in a tavern in Rutland! I don’t think so. Although the bartender was still standing far away with her hand on the phone she shouted that the sushi was really good. I passed. I’ll bet any sushi chef crazy enough to work in a tavern in Rutland had a whole drawer full of the T-​shirt.
I ordered the award winning homemade chili with warm tri-​colored nacho chips for $ 3.99. It arrived quickly and was plated beautifully. I snagged a red nacho chip and it was warm and stale. Ugggghh. Maybe another color was better. Nope, a black one was also stale. Not a good start. The chili itself was hot in temperature and very spicy. I usually don’t mind spicy chili but in this case it was used to hide weird spices. Also what little meat it contained was so finely chopped it was hard to tell it was even there. If this was award winning chili I would question the credentials of the judges.
So I walked out leaving a half-​finished two star meal and with no T-​shirt. Not a good day.

The service is mediocre and the food is not good. I’ve been a few times because it’s «in town» they mess up drinks and food and drinks are over priced for what it is. There is no separation from bar and dinning room. So if you go with your children like I have they get to see the entertainment on the weekends which isn’t bad unless it’s the drinks stumbling out after being over served

This place reminds me of one of those guys that peaked in highschool, and 10 years later, still can’t figure out what he’s supposed to be. Is he a jock? A reformed jock turned preacher? A bully turned wimp? A little train engine that almost was?
The whole room was a cross between a Holiday Inn hotel lobby, a church hall, a cheap Hollywood set for beer commercials, and a hospital cafeteria. The problem is that this also extended to the service and food. The lunch waitress had the personality of a bumper sticker, and was so ho-​hum about everything I could have ordered a peanut butter and mustard sandwich and she wouldn’t have blinked.
I had the fish and chips, which looked promising, until I saw there was more grease on my plate than actual fries. It wasn’t the worst I’ve had, so I won’t gut the rating here, and I’d probably eat it again after a bad hangover. I tasted the chicken stir fry, which tasted like highschool cafeteria food. The only positive comment from our group was the chicken marsala, though he did say it tasted like the best canned food he’d had at a restaurant.
The only other thing I found absolutely hysterical was the standalone «FRESH» sushi menu… yes… a SUSHI menu at a Tavern… (see the identity crisis?).
I’d be curious if this place lasts under current management. I hope the booze is at least decent enough to keep the place open.

This is one of the best restaurants I’ve been to. I came here on a Saturday with my father and grandmother. I heard about this place but have never been here so I figured I’d try. All of us ordered the baked haddock dinner. It was delicious. Very tasty with the bread crumb coating. The portion was big and even filled me up. The price was good for the high quality of food I was getting.
The service was excellent as well. The waitress was very nice and attentive checking on us to make sure everything was ok and it was. Our water glasses kept getting refilled which I especially love. It had the combination of nice family and pub restaurant atmosphere

I agree largely with the previous reviewer’s problems with the atmosphere of Tavern on the Common. I read her review before we went, but since she said the food was good, we decided to give it a try.
Same thing happened to us, we walked in and stood at the hostess station for about 5 minutes waiting for someone to acknowledge our presence and seat us. From there on out, everything was served with an apology, not for making us wait to be seated, but for making us wait for beer… for the apps… our food… the check… our credit cards once the server took them… etc.
I ordered jalapeño poppers for an appetizer, they were pretty good. My partner said the onion rings were also good. But it went downhill from there.
For dinner I got steamers on the specials menu. They were cooked properly, but they were very sandy/​gritty. My partner got the pasta bolognaise special, he ate a few bites and said it was too herby for him. I tried it, I think somebody dumped an entire bottle of oregano in the sauce.
The real pisser came when we asked for the check. Our server brought us the bill and my partner and I agreed to split it on our personal credit cards. She took our cards and after 5 minutes or so, I said «Gee, I hope they aren’t booking a cruise to nowhere on our cards!» A few more minutes went by and the server said, «oh the computer’s broken we’re trying to fix it». She popped by a few more times to apologize (as she had done for everything else during the evening). Finally we get the cards and receipts, signed, left the tip and walked out thinking we weren’t planning to go back anytime soon, but the plot thickens.
Turns out they charged the entire bill to my card, and then also charged me for my half. They only charged my partner for his half. So I called this morning after I checked my balance and the manager, Bill, basically said (and I paraphrase) what do you want from me, we were short handed last night, she made a mistake, she voided it out, it won’t go back on your card until Monday, well if you really want I’ll call and ask them to reverse the charges but it won’t happen until Monday anyway, and if it happened to me I wouldn’t need the money back right away, but if you really want something I’ll mail you a gift certificate… OMG. Note to restaurateurs… do not treat your clientèle like they’re the ones who did something wrong when your servers screw up. I said, don’t do me any favors, and I’ll just wait until Monday to see if the charges were reversed.
We’re not going here again, and we won’t recommend it to others. Hope our bad experience helps you make an informed choice!

I’d been wanting to come to Tavern on the Common for some time. It’s changed hands a few times and I’ve never been able to get there to try any of them so it’s just been elusive. We finally made it in one night and the parking lot was packed. One spot left and I grabbed it. I thought for sure there’d be a wait but we were seated immediately.
The layout of the place isn’t very comfortable. When you first walk in, there’s a hostess stand but it only had an empty basket on it and a bunch of mint wrappers. Not very welcoming. And then there’s the bathrooms right there at the front door. I felt like I was an unwelcomed guest to a house that the person I was visiting just got caught needing to clean the place up or something. We did wait at the door for a few uncomfortable minutes before being approached and then seated.
The whole dining room is very open so standing there waiting, we could see each person at every table and the entire bar area. There’s a high top bar and then a bar area with tables. We were seated in the bar table area which is simply walled off my a hip-​high counter that has tables on the other side for the dining area. I thought the whole time that I wanted to be on the other side of that wall as I was a diner, not a person in for apps at the bar. I should’ve said something but they also should’ve asked. I figured there wasn’t much of a difference because it was all open anyway. And of course, there was a guy singing — in the bar area — but since it’s wide open, it was really for the whole restaurant. Pretty loud too. Too loud for dinner but probably ok for the bar but again, they’re not separated. Can you tell I was having a hard time with the layout — it’s even hard describing it.
By this point, I was thinking that the food was going to suck although the dining area was about ¾ full so it couldn’t be all that bad. I got the grilled (apple cider brined) twin pork chops off of the regular menu. It came with some really nice caramelized onions, a massive pile of mashed potatoes and a stack of broccoli. The mashed were a bit dry and crumbly but the pork chops were so juicy that it made up for it. The broccoli was actually really tasty too. I almost cleaned my plate.
My partner got a salmon special that was maple glazed and served with risotto and drizzled with balsamic. It was really good as well.
We were both quite surprised at our dinners. We were too full for dessert but maybe next time.