Village Tavern Review

publication date: Oct 25, 2008

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author/source: Tim Altork and John Breech / STAFF

First Impressions
John: According to Merriam-Webster, a tavern is “an establishment where alcoholic beverages are sold to be drunk on the premises.” As soon you walk in Village Tavern, you’ll notice that this aptly falls under that description.

Once you walk through the front door, you will be faced with a difficult choice; take a left, head to the bar and take a drink of your beer every time Brian Williams says the words “economy” or “bailout.” Or take a right and head to the restaurant area. (On a side note, if you’re there on a Friday or Saturday and have no reservation, you probably should just save yourself some time and take a left).

Now as for the Village part of the name, I’m assuming they use that word because everyone in the village eats at this place. Tim and I made our visit on a Monday and based on the enormous amount of people there, I could have sworn that it was Thursday or early Friday.

The interior of this place is a great design. The first thought I had was “if Donald Trump owned a cabin in Aspen, Colorado, and Martha Stewart decorated it, this has got to be what it looks like.” The place has high ceilings with visible wooden beams and a fire place so big that Santa Claus, two Falcons offensive linemen and a tyrannosaurus Rex could fit down it at the same time.

Oh and just so you know, I don’t usually make it a habit of breaking down restaurants names, but I do like when the name says it all, like Waffle House.

Tim: VT is very cozy. It feels nice without being stuffy. Our server was just a regular guy who didn’t try to overwhelm us with a bunch of useless knowledge. He left us alone for the most part, but was around enough to keep the waters full and have our food out on time.

Appetizers
John: For an appetizer we went with the sampler. Village Tavern is a sampler paradise. Not only do they have an appetizer sampler, they also have a dessert sampler and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had a sampler of the samplers.

The appetizer sampler consisted of spring rolls, calamari, crab cakes and bruschetta (good variety – an Italian dish, a Chinese dish and two seafood appetizers all on one plate…). The spring rolls were definitely the highlight; they were crispy on the outside with a fresh taste of chicken and cabbage on the inside. On the other hand, you had the bruschetta. The bruschetta was like an attractive girl who’s hanging out with super models. As in, most other nights you might notice her, but not when she’s hanging out with Giselle, Natasha and Elle; in this case, the far tastier spring rolls, crab cakes and calamari.

Tim: Beer update! VT actually lives up to the “Tavern” part of its name as they have nearly a dozen draft beers to choose from. The selection covers brews from the cheap part of America and most of Europe (but nothing from off of the beaten path), so any palate can be satisfied. I went with an old staple – Bass Ale.

Entrées
John: For the main course, Tim and I created our own sampler. It consisted of the Steak Au Poivre, the Tavern pizza and the 10 spice glazed salmon. I’ll start with the salmon and I’ll say this, for having a 10-spice glaze, the flavor was lacking. The fish itself wasn’t bad, but my mouth just yearned for more taste. I gave up after two bites.

The Au Poivre more than made up for the salmon. The combination of cognac cream sauce, mashed potatoes and steak proved to be a terrific one. The steak was cooked perfectly and somehow managed to taste twice as good as it looked. VT offers several steak entrees and you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

I can probably count on one finger the amount of restaurants I’ve been to where you can get a steak, a salmon and a pizza. There are five pizzas to choose from and they all have their plusses. We went with the classic tavern, a combination or pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, hamburger and onions. If you’re bringing the kids with you, feel free to tell them you’re going to a pizza restaurant (kids love pizza restaurants). The kids will be happy (they’re eating pizza) and you’ll be happy (you’re not eating pizza). As a matter of fact, the only loser in this situation would be the parent who has kids that don’t like pizza; hopefully those kids like shrimp risotto.

Tim: I give the pizza high marks because it just happened to have the exact topping combo (pepperoni, onion, green peppers, mushrooms and ground beef) that I found to be the most gratifying during my two years in college as a delivery man for Domino’s Pizza.

And I’ll echo Breech’s assessment of the steak and salmon. The Au Poivre sauce was delectable. The salmon was underwhelming.

Desserts
John: I think I should note that when I go out to eat and I see sampler anything on a menu, I get it. The sampler could consist of donkey meat, asparagus and salmon flavored yogurt and I would still order it.

The dessert sampler consisted of key lime pie, chocolate torte and apple cobbler. I’m not a big fan of key lime, but I found myself taking several bites of VT’s offering. The lime flavor isn’t overwhelming, which is a good thing in my book. The torte looked like a brownie, tasted like cake and smelled like both, all of those being positive attributes. As for the cobbler, I love apple anything; applejacks, apple juice, apple pudding and especially apple cobbler. The dish didn’t disappoint, as the apples were warm and tasty and the crumbs on the outside added a hint of cinnamon and vanilla flavor.

Tim: I actually had some donkey meat once. It tasted like ass.

But seriously, the desserts were excellent, highlighted by the key lime pie.

Overall
John:  The Village Tavern is like my grandma’s house in the sense that it’s homey, comfortable, it has great food and I really want to go back sometime soon. The menu’s eclectic array of offerings is perfect for the picky family. They also feature burgers, pasta, sandwiches, chicken dishes and anything else you can imagine.

I also liked the prices here. I don’t know if it was the restaurant’s design, but walking in, I felt like VT was going cost more than a John Edward’s haircut, but fortunately it was more along the lines of a tank of gas. Tucked away on Rainwater drive, Village Tavern is definitely worth discovering.

Tim: There’s nothing about VT that says, “Stay away.” Even the high end of the menu is reasonably priced so you’re getting a pretty solid meal in a relaxing but classy environment without breaking the bank.