I had visited The Tavern to celebrate my cousin's birthday. I had made my reservations online and due to some changes, we had to change the date back and forth a little. Every time I edit the date on the online site, it shows that my reservation had been changed.
Two days before the actual visit, I received a call from a angry-sounding man demanding that I confirm my reservation. He accused me of making multiple reservations which I calmly explained I merely changed my reservation. He made it sound like it's all my fault that their online reservation site is not working and ended the call abruptly. Despite this, I decided to give the restaurant a chance and stuck to our plan to visit.
On the day of visit, we were greeted warmly by one of the two staff. The other man, I believe to be the same one on the phone, gave us the cold shoulder by ignoring us in the earlier part of the evening. He only came to our table when taking order and kept pushing the beef despite us telling him that none of us eats beef. He did not smile once and again made us feel very unwelcome.
We ordered quite a few appetisers and mains, some misses here and there. The pan-seared scallops, mango and prawn salad, rack of baby lamb and iberico pork chop were really good - done just nice. The others were not so nice - the angel hair stuck together, the escargot were mediocre, the fish was forgettable, the lobster bisque was a little too salty and the onion soup was way too salty.
All in all, I won't call it a fine dining place, especially given the lack of service staff (two staff for the whole restaurant). Not cheap but not too expensive, given the cosy environment and formal setting of the place. The bill was S$450 excluding wine for the four of us.