Taverna Italian Kitchen + Bar

A great, casual Italian restaurant in the downtown area of Saskatoon. Portion sizes are huge …take a look at that seafood plate with all the mussels!! Pizza was good and thin crust.

If you’re considering Taverna for a family meal, do yourself a favour and run the other way—preferably to a fast-food joint where at least the expectations are low and the prices match the mediocrity. For context I spent $400 for two adults and three kids, only to endure what can only be described as a culinary catastrophe wrapped in incompetence. This place isn’t just bad; it’s an insult to anyone who’s ever paid for food. Let’s start with the service, which was an absolute travesty from the moment we walked in. Our server seemed more interested in chatting with colleagues than attending to us, leading to long waits for everything from water refills to the check. It felt like we were invisible, except when it came time to overcharge us. And the ambiance? Forget about it. The tables were bare—no tablecloths in sight—and looked like they were lifted straight from a Denny’s during its off-hours. For $400, I expect at least a pretense of elegance, not sticky surfaces and wobbly chairs that scream “budget diner.” The food was where things truly went off the rails. Hair in not one, but two of our dishes? That’s not just gross; it’s a health hazard that should have the inspectors shutting this place down. The drinks were bland and forgettable—watered-down concoctions that tasted like they were mixed by someone who’d never heard of flavor profiles. But the real low point was my Vongole, one of my all-time favourite dishes that I foolishly thought couldn’t be botched. Wrong. The pasta was clearly straight out of a box, limp and lifeless like it had been boiled in yesterday’s dishwater. The sauce? A watery, flavorless sludge that wouldn’t pass muster at a college dorm microwave session. And to top it off, there were sealed clams scattered throughout—any half-decent chef knows those are dangerous and shouldn’t be served, yet here they were, risking our health for what? Laziness? Incompetence? It’s unforgivable. We left feeling ripped off, disgusted, and vowing never to return. Save your money and your sanity Taverna isn’t worth a dime, let alone $400. One star, and that’s generous.