A recent visit at the Tavern on the Hill has given me mixed feelings. Enjoying a date night with my girlfriend we went to visit to Tavern on the hill in Enola, Pennsylvania. Location of the restaurant is fairly easy to get to from Harrisburg took about 11 minutes from home. Approaching the restaurant I was first disappointed because of the lack of view you get of the river. Thought it would be a nice view, not at all how I pictured it, I remember reading advertisement online about the great view of the east shore at Tavern on the Hill. That wasn’t accurate at all.
When entering the restaurant it was very nice, it looked like a nice quailty resturant and had a nice layout it also gave you the feel you were about to experience something classy. In other words it looked pretty expensive walking in and I only hope that the food was worth what I was about to pay. Who doesn’t think that you always want to get your money’s worth right?
After waiting at the hostess station for a minute or so,we sit down and our waitress was Jessica she’s very professional,very knowledgeable,very friendly and very attentive to my girlfriend and I from the time that we sat down. We first ordered an appetizer which was the blackened shrimp and scallops with Ginger Thai Oriental sauce (Which we pick based on our waitress is suggestion). Happy to say that this was very good the scallops were perfectly cook the shrimp with perfectly cooked the sauce was so good you wish you had something to dip in the sauce after you were finished eating the scallops and shrimp. This was definitely something that I would get again and was happy that I went with the waitresses suggestion, it is one of the best appetizers I’ve tasted in a long time.
Well as we finished up our appetizer the waitress brought back a basket of bread for the table which I personally thought they could have kept it in the kitchen. It wasn’t warm they gave you too big rolls and like three slices of some crusty Italian bread that was cold and they give you some olive oil with some seasoning but you can’t really taste the seasoning it could be me or that it was really bad and not very good seasoning. Which I think that is the case here. And I feel if the restaurant gives you bad bread they can also give you bad meals. How hard is it serving good bread?? REALLY?
So Jessica comes and takes our order. My girlfriend orders the Crabcake dinner with a side of some roasted potatoes. I order the Veal Parmesan and baked Manicotti and I add a single crab cake to my order as well,I also got the roasted potatoes(I won’t waste no time on those potatoes they were horrible and really sucked!!). We both got the garden salad also aka the house salad that was being offered with the meal. I got my salad with ranch dressing and my girlfriend got a Greek vinaigrette dressing on hers. The salad was just lettuce and a bit of tomato and the salad dressing. And I do have to say for being very plain the homemade salad dressing made it really good actually. Thats a plus if you can make lettuce taste good with just one tomato and your salad dressing you’re doing something right!
As we were finishing up our salads our entrees came out, very good timing by the waitress and the kitchen staff. While we were eating a salad the waitress was still very attentive of us and checked on us frequently.
My Veal Parmesan was very tasty, not over seasoned but it did need a bit of salt. It was good, a nice blending of seasoning and the Parmesan cheese was well melted all over the breaded veal, there was plenty of cheese IMO and it looked good. But overall the Veal didn’t give me that Oooh whee moment I was hoping for honestly after eating the appetizer I thought the entree would be way better, I was wrong. The Veal was not as tender as I would had hoped it would b it was kinda hard to cut and just tasted OK. I can say that I’ve had better elsewhere. I also knew that it wasn’t that good because I let my girlfriend taste it and she didn’t ask for anymore, usually if she ask for more that means whatever I’ve ordered is pretty good, that didn’t happen here. The baked manicotti was very good the cheese blend with excellent I enjoyed that very much it actually help this veal a lot. Now I still had the crab cake that I added to my entree(for 9.99 it better be good) it was pretty good it wasn’t the best crabcake I ever had, it wasn’t the biggest, it didn’t have a lot of filling with it at all, it just didn’t have that taste you get from a crab cakes like at the Progress Grill or probably any places you can get crabcakes at in Baltimore or anywhere else really, if you just want some crabcakes don’t go to this place. Not saying they’re bad, just saying 9.99 to add to entree don’t give me a average crabcake, and for the prices here nothing you order should be average everything you experience should stand out in some way, by taste or by presentation.
So the only thing that this restaurant has going for it this night was a great waitress that recommended a great appetizer, the baked manicotti and the homemade salad dressing. The bread was not good and they shouldn’t put that mess on anyone’s table. The Veal Parmesan was not bad but for the price it could have been a lot better there was nothing special about it. And this is not the place to go for crab cakes.
For the price that you pay to go Tavern on the Hill can save your money and go to Carrabba’s and have a better meal at less of a hit to your wallet. Although the atmosphere at the restaurant was very classy and very nice, the food in my opinion didn’t live up to the hype. It was although a very good date night with my girlfriend and we had a very nice/fun time, the restaurant was quiet and it had class. And that’s worth something, but when your asking for high-end prices on the menu the customer should believe that they’re going to get what they’re paying for.
My final view on this restaurant is save your money if you want a nice dining experience and less money out pocket go to Carrabba’s better food, same atmosphere, and most importantly cheaper. But if you really want have that classy elegant experience Tavern on the Hill isn’t a bad choice, just know you may not feel that way once you leave. But you don’t have to take my word for it.
“Sonny” ♥♥♡ 2.5 out of 5