Just ok
The River Tavern is a very trendy looking restaurant. It’s a little cold feeling, and not romantic at all. It seems more into status, and looks, than good food.

The food has a nice taste, and a decent presentation, but is over priced for what you get.    [22 Dec 2005 15:07:22]

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     ­Anonymous   

Very good
I disagree with the prior review. The food at River Tavern is excellent. The wine list is very, very good, but over priced. My only complaint is that I wish the bar was larger.

If you want regular old American fair with a big pile of French Fries, go next door to Pattaconk. If you want a gormet dining experience go to River Tavern.    [27 Jul 2006 17:16:52]

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     ­Anonymous, Madison, CT   

Desparate to love it!!!!
I love this place! I really do! I keep going back!

BUT! It takes forever to get a drink from the "you know Hugh", bartender! It seems as though sometimes the bartender is almost inconvenienced!

And the dinner service is very slow too! I understand that there is sometimes a back-up/rush, but all you have to do is tell the customer what is going on, instead of leaving them to think that maybe they were forgotten.

I appreciate the menu. It is small but well laid out & delicious, however, at 8:00 on a Friday night they are always out of at least two of the entrees.

I tell everyone how great the River Tavern is and we have brought a lot of people in as guests. I hate to say it, but I usually find myself apologizing for the service from both the bartender and the waitress.

If they could resolve the service issues this place would be nearly flawless!

PS. The waiter (not waitress) is very accommodating and helpful!    [26 Sep 2006 15:02:37]

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Recommended Dishes: House made Guacamole & Date Pudding!

     ­Big Fan!   

Inconsistent
Had a very trustworthy recommendation on this place but my experience there was horrid. Bad service, food took forever to arrive, and it was wrong. A torrent of apologies but not even a mention that they might take responsibility. If all of that happened and the food was great, I could forgive some. Sorry. Not great bordering on outright bad. I have the feeling that if I was willing to go there a few times I would get at least one good meal. Not gonna happen.    [02 Oct 2006 14:12:40]

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Recommended Dishes: Elsewhere

     ­stunt diner, Southington   

Best In Town (and that's saying something)
I live in Chester and my wife and I have had uniformly good luck at River Tavern. The service has always been fine, but we go for the food, which has always been delicious and interesting. Chester has at least 3 really good restaurants, and a fourth (about which we've heard good things) has opened recently. If I could eat at only one, I would pick River Tavern (with Restaurant Du Village and Lupo in a tie for second).    [09 Oct 2006 14:39:05]

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     ­Anonymous, Chester, CT   

AMAZING!!!!
The river tavern is one of the best restaurants that I have ever been to... the food is amazing and incredibly fresh. They often run out of one or two menu items but that’s only because they cook for the day and the menu item must have been very popular. The service can lack speed sometimes but the bussers are always right on the money (the food makes up for it!!)    [25 Nov 2006 18:52:48]

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Recommended Dishes: crepes

     ­chester local   

the worst service ever
Yes, it's a beautifully attractive restaurant. Too bad you can't eat the wall treatments or the view from the back window.
First, our drinks took forever.
Then, the staff was rude. Their service was quite nonchalant and passive. After dropping our entrees in front of us, which were no more than 'okay', they didn't come back again 'till it was time to leave the hefty check. And THEN they still didn't ask if we needed anything else!
The Tavern seems completely unattached from their customers. Get 'em in and get 'em out and make 'em pay, it seems.
won't be going back there anytime soon, I had heard such great things about this place and I was disappointed when they didn't live up to it. So were my friends.
Chester is a gorgeous town, it is worth the trip just to look around the quaint and historic downtown area...but think twice about visiting the River Tavern.
(Unless of course, you like preoccupied servers and mediocre food at high prices.)    [25 Jun 2007 10:06:43]

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     ­Anonymous, new britain   

Bad Rapp
Seems like the feat was opening the place, but keeping it open is not a priority. For breakfast my guest was very excited about a simple but wonderful dish of baked eggs, and much to our surprise they were baked hard and stuck to the dish. They were also cold. For that and a couple of crepes we waited an hour!    [25 Jun 2007 17:19:51]

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     ­Don Kamuff