a Tavola Market Cafe’ is located in Greenville, North Carolina. Randy and I spent a nice day exploring the shops and marina in Washington, North Carolina. We decided to go home through Greenville and grab a nice dinner. When exploring the restaurants in Greenville on my Trip Advisor app, I found a Tavola Market Cafe’. The name means come and eat and we definitely did that!
aTavola! Market Café (atavolamarket.com)
Offerings
The market café is vegetarian-friendly and has both vegan and gluten-free options. It features Italian cuisine. Features include salads, sandwiches, pasta, and pizza. Whole wheat pasta and lower calorie and low carb options are available.
Monthly Wine tastings are held on the 2nd Wednesday of every month.
The restaurant is small and has little opportunity to social distance so, if that bothers you, consider doing take-out. The food is wonderful and when you sit in the main dining area, you can watch the action in the kitchen. It was quite enjoyable.
What We Ate
Wanda’s Dinner
I have a love-hate relationship with salads. When I was younger, I would never eat salads. Back then, all everyone ever used was Iceberg lettuce and I have never been a huge fan of it. Raw tomatoes are not for me either. So, salads were always a no for me. One day, I discovered the Caesar salad. What was this strange lettuce? And it only has croutons and cheese? Picky eaters like me will love this salad! Now, I eat Caesar salads on occasion and decided to try one here. It was a good start to the meal. The lettuce was fresh and it had just enough dressing. The croutons were good and not too crunchy.
For my entree, I selected a vegetarian-friendly option, the baked ziti, pasta tossed with mozzarella, ricotta, and marinara. More mozzarella is added and it is baked until gooey and piping hot. You can also add sausage if you would like. The ziti came to the table super hot and it was covered with cheese. There are also toast points on the side that you could use to dip into the marinara. The homemade marinara is fresh and perfectly seasoned. The pasta was cooked very well and when topped with the marinara and cheeses, it was amazing. When I think of my favorite things to eat, this tops the list.
I finished my meal with the Tiramisu. It was light, creamy, and delicious. The espresso-soaked ladyfingers on the bottom gave the dessert a punch of flavor and the chocolate topping and fresh whipped cream added the perfect touch.
Randy’s Dinner
Randy ordered the Shrimp Po Boy. Freshly baked bread is loaded with fried shrimp and topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, and remoulade. The Po Boy is served with 2 sides. Randy selected the dirty (seasoned) fries and the pasta salad. Both sides were delicious but, he preferred the fries, of course!
For dessert, Randy ordered the carrot cake. It’s not something he usually orders but, he loved this one. We have made several trips to get the carrot cake since he first tried it. I even tried to recreate a homemade version. My cake was similar but, the frosting at a Tavola is superb and I am having trouble topping it.
Our dinner was fabulous! I have also tried to make the baked ziti at home and the taste is not as spectacular. I think maybe the giant pizza oven that they use and the fresh ingredients they use have something to do with it. I look forward to many more trips to Greenville for lunch or an early dinner and to trying many more authentic Italian dishes here. They also have carry-out if you live close by and need some delicious Italian food.
