Enjoyable little restaurant. Craving some quality pasta and Italian food? Then this is your place to try. You know its a good restaurant when people start arriving as soon as they open even during the weekdays. We ordered the pasta cumpleano which is their signature pasta dish and I did not regret this choice. Lovely semi spicy pink sauce with fettuccine and protein items of spicy andouille sausage, shrimp, and shredded pieces of chicken. You are served a side of garlic and tomato bread to go with your food free of charge. The bread comes with a side of oil and vinegar to be dipped in. I can agree that the creamy pink sauce is a little on the heavy side and made me feel bloated. Coming from someone who rarely eats pasta because of the incredible amount of carbs, I can dig this place! We also ordered the fried calamari, which we both agreed we could have done without. It was nothing special and was sprinkled with a sour salt? Not a fan of the calamari and parts of it were a little hard to chew. Overall, we rate this place a 7/10.

Another great pasta experience at La Tavolata! It is annoying that this place is super small, so there's always a way if you don't have a reservation from a day prior, but I'm not holding that against them. The pasta and main dishes delivered once again. The bread was great as usual, and we even tried the ice cream this time, which wasn't bad either. I definitely suggest making reservations at least a day in advance or coming 35-45 minutes before you want to eat if you're coming in the evening (even on early weekdays). Here's everything I tried this time: 4.5/5 - Melanzane al Forno: panko-crusted asian eggplant, fried and baked with mozzarella and tomato-basil sauce served with penne pasta and tossed with fresh sautéed vegetables. Love their red sauce, definitely my favorite of their sauces. 4/5 - Trenette al Pesto: ribbon pasta, fresh housemade basil pesto, and toasted pine nuts. Much milder in flavor than the red, but still a dect pesto. 4/5 - Scaloppine di Pollo ai Funghi: pan sautéed free range chicken, with wild mushroom, sundried tomato, olive marsala sauce, served with spaghetti and broccoli. Decent flavors and a good portion. 4/5 - Complementary bread: really fluffy and delicious, definitely made it worth the wait! 3.5/5 - Gelati (Hazelnut): they were out of the pistachio flavor so we went with hazelnut, not the best in terms of flavor, but not bad either.

I had an amazing first experience here with my husband! We came by for dinner on a Friday night and the wait was about an hour and 15 min. They do take your phone number for the waiting list so we just walked around the plaza and got drinks while waiting for them to text us. Parking can be a little tricky on busier nights. Overall, I think it was worth the wait! We ordered the squid ink and prawn and carbonara pastas, and they were both very good. All of the ingredients tasted very fresh and the pasta noodles had the perfect texture. The sauces were super flavorful. The complimentary bread was also delicious! Service was excellent. This is definitely my new favorite Italian joint near Orange County. I'd highly recommend!

The food was amazing, with very large portions. The service was friendly, though they were really busy, so they couldn't be as attentive as usual, but they did their best. One thing that bothered me was when a waiter knocked our check to the floor, looked at it, and just walked away--I found that a bit rude, though it might have been because he was busy. The inside is pretty small and tight, but it has a cute vibe.

The pasta is fresh and the sauce is tasty! I had reservations for a party of 4. We checked in a few minutes before, but weren't seated until 15-20 minutes later. I did see other tables that were free without a reservation sign, but we ended up sitting at another area that I know was occupied when we first arrived. Not sure how what happened there since we did have reservations and the entire party was on time. The food was delicious. The servings were generous. You really cannot go wrong ordering the fresh pasta. It is what they are known for! I did have to ask for the oil/balsamic combo for the table bread as our server did not bring it when he brought out the bread.

As a person that doesn't eat Italian food often, this place hit the spot!!! It's in a plaza with lots of other restaurants. However because all the other restaurants are very popular, parking gets hard during prime lunch/dinner time. Sadly 99 cent store closed, so that frees up some extra parking. The restaurant itself seems small, but quaint. The service was nice. The charcuterie plate is not something I particularly enjoyed as the meat/fat was a little bit too.. chewy? The starter bread was delicious. The chicken Parm was okay. The veggies it came with , was seasoned with lemon and tasted so summery and fresh. It definitely bumped that dish up to a 4 for me! The favorite of the night was the fettuccine compleanno!! The prosecuttio actually tasted better in this dish than by itself in the charcuterie plate. The sauce was so delicious, we ordered it a side of it to go to dip some sad mozzarella sticks we had at home. By the way the sauce cost extra $1-$2 dollars extra. Overall we will definitely return for the side veggies plate, the pasta, and probably another pasta dish. :))

We went for a friend's birthday and the pastas were all unique and great! I wouldn't say there was anything distinguishable but I ordered the carbonara and thought it was a very solid option. Also tried the fettuccine cumpleanno and that also had a lot of great flavors that were Cajun reminiscent. The inside was a bit small and we didn't have reservation so we did need to wait a little, so might be worth planning ahead or going on a much less crowded day! Bread was great to scoop up the sauciness after the pasta though!

This is a good restaurant to visit if you want large portions and decent Italian food. For appetizers, we had the house bread, which felt like it was missing a dipping element (oil & balsamic), and a couple different salads. The caprese salad was missing some sort of vinegar. For the main course I ordered the pappardelle pasta with vodka sauce. It originally came with meat and I requested to have spinach instead. The side of broccoli was ok. The side would have been worth it and tastier if it was a charred broccolini instead. My favorite part of the dinner were the desserts because of how large they were. It's hard to go wrong with tiramisu and cheesecake. The size of the restaurant is small, so it is recommended to make a reservation. If Yelp isn't showing times, be sure to call the restaurant. We had a reservation at 7 pm but were seated at least 20-30 min after.

Didn't realize that this place was a popular little Italian restaurant. Walked in on a Tuesday evening around 6:00pm and was told the wait would be half an hour or longer. There were several empty tables with reserved sign on them. There was no information on their Yelp feature or on their website indicating you can make reservations. Luckily, we got seated within 10 -15 minutes. Service was good. The food was very good. Plating was alright. The complementary bruschetta was a bit sloppily made as there were hardly any toppings on it. The mango caprese was good and refreshing. The insalata cesare wasn't mixed well as some got bland while others got salty portions. We enjoyed the spaghetti alla carbonara, spaghetti ai frutti di mare, and the salmon special. Good food with generous portions. We ended our meal with the Tiramisu for dessert. It was delectable and light! Overall, it was a good dining experience.

Delicious! We enjoyed everything from our complimentary bread to the entrees. The restaurant is tiny but felt cozy. Their red sauce was so good and tangy. I was truly addicted and couldn't stop eating! The fried eggplant had a great texture and flavor. The spicy red sauce was also very good. The snoozeberry soda tasted just like a melted down cherry ICEE! We love coming here for our pasta fix.