Travinia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar

I was not impressed. Went for lunch by myself. Was seated at a booth with bread crumbs on my seat and a few on the table. I arrived an hour after opening and their bread was still baking so it did not come until my meal arrived. As I was waiting for the food, I noticed dust on every ledge around the booths, dust on the glass shelves in the bar area. This makes me wonder about the kitchen. The pasta I ordered was good. It was very expensive in general. $ 24 for an iced tea, bowl of pasta and slice of cake. Will not return.

Skeptical with only a 3 star rating, we were pleasantly surprised. By checking in on Unilocal prior to our arrival we scored a coupon for free nachos. They were some of the best nachos I have ever had. Salad and entrees were enjoyed by all with the exception of the flat breads. The roasted chicken flatbreads were too salty and lacked flavor. Some crushed red pepper helped with that. The bread on which the flat breads are based on is very good and crispy. The other flat breads may have more flavor. Happy to find Peroni on tap. Excellent service. Outdoor seating with fire pit. Would gladly return.

Went here on a snowy night when most of Biltmore Park was dead. I had the mussel appetizer as a meal, they weren’t the best I’ve had but they were good and it was plentiful and filling as were the calamari. This is a good choice if you want a quiet atmosphere, but it isn’t very cozy as its very open, but it’s still a good choice for a date night or business dinner.

Went in for lunch and was told there were no tables and we would have to wait at the bar. Clearly saw plenty of open tables. Was seated at the bar while we waited. Ordered an ice tea and sprite and after a 20 minute wait were told we had to pay for the «drinks» at the bar. When I explained they were non alcoholic drinks and couldn’t we carry them to the table and add them to our final bill, we were curtly told to close our tab and then let them know. Then the hostess walked off. It took several tries to get the bar tenders attention. At which point I paid the $ 6 for the two small fountain drinks and left! What a huge disappointment. I will never visit this establishment again! Found a much better restaurant right across the street!
Hostess was very abrupt. Bar tender was obnoxious and impatient. We were told they were short staffed. No reason to run off customers ladies!

It is OK restaurant for folks who never traveled to Italy and think that this is Real Italian Place. It is not! Muscles that we ordered several times for years get saltier and the souse (or dressing) is full of MSG. Would be good if Manager teach kitchen staff to learn or recognize 27 different names for hidden MSG. Last time we were there with all family, celebrating event, and waitress with the trainee looked kind of strange when I asked if it has MSG. They say they do not use it. They do, and a lot. I know MSG by smell, I almost dye at one point from it. Bread is good, but olive oil smelled fish, very strongly. Spinach Salad is good, Nacho was exceptionally good. Veal is OK, less breaded wood be better… Spaghetti did not worth the price we paid. Atmosphere was good thou.

I’ve only been here once, but I’d like to go again. I went in for a late lunch on a Wednesday so it was pretty dead inside. I had the spinach and goat cheese salad. It was very good, but it had way too much dressing. Honestly, I was too hungry to say anything so I gobbled most of it down, leaving a small pile of over soaked spinach leaves behind. I mentioned it to my waitress after my meal and she was very nice about it. She apologized and said that I should have told her so that she could have had another made for me. It happened to be half priced martinis so I ordered one of those while I was there. I can’t remember the name of it, but I’d give the drink 5 stars!

If it was not for the theatre being next door would never eat here again. They used to have awesome food. Now it is just mediocre at best. The changing of the menu last year to the corporate menu and removing what really great dishes that had was a major mistake. The staff has turned over again, so you have inexperienced serving staff that spend the entire time in the kitchen rather than making certain the patrons are taken care of. So disappointed.

I have lost count of how many times I come to Travinia. Due to its proxmity to the movie theater (it’s literally 30 feet away) and the great ambience it is my go to place for dinner or drinks before or after seeing a movie. The 2 activities are always linked! I have only dined in the main restaurant 2 or 3 times and that was years ago. I always sit at the bar. Its a very fun and social lounge area with plenty of windows so you can see out in to the plaza for some fun people watching.
The bar staff have always been friendly and always aware of whats going on. Not uncommon for a popular restaurant like this is the Bartenders can get backed up filling orders from the floor so just be patient and they will get to you.
Just be advised that this place can get very slammed on a Thursday — Saturday night.
Dont forget to «check in» on the Unilocal mobile app, because they have special Unilocal offers. The last offer I had was free chicken nachos with the purchase of an entrée. That would have been great had I checked in before I ordered instead of afterwards!

Wow of wow ! Super sweet chicken Piccati, Sheila was a super staff person and the wine was a good chianti as a house wine was amazing to me pallet! A must visit and good for doggies on the patio!

Loved the mushroom Ravi polenta and I don’t even like mushrooms! It was so good. The Brussel sprouts are to die for– roasted and slightly sweet and salty. The pork pappardelle pasta was so hearty. The flavor was very deep and reminded me of marrow. I also had the muddled strawberry smash cocktail. It was perfect with lunch. The restaurant is beautiful too. Great atmosphere. Our server was great too– very attentive. Would highly recommend.

We stopped in for a late lunch on a Saturday. The service was good, but the restaurant was not busy at all. The food was ok… Not spectacular, but decent. The first dish we got was the mushroom ragu polenta. I liked the concept, but found the ragu just a little too salty. We then had the braised pork pappardelle and a side of roasted Brussels sprouts. Both were pretty good. My only criticisms were that the paperdelle was a little over cooked and under seasoned.
Overall, not bad.

Stopped in for appetizers and a drink and it was great the nachos and Tony’s favorite flat bread was excellent and waiter Colby was good a nice place to go

We went here last night… they were overbooked and understaffed. Our waitress did a great job taking care of us under the circumstances.
The salads were floating in dressing
The mussel pernod appetizer had a bad taste and was barely edible.
My daughter order chicken piccata style… The chicken was grilled and not edible and zero sauce on the pasta. We returned it
I had Cioppino Almafi they had no scallops, the tomatoes were bitter I ate it because I was starving
I would not recommend this place

Hubs and I just finished watching a movie and, despite the low star count, thought we’d give this place a try. We walked in (over an hour before closing), no one was at the host station and it took a solid 5 minutes before the 4^th person who saw us decided to seat us. Said 4^th person seemed to view our arrival as quite the imposition, given that he rolled his eyes when he was within 10 feet of us and gave a very audible sigh of frustration. My husband and I quickly picked up on the fact that our presence was unwanted, so we informed him that we would be happy to eat elsewhere if it was too much trouble to seat us. Mr. Tall Blond Host gave us the token «squinty-​eye sarcastic smile» have a nice night look and quickly scooped up what were to be our menus and never looked back. I hope that, if you’re still reading this, you happily walk across the sidewalk to 131 main where the staff is much more friendly and, given the previous reviews here, the food is more scrumptious and inspired.

This is my second visit. New drink called a Snickertini was awesome. Our server Chuck went above and beyond on sevice and attention. Had Flatbread, Uncle Tony’s. Excellent. For coffee connoisseurs the coffee is very good, French Market! The Tiramisu is really good. Took Cannolis off the menu? Cappuccino machine is working!

Family lunch for Easter and our daughter’s birthday. Made last minute reservations and we’re glad they could accommodate us.
(posted my food portion of my review under «check-in”-oops!)
Food is always delicious here-​5!
Pleasantly waited on by the day bartender. Service-​5!
Always have a wonderful experience!

This is one of my favorite Italian places in the Asheville area. The food is phenomenal and the atmosphere is classy. (Live music on Wednesdays!) The patio is great, too. The staff has always gone above and beyond, and been incredibly warm and friendly – even giving us free tiramisu one night at close! I recommend this place to all my friends! Ignore the negative reviews and give it a try. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

For the price you pay for this food, it should be A LOT better. The quality is really lacking. However, the service was really good and the facility and atmosphere were really nice. I wish the food was better because I really expected more from this restaurant.

Wow, we knew from the reviews that the choice was dicey, but the fact it’s 10 yards from the hotel made us give it a try. Right now, I wish there was an option for zero stars. Seriously a disaster from the get-​go. Upon arrival with 9 guests (5 kids, 4 adults) we were sat with a waitress who promptly told us the stickiness of the table was due to the «peeling varnish.» Immediately the drink order was confusing for the waitress. (Not a good sign, it was mostly water!)
We ordered apps and mains including pastas, pizza and salads. After over an hour, including begging for bread and drinks and dealing with the manager, the apps and mains came out together, minus my main dish. Bland bland and bland was the consensus, evidenced by lots of half-​eaten plates. The prosciutto pizza proved to be a scavenger hunt for the prosciutto. The only highlight was my son’s Caesar Salad w/​Chicken which he enjoyed.
Endless apologies and major comps on the bill softened the experience somewhat. Dessert? Uh… no! We are headed to Coldstone. The waitress finally brought the requested Red Pepper Flakes when she dropped off the bill. Unreal!
The tears from the waitress as we were leaving were a bit over the top… Seriously? YOU are crying?
This place is a stain on the amazing culinary experiences available close by in Asheville and the management doesn’t get it.

We stayed at the hotel across the street, and was looking for a quick dinner. Really good warm bread to start, and the spinach goat cheese salad was very tasty. Unfortunately, everything else fell apart. My fillet mignon was medium as I requested, but it was far from tender. The crab meat on the steak also did more harm than good. Service was attentive, but the place was also very empty.