The Tavern Restaurant

This is a great place for a relatively casual-​classy evening out; the ambiance is wonderful here in a non-​pretentious way. I went there with a buddy to try their Sriracha deviled eggs, which were *awesome*, I wished they gave you double of what they do. And their burger was filling and delicious. The Tavern bar is modest in size, but hop over to the Piano bar for a great chill evening out, while you’re here!

It was ok. Food is nothing more than ok. We got our appetizer with our main dishes, which was a little inconvenient. I also got a burger that was supposed to be medium and was pretty rare.

great cocktails and food! in the bottom floor of a gay bar! what more do you need?
definitely order the Grilled Gem Salad — sooooo good! we split it and it was probably big enough for a single person’s lunch or smaller dinner. everything else we ate was super delicious too — we got the grilled cheese/​tomato soup and the veggie burger. «two enthusiastic thumbs up! fine family fun!»

Great place, with good food. I had the burger and deviled eggs — all were top notch. They have a piano bar upstairs that was busy as well; but the main dining is downstairs, which made it cozy. I would go back here and try more of the menu items.

Just a heads up that they no longer have kale chips. It’s sad since they were the deciding factor when I was torn between Tavern and somewhere else for dinner. It’s a sad day. The only thing that will keep me coming back here is the veggie burger, god help them if they get rid of that.

Terrible service. Great food.
I so wanted to love this place. It has beautiful, contemporary wine cellar décor which is smart considering it’s subterranean location.
Drink list is great and creative, if a bit pricey.
Service is clearly not valued here. Our reservation was for 4 people and they first tried to seat us at a table for 2. Easy mistake since our friends weren’t there yet, but still. The place was practically empty and yet there was no casual chit chat or joking with our waiter. We ordered drinks and an appetizer while we we were waiting for our friends, and they hardly checked on us.
Once our friends got there (on time, we were early) they thought we’d be ready to order dinner right away… no hellos or anything. The food we had was great– cheese plate, grilled cheese and tomato soup, and the egg and asparagus.
If the service had been better I would’ve gone back.

Great burger (medium rare with cheddar equivalent cheese). I loved! the side salad of all things. We also shared the deviled eggs and we would recommend it. Eggs were tasty and not too heavy. Server, Michael, was really nice and friendly!

I happened to stumble upon this place while on a recent visit to Philadelphia. Love the fact that the staff dress for in the colonial period, and they give a brief history lesson! Great atmosphere makes you feels as though you’ve gone back in time. The serve original recipe beers from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. I had the Washington porter and it was really good — not heavy at all. Only down side was the pork was over cooked and dry.

Excellent food and service plus this was the only place open for our *really* late night dinner plans (midnight!) the fried kale chips are unique and worth a try. It’s a small place and appears like the folks running it are pretty involved. Burgers were fantastic. Overall 5 stars for service, food and ambience, all coming together even late at night

I’m having such trouble rating The Tavern. I called for a table for 2 on a friday night. We didn’t know that the entrance for the restaurant was actually down stairs… so we used the front door on the ground floor. such amateurs. Upon entrance there was a piano, a bar, and a few tables. No hostess or anyone that worked there. I ran down a barback who was sweating and he pointed down the stairs. The downstairs has low ceilings, its crammed, and the hostess was at the completely opposite side of the stairs. Now that that’s over… dinner.
Our waiter, who was extremely out of breathe and gave me anxiety just by looking at him, took our drink order. Came back with drinks and took our food order. 2 pork belly sliders and garlic fries. 40 minutes later we grabbed him as hes doing jumping jacks in the back (just kidding, but like why are you so outta breathe dude). I asked him if he could rush our food bc we needed to leave. 5 minutes later comes out extremely hot food. Assuming at this point either the waiter or cook messed up. Regardless, the waiter was extremely apologetic, which is really everything. The couple items we ordered were pretty good. Its a shame the set up was so weird. It also looked like they only had 1 or 2 servers.
Maybe. Maybe I’ll try it again. I would give them a 2.5. I’ll be nice and round up rather than down.

A group of my friends (8 of us) and I walked in to Tavern around 8:45 — 9:00pm with no reservation. They said that we would have to wait for a table so we ordered some drinks and the deviled eggs (they were so good) while we waited. We sat at the small high top bar tables while we waited. The hostess told us that she probably would not be able to seat us in the dining room so we decided to sit at the small bar because we were hungry. We didn’t really mind to do that. The bar tender, Amy, took our order immediately. She was very nice and made sure we had everything that we needed. I ate the grilled cheese and tomato soup, which was so yummy! Everyone else loved their meals as well. The garlic fries were very good. I will definitely go back.

I had a lovely and affordable dinner at the Tavern. I had the chicken sandwich, fries, and a side of sauteed kale and everything was really good, but the kale could’ve used a bit of oomph… I for one would’ve loved some garlic! My sandwich came out warm (not hot) but it was so good I didn’t mind. My friend loved his burger. Definitely get the secret sauce — it’s like crack, I was triple-​dipping my fries into it!
The service could be better — my friend had a hard time getting a second beer, and the waiter never stopped back to check on us until we were done eating… which would’ve been a shame if we needed, say, ketchup.
We dined in the back room, which was pretty cold, and it took some time to get the waiter’s attention to turn off the COLD AIR (!!) that was coming in from a vent directly above our heads. But the air was eventually turned down and we were able to enjoy our meal.
$ 42 for two sandwiches, two sides (included) + 1 extra side, and 3 drinks. Can’t beat it! The $ 5 house wine was pretty good too.

Went in after doing genealogy research over at the HSP, and wanted to grab a bite. I was in the gayborhood, but didn’t want to go to a club, nor did I want something non-​local. Tucked away on Camac, the Tavern did not disappoint.
Great people, and staff. Nice atmosphere of the «Cheers-​style» family local bar, yet out-​of-​towners feel equally welcome.
I ordered some food, the Tavern Burger, and a couple of local IPAs. Both the food and the craft beer were great. The burger was cooked perfectly and was so delicious I wish I had enough room to order a second.
I will note that all of this took place in the downstairs part; in this visit I did not venture upstairs.
If you’re in the area and want some great food or craft beer, especially if you are seeking a «family» place in the gayborhood, this is it.

I’m a Life long Philadelphian who had a horrible Friday at work. As I hit our front door, my husband told me to hit the shower, put on a cute outfit and get ready for. a night of fun like we were 20 year olds. We drove into Philly with no restaurant reservations and our usual gayberhood spots were booked and we were really hungry. I remembered Tavern on Camac as a gay restaurant from when I was 20 (now 50).Back then it had a rep for being «for old people. «Which of course, I am now. :)
Anyway, we walked by and lots of folks of all striped were walking in and out. So we walked down the basement steps and took a chance knowing nothing about the place. We were really glad we did.
It’s small and intimate, and has a very nice ambience. Almost a ski lodge kind of feel. The folks at the host desk were warm and friendly. The waiter was there in a minute. The menu is a bit limited, but has both solid «picky eater» choices and unusual options. I toyed with getting their grilled cheese and tomato soup entrée with the app of the day which was basically homemade fancy tater tots. Instead I got a special of the day crab cakes with sauteed kale and it was super wonderful. I also got one of their specialty cocktails. It was super strong and that’s the reason I dont remember its name.
The crowd was mostly gay, but lots of friends and allies there too. As I said, the place is small, so no if your party is larger than 6, you might want to call and check. I read a review where someone took s party of 20 and then complained about service. 20 would almost fill the entire place. No wonder they’d be overwhelmed by that.
Anyway overall, nice place, great food. We’ll be back and next time we’ll check out the second floor bar and third floor nightclub.

Service was pretty horrible. Our party of 20 was broken up into different tables (which was fine) but we were all served at different times. When one of our tables finished eating their food, the other ones still hadn’t gotten their food.
The menu selection was subpar and all the sides were over cooked. They have a weird portion menu where you can choose to get a burger in either a regular portion or a slider portion. Because the slider was half the price of the full portion, we assumed it would be about half the size. WRONG! It was maybe about a third or less.
The only reason I gave this place two stars instead of one was because the sandwich was actually pretty tasty in terms of flavor but the rest of the experience brought the place down.

Best burger we’ve ever had, pickle plate was okay, fries amaze and eggplant salad ridiculous… can’t wait to go back!!!

From NOLA and in town for a convention. Didn’t know what I was getting into when I went hunting for a grilled cheese sandwich, but man did this place impress. As a straight female I was wary that I wouldn’t be welcome in what is obviously a gay establishment, but once I walked in I felt completely accepted.
My grilled cheese didn’t disappoint, but what was more impressive was the live entertainment. It was piano sing-​along night on the second floor, which was an absolutely fantastic accompaniment to my meal!
If I’m ever in Philly again I’ll definitely be back.

Hmmm… Where do I start? I absolutely love Tavern. I came across a FooBooz article about when Tavern was first opening & it explained how the head chef there Mackenzie (who is awesome by the way) had won on Top Chef. Now, I have always been a big fan of watching Top Chef so I knew I had to try out the restaurant. When my boyfriend and I had walked there we didn’t realize that they don’t open until 6pm so we went around the corner for a drink to kill time.
Once the restaurant opened we were welcomed by a cheerful staff who was very knowledgeable about the menu. We let the waitress pick out all of our appetizer items for us which wound up being amazing. She served us items such as kale chips, a pickled plate with pickles, pickled cucumber rinds, beets, etc, deviled eggs, cheese plate, and a salad.
Now I’ve been there many times so I have tried many things, The one cool thing about the menu is the sandwich section. Most of the sandwiches you can purchase as a slider or as a full sandwich which is pretty cool if your in the mood for both a poboy and a burger you can do both and still have room in your stomach.
Cocktails are great. They added a TV there which is a plus and did I mention that they serve food until 3 am? Now don’t get your hopes up. they don’t serve alcohol past 2am, it’s the law! lol
I definitely recommend trying one of their frozen boozy pops. They’re always tasty.

A couple of friends and I came here for dinner Friday night, and everything was delicious! To start we ordered a round of drinks, and I opted for a glass of the house Cabernet. We then continued with a share of the kale chips before we ordered our entrees.
As an entrée I ordered the burger with a side of garlic fries, which were amazing. I attempted to eat everything on my plate, but the sheer size of it stopped me about ²⁄₃ of the way through the burger, though I managed to eat all but a few of the fries.
The service was also friendly, and the ambiance agreeable. I highly recommend The Tavern Restaurant if you are in want of a nice meal out!

Just fantastic. The period-​dressed servers know the menu inside and out. They can provide details on everything from drinks to entrees! They easily worked with our food restrictions (vegan and some allergies), and not one thing was screwed up.
The food itself is rich and delicious– everything is quite filling. The drinks are strong (VERY STRONG) and also delicious! Also happened to go there on Thomas Jefferson’s birthday– the servers know a ton about the history around as well. highly, HIGHLY recommended.