Cafe Divino

Tried this place for the first time on Valentines Day. Loved it! Really reminded me of a small café/​bistro that locals would go to in Paris or Venice. The Pizza was the best we have had in Tacoma, the sauce is super yummy and crust is thin and crispy. Friendly, attentive service, good drinks, lovely food. Extra bonus, the place is warm and cozy! One of my biggest pet peeves is when a restaurant freezes it’s customers because the cooks are too warm. This place is warm and very comfortable on a rainy northwest evening. I also appreciated not being rushed at all. For the 3 of us, we all agreed it was like a visit back to Europe.
Portions are great. We ordered one appetizer and two pizzas for 3 people. We took about half a pizza home. Overall, a great Valentine’s Day!

I am happy to report that I am still in love with this gem in Old Town! The owners have now started to serve incredibly tasting pizza! The music scene is alive and well there too with many local artists performing and bringing in very grateful patrons yearning for good music in an intimate setting. If you haven’t been there yet, I highly recommend you get over there and hang with two of the coolest and hipest wine bar owners west of I5!!! Thanks Cherie and Mauricio for always being warm, friendly and inviting. Cheers to all your hard work and dedication to awakening the sleepy Old Town area of Tacoma.

Customers are not the priority. Relationships do not matter. Very disappointed… I am a regular customer and waited over two hours tonight for an appetizer I never got, even though I was the first one in the restaurant! Owners are extremely disorganized, Ill prepared, understaffed, and customer service is horrible. Prices are way too high for quality provided. I was texted by owner that I am «annoying» and she would have given me a free appetizer… lol…no thanks two hours later after everyone else has been served before me! I have jumped in and helped these folks when they were understaffed justbtomprecent them losing even more customers… no good deed goes unpunished.
Now I am somehow «annoying» for expecting a simple cheese appetizer within two hours… sheesh…

I must say that in my experience as a patron in many diverse establishments, Café Divino has captured my heart. I accidentally happened upon this wonderful secret in Old Town Tacoma. I have been here more than a dozen times. Every experience I have had has been top notch. The food and drinks are bar none some of the best I’ve had. Although food and beverages are absolutely important in a dining experience, the most important part to me is the ambiance. When I first came into Café Divino, I was welcomed with warm smiles and an amazing aroma of home cooking. I was instantly at home. I was treated as if I were the most important person in there. This, I observed, was how everyone was treated. I thoroughly enjoy their open mic evenings with talented artists from our area. Food, drinks, ambiance, music and family=perfect recipe for a perfect evening.

A sweet and cozy little hole in the wall place with an inviting atmosphere and very personable staff. The evening we were there, we enjoyed a couple of tasty glasses of wine — a cabernet and a malbec, both recommended by the server — and a nicely diverse cheese plate. It wasn’t very busy so, after an hour or so, we invited the server to join us. As it turned out, she was the owner’s daughter and we had a very interesting conversation — lovely young lady with diverse interests. The new owners have recently introduced a full-​service bar so, if you prefer mixed drinks rather than wine, you’ll want to stop in and enjoy the drink of the evening. (They’ve added some occasional music as well, though we’ve not experienced that yet.) I wish we lived closer so that we could visit Café Divino more often; it’s the sort of place I wish there were more of in the area!

Was walking past on a monday and saw that they were open. Awesome! I came in for a glass of wine and a pizza and was not disappointed. My server was extremely friendly and knowledgable and even recommended a lavender mojito which was absolutely delicious. My gouda chicken pizza was out quick and tasted great! I would recommend Divino to anyone looking for great drinks and food in the old town area.

What the heck happened? Clearly under new management. This used to be a little gem and a place to get a little appetizer and a glass of wine. Our glasses needed polishing, the décor looks more bar than elegant wine bar. Will skip.

Not impressed. I truly wish there were more good things to say about this place. I adore Old Town and want more worthy options in the area. Unfortunately, Davino misses the mark. Wine was probably the only redeeming factor in our experience. Oh and the free air conditioning, that was nice. I get the sense that this is a husband and wife team and I am all for supporting family run small businesses but I can’t turn a blind eye. Service was dreadfully slow and the pizza and lasagna we ordered were uninspired and honestly, not very tasty at all. Both containing same ingredients (marinara sauce, sausage and cheese) that were slapped on a pre-​made flat bread and layered between undercooked pasta. The cheese on the lasagna wasn’t even fully melted. We shall continue our search.

Visitors here and staying in a place close by. Stopped in for a late lunch and some wine. They had a tasting of Argentina wines for a decent price. We ordered the cheese plate (decent — excellent chutney,) the Brussel sprouts (excellent,) the crab cakes (good and a big portion,) the Mahi tacos (spicy but awesome,) and a piece of red velvet cake to go (suspect it was Costco but it was still good.) service was decent, cute little place. If we lived here, we would be back.

Great food, perfect location near the water! Love the outdoor seating :) the place is owned by an adorable couple who are very friendly! She does the cooking he does the drinks. He could be a little more attentive when the drinks run low, otherwise great

I honestly don’t know how this place has any stars. My friends and I went here for a «speed date» thing just for fun … We were all charged 10.00 a piece to meet two guys outside of our group … Yes … 3 guys were charged to meet guys lol what a joke! My other friend showed up an hour and a half after the «event» they still tried charge her the 10 dollars. I explained to the incredibly rude waiter that she wasn’t even there for the event and she rudely took my ticket and went back to talk to the owner … When she came back she said «we don’t need to talk to you… We can deal with her one on one» … So they went to our table and said «you came here for the event…»
I’m sorry but what event … No one should have paid if people didn’t show up … To top this lovely experience off… they charged me for someone else’s meal when I asked to have it changed they upped the price of my glasses of wine so they could charge the same amount … This is s dishonest place of business … It’s sad … The people are rude and not there to please customers … BEWARE of the «EVENT» scam …
ADDED…This is how the owner speaks to customers… See below… Unbelievable. What happened to good customer service? I honestly don’t see this place been in business for very long with the way customers are spoken to if the evening had been handled differently I would’ve gone back. Clearly this gentleman does not believe the customer comes first. Fyi I did not rsvp … When I realized the only people in the event were the people I brought I opted not to participate lol … Still charged.
Owner: I am so appalled by your response that I will be posting this to social media in hopes that others in the tacoma area will not have a similar experience.
Latest update:
Wow owner changed his Nasty response to «God bless you» I guess he realized publically speaking terrible to customers is bad for business …
So others can see this was his original post «I apologize that you clearly did not understand what was happening here or the speed dating process that you RSVP’d and signed up for. Our wine menu CLEARLY has the prices written on it and WE DO NOT raise the price… period. In the three hours you spent here drinking, and having a good time, it was only when your bill came that you realized you had to pay. Sorry the event and the wine were not free» –owner of café divino
Dear owner: I think it’s interesting you are bringing God into this… After your original response… Hmm … My response to you is thank you! God has blessed me and I am very grateful :)

My friend and I had an absolutely outstanding lunch. Excellent food (we both had salads/​meat entrees) and sparkling wine. I loved the salad so much that I came back and had it the next day! A great spot ~ I’ll be back.

I was going to watch the acoustic night at Café Divino. I asked a few people at work if they had ever gone, and if so, did they have food recommendations. Well they have, and they did. They said try the fish tacos and the tiramisu. They said they go for the good wine selection with helpful recommendations. They said the owners were relaxed and nice. All true. I enjoyed drinking the recommended Chilean Pinot. Wish I knew the name of it. I chose the cauliflower bake. Yummy and well seasoned. My friends chose the bruschetta and loved it. Another friend ate the pizza which I ended up sharing. Very, very good. Enjoyable night! Oh and the French press coffee and tiramisu (excellent) at the end of the night was superb!

Stopped here for dinner and some wine. Haven’t tried this place in years and with new ownership we thought we would give it a try again. Cute place and nothing much has changed as far as décor. They had live music going and that was a nice touch.
Ordered the zucchini feta cakes to start and the roasted pork and a chicken lasagna. Zucchini was interesting as it looked kind of like a crab cake. I think it needed more salt and seasoning but was ok overall. The pork was decent but again could have used more seasoning. Mashed potato was good. The chicken lasagna again was ok. Nothing great but not bad either. The two glasses of wine were average.
Overall nice neighborhood wine bar that has average food. I would go back possibly for different wine and maybe an appetizer.

When I moved to Tacoma area, this was the first place I visited (2010) while staying at the Silver Cloud Inn. It was under different ownership and I was always made to feel special, enjoyed the food, company and wine. That owner left and I went in under the new management and I could tell they were in the growing phases. But, the location is such a good one and the owners want to do well. I will continue to support as the owners build their selections of wine and food. It is all about food, mood, service and consistency, so Il Divo, keep up the good work.

Cute place. Service was slower than expected. Prices were high for the food quality. Prep time was long. Would give it another chance to improve the review though.

I would give this place zero stars if that was a possibility. Here is a list of reasons why:
*SUPER SLOW service
*Stale wine
*Food brought out in waves and extremely slowly
*Waitstaff has NO personality
*Husband left his debit card behind and when we called to inquire the woman who answered the phone was extremely rude and disrespectful. Hey… I called you remember??? If I was trying to scam a lost debit card why would I dream up some name and ask if it was there? Give people a little credit for honesty.
*When we picked up the card the staff accused us of trying to dine and dash and said the debit card would be shredded in the morning. WTF? It was an honest mistake but being treated like we committed a federal crime was unnecessary.
We will NEVER return to this establishment and we will make sure all of our friends and family know that there are too many other places to enjoy a glass of wine and receive good service without feeling like criminals. Peace out Café Divino!

Stopped here for an early dinner last might and we were able to get a table outside for a thoroughly enjoyable meal and a glass of wine. We just ordered from the appetizer menu and, along with a shared Tiramisu desert and a couple of glasses of wine, had a delightful dining experience with fabulous service.

I’ve been meaning to try out the wine here for a while, just my luck I got here for happy hour.
The owner is almost always there and she is fun to talk to. I have been here twice alone and enjoyed myself. There is a nice atmosphere, the happy hour deals are good, and both staff and patrons are personable!

I love the Ruston area of Tacoma and we’ve only driven past through Old Town and have been wanting to dine somewhere around there… sadly there’s a significant paucity in restaurants with Café Divino being one of them… most are on the waterfront but right on 30^th, all I can find is this one and the bar/​restaurant across the street with a sprinkle of a Starbucks and a few other coffee places here and there.
There is a link here to
where you can make a reservation and so made one for 8pm earlier in the afternoon. We arrived around 7:45pm and for a small place, ALL the tables were filled. We told the bartender/​manager about our reservations at 8pm and he looked at us with a confused look on his face and said no one told him about any reservations… opentable​.com is pretty reliable and have had no difficulties with prior reservations but CAUTION if you do it here because it’s as if they never heard it before and would recommend just calling the restaurant instead.
LUCKILY, while waiting at the bar, a table did open up and we were able to sit there but God knows what would have happened if it was super busy and then we had no table at all. That’s one of the reasons why I did have to knock it down a star.
While sitting at the bar, we did say we will go ahead and just order a drink then but unfortunately we didn’t get served and upon transferring to our new table, it took quite a while for him to come back to our table to order at least a wine which knocks another star.
We did get our drinks promptly and upon ordering the food did come more quickly but as a fan of first impressions, the very beginning just did not sit well for me as that kind of sets the mood of the whole dining experience. The manager was very friendly but the service was pretty just par. I give the stars mostly to the food… we had the stuffed mushroom appetizers which were nice and cheesy, the ceasar salad had the proper tanginess, and my salmon was cooked perfectly and ate it all up. It came with a side order of mashed potatoes but I saw another dish had a side of sweet potato fries and asked if I can have those instead and it was done without any problem.
I’m glad we got to experience the «wine bar in Tacoma» but in the big picture of restaurants in the area and having been to several wine bars, Café Divino is just ok and perhaps is doing well due to its location. Old Town is not really a 6^th Ave or downtown Pacific Road kind of feel and so does not attract that type of energy but it was a nice escape.
Overall, I’d recommended it as a nice place to experience good wine if you’ve never been to a wine bar before, but if you are a foodie/​wine person like myself, I wouldn’t climb mountains to try this restaurant out… there’s plenty of other options around the area.