You can watch my video of a dinnertime visit to Tavola on Instagram.

A 2024 Houston Food Finder Best New Restaurant Selection. Our full list will be revealed later this month. 

Suite 100 at 1800 Post Oak has been the site of multiple restaurants that I’ve loved: When I first visited, it was Philippe, French Master Chef Philippe Schmit’s eponymous restaurant. In 2014, it closed, and the space started a journey with Invest Hospitality — now known as The Bastion Collection. In a way, there’s a debt of gratitude owed to that space. It’s what brought that restaurant group to Houston, and led to the opening of Le Jardinier — which was just named of Houston’s first-ever one-star Michelin restaurants — and Café Leonelli at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. 

It would next become Table on Post Oak — which highlighted the work of chef Manuel Pucha, Schmit’s sous chef. He’d later found Maison Pucha with his brothers in the Heights. After Pucha’s departure, the upstairs would evolve into one of my favorite iterations to date: La Table. It was then that I also met the spiritual guardian of Suite 100: general manager Valerio Lombardozzi. Career hospitality professionals are rare and precious birds, and Lombardozzi is among the best. He’s observant, efficient, attentive without being intrusive and, somehow, the guy always seems genuinely happy. If you know how hard hospitality professionals work, then you know expecting any of them to always be happy is ridiculous. 

During the pandemic, both La Table and casual downstairs eatery Marché (a place that always felt a little too geared towards “ladies who lunch”) closed — just in time to avoid confusion with Montrose tasting menu restaurant (and another recent Michelin star winner) March. That brings us to Marché’s replacement, Tavola. (The replacement in the upstairs space that held La Table has not yet been revealed). At one point, The Bastion Collection co-managed Tavola with Berg Hospitality, which operates The Annie and Turner’s next door in the same building, but that partnership was dissolved. (See the end of this article for The Bastion Collection’s statement.) 

Lombardozzi, bless him, is still there, going from corner to corner ensuring that every guest is comfortable and has all they need. (Scientists, please clone this man. Every nice restaurant needs one.) 

I value restaurant service that makes diners feel special. La Table’s was impeccable, and that, combined with the comfortably upscale cuisine (nothing too outrageous, but really well-executed) charmed the pants off of me. (Not literally. Please, I’m a professional.) Tavola is a little more loose and casual — you can leave the shiny dress shoes at home — but the commitment to service remains — and the food, which I was invited to come try, is excellent. 

Chef de cuisine Michael Lara came to Tavola from Le Jardinier — you know, the one that just got a Michelin star? —  and his dishes are expert meldings of quintessential Italian techniques and enthralling modern platings of American and Italian favorites. They’re not too pretty to eat, but they sure are fun to look at. 

Speaking of fun: if you enjoy complex, slightly bitter cocktails, then you must ask to play The Negroni Game. Your server will bring you a container with three dice inside: one red, one green and one white. These represent gin, vermouth and amaro. Shake the dice, and the numbers you get on each will determine what Negroni variant you’ll receive based on the server’s chart. You might win Citadelle Gin with Luxardo Bitter Bianco and Lillet (a White Negroni if there ever was one) or Malfy con Limone with Cappelletti Specialino and Carpano Antica. You’ll just have to go see what fate has in store. Want a little snack alongside? Ask for the big cart holding half of a giant Parmigiano Reggiano to be wheeled over. The server will carve a hunk of cheese out of it for you. 

Some of the starters I’ve had so far include a festive fritto misto with fried calamari and prawns accented with julienne pickled vegetables, lemon mayonnaise and red pepper agrodolce, addictive carpaccio made with paper-thin eye of round and adorned in the green, white and red of the Italian flag (shaved Parmesan, halved cherry tomatoes and lightly dressed arugula) and a hefty yet fork-tender Grilled Octopus with Roasted Artichoke and Potatoes, as well as smoked artichoke purée and olives, are all memorable. The octopus plating is especially stunning, with all of the colorful elements surrounding the artichoke purée. 

The burrata caprese is also a showstopper. Everything about it — the hefty ball of burrata, the orange, red and dried medley of confit tomatoes, the smatterings of basil seeds and basil crackers and the covetable, ornate dishware — conspire to make it a plate of perfection. Burrata and tomatoes is a traditional dish, but this version truly elevates it. Of course, the best part is breaking into the taut skin of the burrata, making it yield its creamy, mild center, and scooping it up along with forkfuls of the tomatoes.

You could make a meal out of stunning appetizers, but then you’d have to miss out on the worthy entrées, including my new favorite lasagna. I hadn’t had a crispy lasagna since Arthur Ave closed in 2017. Tavola’s is deeply seared in all the right places, and the marinara between the layers hits all the right savory notes. Your server will likely ask if you want your lasagna crispy, and if they don’t, ask for it that way yourself. 

It would be hard for any chicken Parmigiana to compete with my new beloved lasagna, but Tavola’s rendition is a lot of fun and worth trying. It’s big, for starters — easily large enough for two hungry people. Then the crunchy, breaded chicken breast, pounded to about half-an-inch thick, is covered with more of that perky marinara, dabs of pesto, cherry tomatoes and lots of mozzarella cheese, then broiled until browned and bubbly. The staff jokes that it’s “chicken Parmigiana pizza”, and I can see why! 

Along with all this red-sauce Italian, you’ll want a good red Italian wine to go along with it. However, I tend to steer away from big Tuscans because the compositions of my meals can have wild swings from light dishes, to hefty dishes, and then to light ones again. So I tend to go with perkier reds that can carry me through the meal (after I polish off what I won in The Negroni Game). For me, Lombardozzi recommended the 2020 Etna Rosso from Barone Di Villagrande which, according to its website, is the oldest winery in Sicily. It’s 80% Nerello Mascalese and 20% Nerello Cappuccio grapes — not the most well-known in the United States, for sure — and it matures for a year in barrels made of chestnut wood. It’s $18 by the glass, so fairly budget-friendly. 

Coltivare is considered to have the gold standard in Houston for cacio e pepe. Its status is still safe. Tavola’s is perfectly respectable — I mean, how can hot pasta tossed with real Parmesan cheese and black pepper not be good? — but our pasta was a bit more al dente than I prefer, and the overall flavor was missing some celestial-ity, which means it needed more cheese. 

The Torta Della Nonna, on the other hand, took my breath away. It’s a traditional Italian dessert (the name translates to Grandma’s cake; Americans would consider it a tart) the shell is filled with a classic custard to allow the real star of the show, pine nuts, to shine through. Pine nuts are expensive, but Tavola’s torta is studded across the top with a generous quantity. When the dessert is baked, the pine nuts get toasted, and that, combined with the custard, is a heavenly flavor. 

I thoroughly enjoyed Tavola, and while it’s a nice restaurant, I felt comfortable, too. That, combined with the well-executed food and service, will bring me in again. In the words of my husband, who accompanied me on one of my visits, “Tavola was a fantastic experience from start to finish.” 

I couldn’t agree more. 

Statement Regarding Collaboration With Berg Hospitality

The following statement was emailed from a representative for The Bastion Collection:

“We have enjoyed working with Berg Hospitality and are proud of what we accomplished. As our business priorities have evolved, we mutually decided that the best way forward was for each group to focus on managing and operating their own projects. The Bastion Collection is excited to take Tavola forward with a renewed focus on our vision and will act as the sole owner and operator moving forward. We are incredibly thankful for the collaboration with Berg Hospitality.” 

Phaedra Cook

Phaedra Cook has written about Houston’s restaurant and bar scene since 2010. She was a regular contributor to My Table magazine (now closed) and was the lead restaurant critic for the Houston Press for two years, eventually being promoted to food editor. Cook founded Houston Food Finder in November 2016 and has been its editor and publisher ever since.