First & Last Tavern

Good experience. Was there on a quiet Sunday just before closing and had a good if unexceptional meal. Pizza, salad, fries, meatball grinder all good to very good. I would not go out of my way to come here — menu is standard Italian pub fare — but I would certainly return under similar circumstances.

Went there for lunch today with a friend, first time being here. First off the service was terrible. The waitress came over maybe twice to see if we needed anything or if everything was ok. Our silverware was dirty and that should have been our first sign. Ordered the chicken cutlet sandwich and the chicken was disgusting. Felt like I was chewing plastic. Then I told the waitress and she acted like I was a bother to her. Won’t go back there again. I am still stomach sick.

Nice restaurant at a good location on Main St. with outdoor seating in the summer. My favorite dish is the Neapolitan pizza with a special order of shrimp scampi on top. Yum! Antipasto salad is the perfect starter. Lots of options for the whole family.

I was so impressed with the manager and staff recently when my company had a sudden need for a meeting space for a dinner meeting. A nearby restaurant had messed up our reservation in their private room. The staff at First and Last quickly readied their private space and served our group as if we had scheduled well in advance. The service was wonderful, the staff was lovely and the food was yummy. I have not always been a fan of this location of First and Last, but this and other recent visits have really turned me around!

Waited three hours to get mediocre food with sub-​par service…
First and last? … Definitely last

Had a reservation on a Saturday night we were seated promptly. Went downhill from there two hours later our entrees still had not shown up. After being tracked down by one member of our party the manager came over to profusely apologize. We did bond with the party at the table next to us that were having a similar issue. The waitstaff disappeared during the two hour plus wait! I had to flag down a waitress to get our water glasses refilled and have the appetizer dirty dishes removed. Entrees finally show up for everyone but one person in our party. She had ordered ravioli and it seems the kitchen had run out. At no time during the two hour wait did anyone come over to mention this to her. They asked if they could get her anything else at that point after a two plus hour wait she did not want to chance ordering anything else. My chicken Milanese finally showed up and was lukewarm at best it seems it must have been sitting a while. Don’t expect to return anytime soon. Both the kitchen and waitstaff are in need of serious intervention. Gordon Ramsey or Robert Irvine where are you? They need you desperately
IMPORTANT the owner did step up and pick up the tab for our party of 10 and that was over and above

I randomly came here for lunch since most of the restaurants were closed. They serve you bits of garlic bread before your entrée, which was really good. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get so I settled with the eggplant parmigiana grinder with fries. The food was very tasty and the serving size was more than I had hoped for. The only negative comment I have is that it took longer than expected to be seated, as well as for the waiter to come back and forth to the table.

Well. The Stars you give are certainly based on what you order and what they do well. Tonight’s special for instance was a homemade pumpkin ravioli with a brown sage butter! Unexpected. Over the moon fabulous. Their tried and true fried mozzarella is simply the best with their perfect sweet marinara. Drinks service and now dessert. All worthy of 5 stars. I think their pepperoni pizza is great as well. Don’t be dissuaded by lesser reviews. Ask for Kyle. Me too was great.

I’m afraid I have to update my review and lower the rating. The quality of this place has steadily declined over the years. The food is bland and it seems that the staff numbers continues to shrink, taking longer to get one’s meal out on time. It’s certainly not awful, but I think management needs to step things up a notch by reviewing and revitalizing their menu, and improving their cooking methods. Until then, I am going to try to avoid this place.

Was a long time customer, will not be returning.
My family has had many functions here, and countless casual dinners. To say we were underwhelmed during our dinner visit, is an understatement.
Some of our disappointments:
Meatballs tasted frozen and dry
Salads were premade (and they would not make one fresh without an ingredient we couldn’t eat — they said they would pick it out of a salad, no thanks!)
$ 12 for a plate of pasta with tomato sauce
$ 18 for penne a la vodka
You are paying for a name, and that’s it now! The food was mediocre at best. Prices are incredibly high for the fare.
My family and I will not return, we were incredibly disappointed.

Underwhelmed.
That sums up the experience. I loved the location, I usually never can go wrong on Main Street Middletown. The outside of the Restaurant looks great and upscale. The inside was nicely adorned and was great, but when it came to the really important things, the place just fell flat on its face.
I had pizza there, and it was really bland and had nothing special to it. My buffalo chicken pizza barely had any real buffalo taste to it, and my girlfriend’s pizza (either a Neapolitan or just a regular) barely had any cheese on it.
The service was also less than to be desired. She didn’t seem particularly happy to be there, and despite it being a day without many people she rarely came over.
The patio was nice. I have a feeling I’ll give it another shot because there’s lots of potential, but I was certainly underwhelmed by my first impression.

Meh, I’ve always heard great things but went there for lunch one time and the service was for the birds and the wait was really long and the food ended up being okay at best. I’ll be back to try for dinner at some point and maybe I can update the rating.

We’ve had lunch at First and Last Tavern a couple of times and are always underwhelmed by the experience.
The service has always been fine, nothing to gush about but no problems either. The food always sounds good but never lives up to expectations. Last time we were in, I had the lunch special of pasta with escarole and sausage. It was OK, but bland. My husband had pasta with alfredo, broccoli, and chicken and couldn’t eat much of it. The sauce didn’t taste like alfredo and the whole dish was also bland. Our nephew had a chicken sandwich and of the three of us was the only one happy with his choice — but then again, it was just a chicken sandwich. Because we ordered off the lunch menu, the prices were reasonable but with so many restaurants to choose from up and down Main Street, I think we’ll stick with places we can rely on for a really good meal.

we stopped in last evening on our way to a concert for a light dinner. We were seated promptly, a basket of bread was thrown in front of us and we were told our server would be coming momentarily. After about 10 minutes (by the timepiece) she showed up to take our drink order. When she arrived we kind of felt like an inconvenience based on her attitude.
We placed our order, which included drinks from the bar, appetizers and an entrée. Our drinks came after a while and our food was to come all together. That took over 30 minutes for pretty simple items and we couldn’t even get our servers attention to get more bread and drinks. When we did finally get more bread, it was a small basket with 3 pieces of focaccia in it (we were a group of 4). Really?
It was obvious that the place got busy while we were there, but I saw plenty of staff. Just not evenly distributed in the dining room. After all that wait the food was mediocre at best. Not up to the Hartford establishment of the same name. I doubt we will be back.

I’ll make it simple
Service was terrible. Stuff was swimming in our water glasses and the waitress looked Annoyed she had to return and redo them.
She also was very curt and strange. Kept coming back and making odd commentary.
Food was so unreal as far as bad goes. I felt guilty for suggesting it. My sisters broccoli rabe pasta was soggy and over done with garlic. My boyfriend fettuccini Alfredo with shrimp was tasteless and had three shrimp.
The mussels were sandy and a few weren’t opened so forget that. The fried calamari was overdone.
I had fries as a side and when they didn’t come the server said «oh ha I keep walking by them forgetting them»
Um, ok. Price was crazy high and my boyfriend just left because be felt sick. This man has an iron constitution so if he gets sick over this meal I will be contacting them personally on the shady looking seafood.
Save yourself a trip (to the bathroom) and go somewhere else

Nice place. Small chain but okay food. We had the raw oysters and shrimp cocktail, both fresh and good. I had the stuffed eggplant, I thought it would be half of an eggplant but it came out like an eggplant part with ricotta in it and topped with mozzarella. It was ok, nothing to jump up and down about but okay.
Waiter forgot Tabasco sauce and could not find a wait staff person again for a little bit..

Man, oh, man, this place has seriously gone downhill.
I came here with my family before heading back home to Boston. We arrived shortly after opening on a Tuesday after Christmas. There were a few good sized parties seated in the dining room already. Our server was the sweetest but informed us that the kitchen was understaffed (I only saw one dude making food in the open kitchen, which should never happen) and it seemed as though it were only him and another server manning the first half of the restaurant.
The semi inconvenient experience took a turn in an even worse direction when our calamari appetizer came out 40 minutes after we ordered it. Our drinks were not attended to. My mother ordered a salad with her entrée that never came out. In fact, our entrees took so long that once they did arrive at our table we immediately asked for take out boxes and the check. My problem with the situation is that other tables that were seated almost a half an hour after us received their food without a hitch.
See, I wasn’t pissed off at my server who seemed so overwhelmed and weeded with the other 10 tables he was tending to, I wasn’t pissed at the chef because food takes a certain amount of time to cook and there’s no way around it, the one person I was upset with the most was the manager who I never got the chance to speak to since they refused to come out on the floor to discuss our horrific experience and come up with a resolution. A good manager would have that face time with an unhappy guest. A good manager would call employees and cooks to come in and help out on an incentive. A good manager would take into consideration the fact that I was on a time crunch and just cover our lunch and let us go immediately instead of waiting an extra 20 minutes and having us pay for half of our lunch and compensating us in gift cards.
Those gift cards are going straight into the trash or into the hands of someone not fortunate enough to eat out on special occasions like the one that got ruined on my very last visit to the tavern.

Yes, I can write a bad review, too. Thanks for asking!
I went to the First and Last Tavern yesterday to hopefully, enjoy a special meal at this establishment. It was my friend’s birthday. I had heard good things. This was my first trip there. It will be my last, too.
The ambiance is nice enough; dark, cozy, warm. Our waitress was in a hurry. I had to stop her to ask a couple of questions. The bread with Italian seasonings was brought out barely warm, dry, and chewy. Strike one.
My friend ordered the butternut squash for dinner. I ordered the sausage soup. A dinner is 6 ravioli swimming in watered down butter. My soup was mostly tomatoes and tomatoe chunks with mushy pasta. Strike two.
When I got the check, my soup was $ 5. Okay. My friend’s dinner was $ 21! I asked if this was the correct amount and I was told it was. I also stated that dinner didn’t even include salad. I was told that seasonal offerings were basically more expensive.
I spoke to two staff people to express my disappointment with no recompense. On the way out, I noticed other tables of people having oil to dip their bread in. I asked the waitress about that. She said you had to request it. Strike three. With this being my first time there, I didn’t know I had to request it.
The menu offerings were limited. All in all, I won’t be back. This was the worst $ 30 I have spent in a long, long time. I would suggest you find somewhere else to eat before you go to this place.

My wife and I had a gift certificate to First & Last Tavern, and decided to make a trip to the center of our lively state, not only to have dinner, but to see what Middletown looked like since they have been rebuilding Main Street. My last recollection was that this area was more desolate than not, with many boarded up storefronts among the rest of the merchants. Imagine my surprise when we saw a vibrant, active communitly, clean, bustling streets, and some amazing eateries among the many new businesses in the area. I must say Bravo Middletown for making such a comeback!
First & Last is a busy Italian spot, boasting of several pictures of local and national celebs, politicians, and what-​have-​you. When we got there, we were put on a wait list that did not take longer than 20 minutes to have us seated. Our server was a bit over-​busy, and didn’t approach us for 10 or so minutes. When she did, she was very cheerful, offered drinks, and took our order.
The menu had a good combination of traditional Italian foods, and a few new-​age combinations. The specials were also appealing.
I had their lasagna… which had its own distinct flavor, different from the usual. Couldn’t put my finger on it, but I think it would be fair to describe it as an acquired taste. Wifey had Chicken Marsala, which was tender and flavorful.
We had to wait a bit again, for our waitress to return once we were done. It could have been just a busy night, but if so, then this place had certainly seen enough busy nights to adequately prepare, and prevent inordinate waiting between server appearances.
Final impression, First & Last Tavern was good. I would not rate it higher than any number of neighborhood Italian places I, and you, have likely been to, but it was a solid three stars. I think the pictures put it over!

Over numerous years of consistant service and great food, I was dumbfounded on the service my family and I received during our last visit.
Our waiter started out pourly by just pouring our wine without allowing us to test it. After we placed our dinner order and were waiting for 20+ mins no one came over to ask if we needed water refills, we had to go to the front desk to get someone at our table.
Our last hope was our food… when it finally arrived only 5 of the 6 dishes arrived. The pasta on some of the dishes was cold and appeared old… sauce stiff looking on top. After 10 mins of not touching our food one of us got a waiter as we couldn’t find ours. We mentioned the food was cold and would like a new dish which this waiter was happy to accommodate. There was still no 6^th meal or follow up on where the food may be. After half an hour or so all meals were fixed and deliveried.
When the bill arrived we were shocked the manager didn’t stop over to apologize for the poor service and/​or something removed from the bill. Again our waiter was no where to be found so we spoke to another waiter who was hesistant at first to help… thankfully a meal was taken off and ½ of another one.
I will be checking on Unilocal before I return. I really hope first and last can turn back around as it was a family favorite.