When Avila (1711 N. 45th Street) announced their opening, they mentioned they were interested in serving a one-day a week family friendly meal: dirt-cheap, kid-friendly homestyle cooking.
Wasting no time, they’re kicking it off this Sunday, November 22nd from 5:30 – 8:30 pm. The menu will change each week (and there will always be a vegetarian option), but they’re starting off with:
- Bread and Green Salad
- Fried Chicken or Kale Stuffed Cannelloni
- Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Zucchini
- Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
$10 adults / $6 children, such a deal!
We can see how the frog’s legs from their standard menu didn’t make it onto the “kid-friendly” list.
This is awesome. Thank you, Avila. Were it not for the MLS Cup this Sunday, we would be there. Maybe next week.
Just returned from family night. What an excellent, thoughtful meal we shared with many families. Made reservations for 5:30. Excellent, informed, pleasant server ensured food came quickly. Best 6 item beer menu I’ve ever put eyes on (I chose a chewy, raisiny Belgian that was a great compliment to fried chicken), excellent wine by the glass. Yummy bread. My youngest even tried his first salad. FC came with the familiar chicken fingers (good news as the FC was honkin large, extra crispy, and could be intimidating for the young). Pineapple upside down cake included unadvertised maraschino cherries (woot!) and was carmelly goodness. Spawn 1 & 2 even agreed this meal was better than McDonalds (huh?)! 2 beers, 1 wine and dinner was $56 for 4 – less than Tutta Bella, more fun to eat and a welcome change. We were out by 7 p.m. and will definitely return!! All restaurants in Wallingford should offer a family night – until they do, we’ll frequent Avila.
What a disappointment. We went there with our 2 year old and were really rooting for the place. It’s a neighbourhood restaurant and we would have liked nothing better than to have been able to recommend it to our friends. Sadly, that will not be the case. First – while it is accomodating of children, there is nothing to classify it as kid friendly. Second, the food was just blah. It wasn’t horrible – but just lacking in any distinctive qualities. The fried chicken one could have gotten at a KFC or supermarket. The salad, un-noteworthy. The canneloni a little better, but again nothing to write home about. Third, the service wasn’t friendly. Our server wasn’t rude. In fact he was professional, but not friendly by any means.
So while I will give the place another try in about a month hoping they have worked out the kinks, I wont be recommending it to friends any time soon.
We, too, were disappointed. We went so excited, and thought we would make this a weekly thing for our family to dine with other families. We pictured a community family night, where families sit together and are all served family style. In reality we were seated at a much too small table by ourselves. We had to choose as a table whether we wanted the vegetarian option (1 did but the other 2 did not). It took forever to get our food (strange,given that they were making the same food for everyone). Our chicken was not boneless, but rather loads of too-cooked batter with very little meat, and very greasy. We thought the bread, salad, and vegetables were all unremarkable. There was no room on the table for the bowl of side dishes and chicken, so we were given tiny plates to eat off of..which did not work for chicken. The service was not friendly,,,but nor rude. The price is certainly right (well, except for the $4 cup of Tazo tea!!), but if the atmosphere doesn’t feel more friendly and the food a step up, we wouldn’t return.
I have a feeling it might be quite good at their intention other nights…but I don’t think they got this Sunday Family thing done.
Well, I gotta say that I didn’t go in with a ton of expectations – just that I’d be able to try out a new, nicer restaurant with my kids and not have to worry about them being, well, kids! Because there’d probably be other families there, too, who understood what it was like to try and dine out with kids somewhere other than a pizza joint or a diner-type restaurant. Oh, and the menu looked great and the price was spot-on.
My server was very nice and pleasant. My table (even with 4!!) still had room for the courses, albeit not much. We got normal-sized plates when the main dish arrived. We weren’t told that we had to order as a table only one of the entrees – although we did, because we all like chicken (and the Wallyhood family appears to have been able to get both, too).
The food was great. Was it the Boat Street Cafe (yummy, where I’m headed next weekend)? No. For $10 a plate I didn’t expect it to be. I *would* expect their regular menu during the week to approach that level. But this was definitely worth every penny and beyond. I love fried chicken, and our serving was definitely on par with some of the better fried chicken I’ve had in a restaurant. Mashed potatoes were creamy, salad was good. Veggies were a little soggy, but oh well, I didn’t go there for that. And, there was so much that we took home leftovers for dinner tonight!
They probably do have some service kinks to work out, even though I had absolutely no qualms. Sounds like there are some varying experiences with service last night, but what new restaurant doesn’t have to work things out? This was their first Sunday meal like this, and I am sure they figured out a bunch of things.
We’ll be back. I’d go back every Sunday if I could afford it!
I have yet to attend family night at Avila, but I did go for dinner this Friday and it was delicious. I shared two starters and a main course with a guest. This was plenty of food to fill two people… along with the warm house baked bread. Of the two starters I recommend the young radish soup with marrow beignets (the other was the gnocchi & dungenous crab which was tasty). The beignets are like biting into a savory pillow and not in a bad way. Chicken was a solid choice for our main course. Moist, flavorful chicken with delicious noodles and boudin blanc. I would highly recommend this dish… best chicken I’ve had in quite some time. I like the look of their brunch menu and think I will try that next.