Food Bites: A blog about Reno’s dining and restaurant scene

Sarah Cook, reno.com
July 12, 2007

I recently reviewed Tivoli Garden’s, focusing solely on their desserts…but I think it’s time to stress the overall quality of this place (including food), as it has really declined.

Tivoli's used to be one of my favorite restaurants - it has a little something for everybody. In the mood for Chinese? They have that. In the mood for Mexican? They have that, too. Just want a standard burger? No problem.

This used to be the perfect place to go if you had a bunch of friends who couldn't choose a restaurant. Better yet, their desserts were wonderful - plenty of choices, and amazing ones to boot. They had good food, and their prices were reasonable... so where could you go wrong?

About a year ago, I stopped going there for whatever reason. I went back for my last dessert review and was hardly impressed. So I’ve no idea why I went back again last week.

They've changed. And for the worse.

The menu is still what I remember. They have all of the same desserts, most of the same entrees, and it still spans just about every major culinary discipline that you can find in a medium-sized city in the United States. However, the quality has decreased significantly.

The pasta I had was almost sickeningly greasy. The service was incredibly slow, and even worse - rude. The only person who visited my table on a regular basis was the Keno lady, and even she didn't visit as often as she should have.

By the time all was said and done, I didn't even mess with dessert - the entire experience had disturbed me enough to convince me to leave as soon as possible and never return.

That said, if you're brave and don’t mind poor-quality food, pricing is between $5-12.


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