City Tap House

Reviews 4

DA

Danielle Graham

The hostess (a blonde young lady who I believe is named Maggie) on 5/10 around 9pm was extremely rude. When I arrived at City Tap House in University City, there was actually no one at the hostess station. After waiting for a couple of minutes, the hostess appeared and I told her that we had 5 in our party. She advised that we could only sit in the dinning room if everyone was order an entree. At this time, we only had 2 of 5 people in the party, so we told her that we would be ordering food and drinks, but couldnt speak for the people not there. She then said that we could not sit in the dinning room and could only sit in the bar area. After seeing no available seats to accommodate us in the bar, we asked again if we could sit in the dinning room since it was not even close to full. She said we could not sit in the dinning area because it would not be fair to the servers and that it was a rule. Additionally, she seemed content with us walking away without patronizing your establishment. At this point, I asked to speak with the manager. After going to find the manager, she returned and said the manager would permit us to sit in the dinning room, but that she needed to warn us that Quizzo started at 10pm and it would be loud in dinning room. Why would she raise the quizzo issue after speaking with the manager and not initially when we requested to sit in the dinning room? Again, it seemed as if she did not want us to be there. Nonetheless, we were permitted to dine in the dinning room, which was almost empty, and even stayed for a portion of Quizzo. Our bills was over $150 and our waitress received an excellent tip. I was especially frustrated with this experience because I have eaten at City Tap House on multiple occassions and never heard of this "rule." This also seemed a little weird because one would think that a waitress would appreciate a tip from a couple of patrons who ordered food and drinks instead of no tip at all from no customers since the dinning room was close to empty. Furthermore, I noticed several customers in the dinning room, who did not appear to be ordering entrees and once Quizzo started, it appears as though all customers were simply drinking. While I understand you dont want a bunch of college students, who are only drinking, taking up seats for customers who intend to pay and tip for food and drinks, but as an 35 years black woman, who intended to ordering food and drinks, I cant understand why sitting my party in the dinning room was so difficult for the hostess. Lastly, the implication that we would not tip our server properly was insulting. This experience has me seriously questioning whether I will return to this establishment. I contacted the restaurant via email to voice my concerns and never heard anything back.

SU

Susan A

We were six women of color who wanted to sit down at 3pm for a drink to talk about a film we had just watched. The place was empty, save one or two people at the bar, along with the staff. The hostess pointed us to a table and we sat down. Then she came over to inform us that the area was reserved at 6pm. We assured her that we would not be there for 3 hours. We all decided to order tea. Clearly, this is not a tea joint, but it was the only drink on their menu that suited us. The waitress brought out lukewarm water and their tea box. We asked if we could get hot water and she responded rather condescendingly that she had no control over the water temperature. I suppose she didnt understand that the water needed to be boiled. [I should note here that at least two waters came to our table at a time.] We all looked at one another in a "choose your battles mode. We thanked her and told her wed make due with what we had (lukewarm tea). We decided to order a flat pizza to snack on. Most of us had eaten and only three of us wanted anything. The waitress advised us to get two, but we only wanted one. As we waited for the order, which seemed to take a long time given how empty the place was, one of the waiters came to our table with the check. He put it in front of me, saying "were switching over registers". We were deep in conversation and only when I put my money down did I realize that they were asking us to pay for the food before they even brought it out! Again, we said "choose your battles" to one another. We paid and the pizza came out right away. No one returned to see if we wanted anything else. We left feeling humiliated. It was a hideous experience. But what can you expect from an establishment that has "Israeli hummus" on their menu, as if Israel has any authentic culture of their own that isnt stolen from the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants. It makes sense for this gentrifying and racists place.

MI

Minh Chau

City Tap Houses probably a great place to head to if youre looking for a sports bar to hang out and watch the game. However, if youre hungry and searching for something good to satisfy that hunger, then youre out of luck. The meal started out well with the Tap House Steak Chili made with beef sirloin, red beans, dark stout, ancho chiles, and jack cheese. The steak was tender and the chili was spiced just about right. However, the Organic Pulled Chicken salad, comprised of toasted pecans, golden raisins, green apples, pancetta, blue cheese, and lemon-thyme vinaigrette, did not live up to our expectations. The vinaigrette was bland and the salad was not worth the eleven bucks we forked over. For half that price we could have gotten a better salad at Gia Pronto. The Chicken Press "Craftwiche" sounded delicious - pulled chicken, arugula, aged provolone, basil pesto, and roasted peppers on griddled italian bread - sounds yummy, but it tasted just as bland as the salad. And again, we could have gotten a much better sandwich from Gia Pronto for half the price. The service was subpar for a restaurant that was only a quarter occupied, with staff standing behind the bar chit-chatting rather than filling up our glasses that sat empty for the last half of our meal. Overall, City Tap House is a good place to enjoy the game and drink a beer, but not for a foodie looking for an adventure.

A

A Private User

This is a place that uses its ambience and decor to mimmic a decent restaurant without coming close to providing a decent menu, good service, or knowledge about food or beer. This place is successful because of its location, and its ability to appeal to uneducated college and graduate students who think this place is nice simply because they charge more and look like a nice restaurant. If this place were downtown, in the vacinity of one of Phillys many top restaurants, it would be EMPTY, and diservingly so. The menu is designed to look like "gourmet bar food" trying to sell a relaxed but upscale setting. In reality the food is disappointing, poorly put together, and cooked awfully, and the place is typically packed with smashed loud students. If you want to go out on a friday night and get smashed at a college bar without your pocketbook feeling like you are at a college bar, this is your place. This place disgusts me because it makes a mockery of the good dining in philadelphia by trying to be something it is not. That said if you dont have 10$ to take a cab downtown from this area, it by far has the largest selection of beers on tap. Just dont plan on ordering food unless you could really care less about what you eat. You will find no connoisseurs here.