Michael Waltrip Taproom — Restaurant in Concord

My family and I went to the Taproom the first time the other day. We had an amazing experience. The place is so open with high ceilings that even when packed I don't think it would be claustrophobic. When we went in we were seated within a couple of minutes by a very nice host. We ended up sitting near a big window meant to look like roll up doors on a garage. This let in a lot of natural light.

Our server came over, giving us our menus and talking about the beers that were on tap from their line as well as the more typical beers. We ended up getting a flight of beers that gave us a nice selection of various types they had (IPAs, lagers, Ales, etc). We got to choose which beers to have in the flight so if a person just wanted to try a specific type of beer that is possible.

We ordered the "The Bench" which is pretzels and cheese as well as pimento cheese. The pretzels were SO GOOD. I would go back again just for those pretzels. You get 2 larger pretzel sticks that are cut in half. This was enough to feed the three of us but if you had more people you may need more than one serving.

Two of us also got the chicken tenders and the other person got the Olympic Caesar. To say Olympic might be an understatement. The salad was huge and the person ended up bringing it home to have as a second meal. The dressing was already on it and mixed in nicely but they did bring out a small ramekin of dressing if we wanted more.

The chicken tenders were on the plump side but they were very well cooked. We both got buffalo dipping sauce to eat with ours but there are rubs, sauces and and dips to choose from. I also got a side of Tots to go with mine and who can go wrong with tots?

Service at the Taproom was great. The woman that waited on us was very helpful and very attentive to us. She checked on us frequently and had a lot of nice suggestions for both beers and food when we asked. The bathrooms were clean and well lit.

The space itself was huge and had a pool area toward the back and another area of darts off to the side. The server told us they have various theme nights like poker night and trivia night that people can participate in.

Overall this was a great experience and I would go back. It just opened recently and is right near the track so I suspect on race weekends it could be packed and service could be slightly slower but for me, I would be willing to wait as it was a very nice place...

Finally went here after knowing about it for a year. The bad reviews had initially kept me away, however in the past few months they have gotten better, so I was ready to check out a place that’s very local to me.

First, it was the weekend of the Coca Cola 600, so I expected it to be crazy busy, and it was, but I was able to get seated right away(was only with one other person). Off to a great start, right?

Well, it took our waitress a good 20 minutes to greet us, then another 20 to get our drinks, and we had to ask the waitress twice for waters. Initially, it seemed like she didn’t even care to be there, as she had an AirPod in while taking our drink orders, and she just seemed out of it. I know it was a busy day and they were probably understaffed, but our waitress didn’t even offer an explanation until later on.

Finally got drinks and ordered our food, which thank goodness was brought out by runners and not our waitress, as we may have never received it.

Now this is where MW Taproom shines, as they have some of the best wings I’ve ever had, and I was blown away by the quality of the food and how good their beers were. Definitely made up for the slow service. I’ll come back for their food because we had plenty of time to see everyone else’s orders, and they looked great!

In the end, our waitress checked on us a couple of times after we got our food, and apologized for the slow service, saying she was running on minimal sleep and had been working since open. I’ve been there so I understand, but an explanation up front would have been nice as we just sat there waiting for the first 40 minutes.

It was also a bit pricier than I expected, with 2 orders of 12 wings, a side of tots, a pretzel appetizer(which had more dipping sauces than the actual pretzel), 2 flights, 1 beer, and tip cost just about $100.

Hopefully next time around the service is better, and the app portion is also more generous, as I would love to have given the taproom 5 stars...

Asked sweet hostess if we could go to the bar and asked if we could put 2 chairs together that were in the same vicinity. Hostess tried to work it out but rude bartender said NO. I immediately left the bar because I figured she didn’t want my money anyway…went back to hostess’s stand to wait for a table…hostess came back to inform me that a very nice guest moved down a spot with his girlfriend to make room for the 2 of us…WONDERFUL BUT the same rude bartender was taking care of us and it only got worse…she needs customer service training. All I wanted to do was leave BUT gave it a shot anyway only to be disappointed. I literally only came tonight to scout it out because I found out it was the home of the Miami Dolphins and looked forward to bringing a group there to watch the Fish this Sunday…BUT on top of the terrible service…they were not showing the Friday night NFL game (week 1) broadcasted from Brazil because it was streamed from Peacock ($5 for the app)…the rude bartender did tell me she had Peacock personally but the restaurant didn’t and she would gladly use her own account to put it on Mr. Waltrips TV for a mere $20 cash. Unbelievable!!!! I gave up on football and realized my group should NOT attend Sunday in hopes of seeing & hearing the Dolphins games so i asked for the US Open Semi final tennis match to be put on one of the TVs and you would've thought i asked for the MTV Video Awards to be played…eyes rolling and all. Then we were told that the restaurant was not able to get the ESPN channel!?!?!? What????? At that time i realized it was time to go and probably never return. Micheal Waltrip can’t afford Peacock App and/or ESPN??? They will never be able to broadcast NFL channel and the Dolphins weekly. I will be suggesting to the entire Facebook Dolphins Fan Page to find a new home ASAP. Good luck Micheal...