North End Taproom — Restaurant in Royal Oak

Food was absolutely terrible. I think this place is probably only good as all you can drink beer buffet since they have wristbands and serve yourself beers on tap, but the food was the worst I have eaten in recent memory. I did not drink that night so maybe you just have to be smashed to think the food tastes okay. I got fish tacos and Mexican street corn bowl and a can of coke for 27$. You get three small tacos. The fish was not seasoned, dry, burnt, and full of bones. It was served on a some arugula with radishes and mealy dry corn tortilla. A single (ONE) small mandarin orange segment in the middle of each taco was all there was flavor wise. The argula did not compliment the flavors at all and only added to the scorched earth/dirt-like taste of the burnt fish and tortilla. It's supposed to come with preserved lemon and red pepper coulis but there wasn't any sauce on it at all that I had noticed or could taste. I also got a bowl of the Mexican street corn for 8$ which was basically a bowl of mostly sour cream topped a quarter cup of (somehow simultaneously) mushy, dehydrated and burnt corn and a dusting of hot Cheetos. Maybe a few red onions in there. Didn't taste or see any cojita or cilantro or lime aioli as stated on the menu. I tried to combine the two to lubricate the extremely dry tacos with the large bowl of mostly sour cream in order to choke some food down since I was starving but ended up just tossing two out of the three tacos I got and left. My boyfriend got a hamburger and the meat patty was paper thin. It's supposed to be a double quarter pounder but it was mostly bread. The tater tots that came with it were fine. But it was just unbelievable how bad the rest of it was. I texted a friend since I thought maybe it was just an off day but she told me she had been there awhile back and had a similar experience with how terrible the food was and never went back. No idea how they have such a high rating on Google. It was also a quizzo night so it was super loud for a Sunday night. Can't believe we spent like 45$ for terrible food. You also order your food from an app, then get it yourself, and bus your own table, so if you are expecting service like a normal restaurant,...

EDIT: Writing an edit to give North End Taproom a 5 star review. Jon reached out to me and provided a refund for the drinks that were poured out. Thank you, Jon, and North End Taproom for being understanding and making this wrong right!

We’ve been to North End Taproom twice now since it opened and had good experiences both times. The food is wonderful and we received it pretty quickly after ordering. In addition, the staff we interacted with are all very nice and helpful.

However, the second time we went we had a couple of negative experiences. When I was going to get a seltzer, I scanned my wristband on the wall and immediately the seltzer started pouring out (before I even had my glass ready to fill). I then realized what was happening, put my glass under the pour but then it stopped and read a message “Please see a team member to reauthorize your card” and charged me $8. I went to the front desk to ask a staff member about this and was told “Yeah, we tell customers to make sure the handles are always put back before they scan their wrist band” (so I’m assuming this isn’t the first time this has happened). I wasn’t told this from a staff member before and got stuck with paying $8 for a seltzer I didn’t even drink. Then my husband went to get a beer and it started pouring out straight foam and then also stopped and directed him to see a staff member to reauthorize our card. We decided to leave at that point.

Overall, we really like North End Taproom and think it’s a great concept. However, hopefully they will get the kinks worked out with these kinds of things as they’ve only been open for a month. We will mostly likely wait to be back since paying for drinks we didn’t even get to enjoy was...

North End Taproom is one of my favorite places in Royal Oak. They have a great beer selection and the kitchen makes tasty food.

I rated one star for “atmosphere” because they really need to make this place 21+.

My husband and I were here last night and it was absolute pandemonium due to the children that were present:

We had to move seats when we got our food because the group next to us had 3-4 kids that would not stop high-pitched shrieking. At a playground or the beach? Love it. At a restaurant? Inside voices, please.

This toddler-aged girl was permitted to wander around the taproom clutching a GLASS to her chest. Guess what shattered all over the floor 20 mins later.

This other little toddler girl was brought over to the bathroom area. All of a sudden, we see her wandering alone, bawling and screaming, face beet-red. Dad wanders over a minute later.

This was all happened within about 45 minutes, too!

This is a lovely establishment and I understand they want the revenue the parents are spending, but I think we’re going to put this place on ice until it stops being a...