Tap Room — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

The drinks and food are good but nothing to write home about. But I gave it two stars for a few reasons.

First off we had set up our work holiday gathering here on Friday December 23rd. Now it wasn't a catered event or where we rented the space, our co-workers all just agreed it would be a good spot to meet. Being that I come from the restaurant industry and I know how crowded bars can be, especially on a holiday weekend, I called a week in advance to make sure that their bar and seating area could accommodate us being we were going to be approximately 50 people. I spoke to two different people, one of whom was a manager, who said it would be no problem. On the phone I even elaborated that "I know from my days in the industry when a party that size arrives unexpectedly it could be overwhelming and too busy to keep up". The manager assured me that wouldn't be the case. So when we showed up (mind you not all at the same time either), they were understaffed and EXTREMELY overwhelmed. I am not trying to blame the bartenders or servers here, to me this is a management issue. It took at times over 20 minutes to order a drink at the bar, staff couldn't decide whether they wanted to serve us where we decided to sit (because a lot of us chose to eat), or require us to order food and drink from the bar, and obviously being that overwhelmed by a large party, everything just seemed chaotic. At one point a lot of us just decided it would be easier for one of us to gather our own drink orders for a few people at a time and go place the order at the bar at once. So in casual conversation with one of the bartenders while I was ordering the group order, she stated "it's usually not this busy and it would have been good had we known you all were coming". When I informed her I had in fact called ahead, explained the situation in detail to a manager, and left my name and number, she said no one let them know that. So it seems there was a lack of communication on their part.

Aside from that a lot of us decided to order specialty cocktails from the menu. Now while these were good and reasonably priced, you would order the same one two different times, and it would taste completely different. Now surprisingly, both times it was still enjoyable, but again being from the industry, this is totally unprofessional. All staff making drinks need to be trained how to make the drink exactly the same, especially if it's one of the specialty cocktails on the menu. This isn't the case here.

Lastly, being they were so busy, by the time you ordered food and managed to get it either delivered to your table or pick it up yourself from the bar, it was lukewarm. Also even though most of us did eat and had appetizers and etc, at a certain time they asked us to "leave the tables so they can get ready for dinner service", which they did do but then other groups came and sat at the tables and simply ordered drinks without food. So I'm not sure what that was about.

Overall I can see this being a cool place to bring a friend or two for a local hangout but this experience just left me a little wary of bringing a large group here even if you call ahead. Now actually renting the space would probably lead to a much different and better experience, or at least I...

I’ll start by saying, this is really one of my favorite places. But over this memorial day weekend, I can’t believe the lack of service & disregard of this establishment. They are not “problem solvers.” Me and my fiancé work long hours, and our schedules never line up, so thankfully, due to the holiday weekend we had some time to bond over drinks and a fun dinner. We thought “lets go to our favorite place, Dirty Taco!” Hopped in the car and shared laughs and excitement talking about the menu… only to be completely disappointed later in the evening. We did our typical routine, two drinks to start and appetizers: the wings & mexi mac. That all came out fast and effectively. All was well. The server then returned, and asked if we were ready to order we said yes. We ordered two tacos each & another round of drinks. The drinks came out promptly and we usually wait for the food to enjoy our beverages for our main meal. We are very patient people so we waited over 30 minutes before we inquired about our tacos as well as placed another order for a quesadilla. The waiter said he will check on the tacos and then submitted the order for the quesadilla. The quesadilla arrived 20 minutes after we asked, here is the problem…. WHERE WAS OUR TACOS WE ORDERED OVER AN HOUR AGO? We asked the “manager” why our food hadn’t came out, he didnt say he would check, he just disappeared and then 5 mins later he came out and my fiance asked to cancel the whole entire order if it hadnt been started yet and he replied “we fired it up just now”….what? So our order was never placed and they tried to rush it out afterwards, we cancelled that immediately and asked for the bill. To “compensate” for their poor service we were offered a $10 gift card and nothing else. Our drinks were diluted by ice cubes and our appetites gone. I will not be visiting here again, it was a waste of a perfect day off to share with my lady. Mind you, the place was close to empty and the server was too busy laughing and enjoying himself around the other staff. I am extremely upset....

I came here on a Tuesday after the movies for a quick drink and bite and until now that has probably been the worst decision i’ve ever made. The service was good, we sat down at the bar and the bartender there took our drink order right away. We ordered a lavender haze and a strawberry sunset margarita, based off the names they sounded amazing, however, when we got the drinks we were incredibly disappointed. The alcohol was there because you could definitely taste it (only time i’ll ever complain a drink is too strong 😅) but as per the flavor, it tasted nothing like it was advertised as. We then moved on to order the mussels in white sauce and the tapchos, which we waited almost 40 min for the food until the bartender noticed that a group that had arrived after us got their food first. She reassured us that the food was coming out soon and it did come out shortly after that. I’m not sure if they rushed the food because they had seen we were waiting or if they had actually taken that long to prepare the dish but as per the mussels they were EXTREMELY SALTY, they had white strings coming out of the inside and the quality overall of the mussel was poor. The flavor was very seafood like, indicating that it was not fresh at all. They served a toasted baguette on top which was actually burnt but they plated it face down so you wouldn’t see right away. The tapchos were somewhat better but still disappointing, the chips were soggy before they had even reached the table. The chicken also had a weird flavor to it indicating that it wasn’t fresh. When I visit a restaurant I either expect the food or drinks to be bad, it’s not usually both but unfortunately for this place it was. I do not recommended...