City Tap House Penn Quarter — Restaurant in Washington

I think I need to re-evaluate this whole "eating out" thing, especially in today's economy. I mean, it's nice to hit the town and try a new spot. There's a certain thrill involved. That said, when that thrill turns to a lack of fulfillment, paying that bill can feel like a jail sentence...a penalty for an unfortunate error in judgement.

City Tap House is found on the outskirts of Chinatown. The space is moderately sized and the seating setup is on the cozy side. Intimate is one way to describe the decor, although the color scheme reminds me of a country western theme.

Service is very much hit or miss as ordering has transitioned from traditional to more of a remote self-service set up. It comes across a little impersonal.

I tried the Korean Short Ribs, Ten Spice Wings, Steak Frites, Lobster Roll and Blueberry Buckle.

The Korean Short Rib Tacos came with pickled cabbage slaw, cilantro and chili sauce. Tasty little devils. The short rib was moist and fairly tender. The operative word in describing these tacos is little. Three little tacos....for an inflated price. Crazy!

The Ten Spice Wings are a popular dish at the restaurant. They are dry rubbed and served with house blue cheese. Ahhhhhh, just ok. I'll admit that I tend to be more of a fan of wet wings. The first problem is they're fried way too hard. That makes the skin pretty dry and also renders the rub kinda useless. The rub is actually a little bland considering the moniker of "ten spice". I did pick up a little sweetness at the end of each bite. The meat was tender, which was nice. The blue cheese sauce is very bland. Overall, a flat dish.

The Steak Frites consists of grilled skirt steak, duck fat fries, chimichurri, and salad. Best thing about the dish was the fries. Them being fried in duck fat really didn't translate to flavor. They were well seasoned though, had a nice balance of being tender/crispy and paired well with a garlic aioli sauce.

The steak was average at best. While it was juicy, chewy is another word I'd use. Bland is also another descriptor I'd throw out there. The chimichurri sauce is also maddeningly bland. See a theme here?

The Lobster Roll is composed of poached lobster, celery, green onion, mayonnaise, on a buttered roll. I'll start with my side dish, which I subbed and turned into a side salad. I have a problem with the movement towards so much bitter lettuce that seems to be happening at several places. Who are they catering too...rabbits? Bitter on bitter is not appealing. Gotta have something to cut the bitterness a little and provide some balance.

Now, with the Lobster Roll....umm.....ok. It was alright. Want me to put it another way? It was.....aiiiiight. That's actually a more accurate description because I'm not sure it deserves the "l" or the effort it takes to properly pronounce the word. A decent amount of lobster existed, but something was amiss. I'm gonna say freshness was an issue because the lobster smelled a little off. That may explain the tummy troubles I experienced later. Scent aside, the most off-putting part of this dish was the price.

The Blueberry Buckle is the restaurant's spin on blueberry pie. It was actually a decent dessert. A little heavy and with a lot of crust/crumble, which made things a little dry. I think it could have used a little more ice cream than the teaspoon I got. Not bad though.

This is the best way I can summarize my experience. Ever get the bill and wonder how did it get to that point? Evidently, the cost of being underwhelmed and unfulfilled has gone up....

Management rest on location and not service.

Here for a business lunch with an international group and locals. We sat in a section behind the bar. Several members of our party wanted ice tea. The server informed us that we had to order it from the bar. We waited several minutes (it was very very busy). Realizing that the bartenders were slammed and unlikely to look behind them, I ventured down to the front to let them know.

A server, think black girl with long hair, at the bottom of the steps forcibly told me I MUST order from the back of the bar. I told her that I knew the bartenders were busy and just wanted them to know. She proceeded to be incredibly rude. I did go to the front and the bartenders were very gracious and polite.

I asked to speak with the manager. The manager came over to speak with one of the group leaders about an issue. You could tell he was already flustered. I managed to get his attention when done and explained the situation. He got angry with me and explicitly and contemptuously stated "I look forward to your review!". I tried telling him that i would want to know if one of my employees was rude to someone. He didn't care.

As you can see from my reviews, I am rarely very negative. And I realize that this restaurant has a large out of town patronage (by the convention center). But I do believe that Management should be more customer focused and that people who are considering a place understand the venues they are considering.

Management should be trained to diffuse a situation, not piss off customers to the point where they take time out of their schedule to write a nageative review.

Tip: stay away from that server Tip 2: if there is an issue, do not expect the day manager to care. Tip 3: visit as...

I never leave reviews but my experience here was noteworthy.

The hostess was very rude and clearly had a chip on her shoulder. She immediately set me in a bad mood and I was ready to leave at this point.

Our server was much more friendly however we ordered drinks. She then delivered to us two drinks which my boyfriend and I drank a sip of right away. The server then comes back to our table and says she delivered the wrong drinks and we tell her we drank out of them already. She then leaves, and then comes back again and removed the drinks quickly and takes off before we could confirm that she planned to dump those. We then see a different server with the same drinks in his hand that we just drank out of and he delivers it to the correct table. I know it was the same drink because I had taken the lime off the drink and squeezed it and dropped it into the glass. Plus this was all of one minute later. I stand up to get my servers attention and let her know that drinks we just drank from are now on someone else’s table. The server confirmed with the bartender and before anyone removed the drinks from the other table, I watched the other table also drink out of the same glasses we just drank from. Our server finally makes it to them and explains to them that they have the wrong drinks (a lie) and removes the drinks from their table.

It was a train wreck. I wanted to tell the other table what happened but unfortunately they were deaf and the serving staff was having difficulty communicating with them already.

Our actual drink orders came very late and arrived with our dinner. We also had to ask for silverware. The food was good but the experience...