TAP THREE — Restaurant in Woodruff

We Left Hungry & Sorely Disappointed . . .

I'll preface this by saying my wife and I have been here 6 times accumulative, and the reviews are spot on: The food is great, but the service is so-so. Our own experiences have been a mixed bag. The food has consistently exceeded our expectations and the environment is awesome, but the service has varied. So why the one-star review, you ask?

This morning (May 10th), we visited Tap Three, entering the restaurant at approximately 8:30 am for breakfast. We thought we'd beat the Mother's Day weekend rushes by celebrating a day early; my wife's only request, mind you, was for a family breakfast out at Tap Three. We brought our almost 3-year-old in tow, and all of the low-sitting tables were taken, so we had to make a high-top table work for us and the toddler. This wasn't a huge issue, nor was it Tap Three's fault by any means, just an addition to the poor experience.

Something we've noticed about service here is the main dining area closest to the kitchen and bar inherently receives more frequent service than those in the stage room where we sat. This was further exhibited by the infrequency of our servers. A table seated near the partition entrance to the stage room who arrived minutes after we did were seen by the server first, even after we had conversed with the server upon entering. From the time we entered to the time we were seen by the server was approximately 10 minutes. Not great, but not yet worth a one-star review. When we were seen, we had drink orders taken, and we were asked if we needed menus, to which we answered, "Yes". The server brought us drinks a few minutes later, but no menus. My wife actually went to the bar and got menus for us. It took another 8-10 minutes for another server, not our original, to come by and ask if we'd had our orders taken. We placed our orders and then proceeded to sit without having been seen or food brought to our table for another 40-45 minutes. As we sat there, we'd hear the waitresses inform other arriving patrons the kitchen was backed up 30-45 minutes, information we were not privy to except through eavesdropping.

For an establishment with a mere 18 tables (approximate), several of which were vacant, there's no excuse for such a wait. I actually went to the bar and had to request coffee refills. Our wait reached a point where we were forced to decide to stay or leave. At that point we'd already invested over an hour, so was it worth waiting longer? With our daughter present who needed to eat, we opted to leave at 9:30 am. I went to the register and requested to cancel my order, just paying for our two coffees, and proceeded to pay nearly $5 for two mugs of black coffee.

At this point, we're really not sure if we'll take the chance on returning. I could care less if any prospective patrons read this review, because I'm writing this to the staff at Tap Three. DO BETTER! No one should leave a food establishment feeling the way we did: Hungry & Sorely Disappointed. We will miss the incredible food, but we'll wait a while in hopes the staff can get their act together before we consider choosing Tap...

I NEVER do this. I love restaurants and the people who run them. I am patient to a fault. Arrived just after 9a. Sat for 15 minutes with no greeting, acknowledgement etc. I figured, they may be short staffed. I asked for menus and they said “oh, so you are sitting there?” I was yes, and they came take drink order. The next server asked for our orders. We arrived with one table ahead of us seated drinking beverages and waiting on food. The room filled up around us and we watched all them get drinks AND food, pay, and leave. Literally took over an hour to get food and each dish came out at different times (not so bad really) but my order was a meat, cheese, mushroom omelette because I can’t have onions and I hate peppers. The server was sweet and said no problem. I got my food last, and it was a meat, cheese, and ONIONS omelette. I went to the bar to let them know my omelette was incorrect, I reminded her what it is supposed to be and sat back down. 20 minutes later I see a server at next table and asked how the omelette was going, she looked confused and went to go check. She comes back and said they didn’t know if I wanted them to remake it. So everyone in the family has eaten, and I’m patiently waiting for my breakfast… and they ain’t even making it. They aren’t checking our table, nothing. After we left I was just kinda kind blown that the woman actually thought I would just like to have gotten dressed up, gotten the family up and dressed and went to eat with the hopes of what? Not having breakfast? Did they seriously think I would sit there 2 hours and then STILL not get breakfast? Madness.

I’ll probably never make another review like this because I’m pretty chill, but this is beyond the pale.

Also 2 weeks before they messed my omelette up then, but the nice lady quickly fixed it and that was a wonderful experience. The food is good. But if you are polite and...

Honest Take from a New Local After recently moving to the area, my partner and I were excited to explore downtown Woodruff and stopped into Tap Three based on its inviting exterior and cozy-looking vibe. Unfortunately, our experience didn’t match the expectations.

Walking in, we couldn’t help but feel out of place — the atmosphere felt unwelcoming, and we were met with stares that made us feel more like outsiders than guests. It took nearly 20 minutes for anyone to acknowledge us and take our drink order, despite the bar being less than half full. When the drinks finally arrived (a rum and coke and a bottled beer), they were delayed again by another 20 minutes.

We also ordered some small bites, but the food came out overcooked and lacked the quality we hoped for. While our server was polite, the overall environment made it hard to relax or enjoy our time. We gave it a second try on another occasion, but after experiencing the same long delays and awkward vibe, we decided not to stay.

We understand that Tap Three has a strong local following, and we really wanted to like it — but from our perspective, the atmosphere, service, and overall experience just didn’t live up to the local hype. It looks great from the outside, but unfortunately, we won’t...