"Yeeees we have lots of great saaaaalads..." Oooh a salad, lucky me! Oh wait, I forgot that I was hungry and was a rabbit in my previous life, not this one. So waiterman, what else is there?
"Ohhhh weellll we have a speciaaaaal veggie plate prepared by our chefs every eeeeevening with the daily vegetable ravioli" (ed. note: on the menu this "special ravioli" normally resides underneath a pork chop which retails $18). Now, I have been to TAP twice. The first time I went, I fell hook, line, and sinker for this supposed "veggie plate." It's special! It's homemade! It's veggie! It's...only THREE ravioli??? And it's TWELVE DOLLARS???? WHAT??? This was my reaction upon getting the bill on my first visit, because my lovely waitress didn't inform me that the ravioli were $4 a piece. And that two ravioli equaled a pork entree. I should have realized that I'd been punk'd, and that they don't have any "veggie plates." I just thought it was weird that I paid more than my friends who got heaping platefuls of food. I was a dupe.
However, once bitten, twice shy so I did not order that catastrophe again. Nor did I order the rabbit fodder, which was fortunate as the waiter informed Susannah that "cobb salad" was really a euphemism for a few leaves of lettuce. I instead chose to order two of the small plates (the only two non-salad veg ones), as there were no entrees to speak of unless I really wanted to meet Ashton again. The last time I'd ordered the tomini cheese and tomato jam plate and loved it, so I ordered that again. To supplement that, I also ordered a hummus plate. When the food arrived, as Susannah was pondering how she was going to eat all of her gigantic burger and heaping mound of shoestring fries, I looked down and contemplated my little cheese plate. I was at first bemused, and then so angry I had to
take a deep breath. What was on my plate that horrified me so? NOTHING. I kid you not when I say that there was a little hunk of cheese, a shotglass-worth of tomato jam, and a slice of bread cut into two half-pieces. The picture was taken after one bite of bread and cheese. I could just picture the chefs in the kitchen saying "HA! PUNK'D AGAIN! Hahahaha!" They'd even forgotten my hummus plate, which I had to ask for after the monumental task of finishing my slice of white bread. When it arrived, I once again felt insulted when I discovered that while they had provided me with an ample dish of hummus, I had only paper-thin fried pitas or whatever that crumbled when you tried to dip them into the hummus. And of course
were stale. Not even the hummus was good, as it was over sweet and yet still bland. I think at this point I grew so despondent that my hunger vanished and I could only look at the plates on our table with viciousness in my heart.Now, here's the funny thing. I've read review after review saying that this place was great and that almost everything was good. And in fact, everything my meat-eating friends got they enjoyed immensely. This, my friends, is the very reason why this blog exists in the first place. If you are an anorexic vegetarian or are suffering from a stomach flu, then I suppose you won't have such a hard time there. You can go with my friends, as they would go back in a heartbeat to sample the delicious fare. I, however, won't be joining you.
Would I Go Back: Uh, HELLLL NO! Perhaps if we were just going for drinks I would consider it, as they have 20 beers on TAP (get it? hahaha hilarious). Also, they have a really nice outdoor patio area which can be quite pleasant in nice weather, though gets a little loud as it overlooks scenic Peachtree Street. The catch is that half the people working there seem to have no idea that they actually showed up for work that day and have responsibilities. In our case, the outdoor hostesses (two!) abandoned their post for nearly 20 minutes even though a table had opened up and we were next on the list. We had to go inside and ask the indoor hostess to seat us. I think I should get paid for that since the outdoor waitresses were getting paid for alternately disappearing and chatting up middle aged drunk guys.
Other Vegetarian Options: HAHAHAHAHHAHAH that's a good one.
Atmosphere: Again, the outdoor patio is quite nice if you can barter your way into a table. The inside looked cool, but it was cold and dark and loud. Also the bathrooms are up two flights of stairs (yes, at a place with 20 beers on tap they decided to make people scale dangerous heights to pee, SMART), and all the way in the back corner behind the kitchen. Seriously. You may as well just find a bush. Also they aren't adequately marked as both I and the man I walked in on went into the wrong restrooms (he told me this on the way out).
Website: http://www.tapat1180.com
7 comments:
Again, unfortunate that they do not seem to understand what a vegetarian is. I mean, you might as well go back to Italy.
I will say though, for the meat eaters of us, the braised beef with mushrooms and the hamburger are exquisite. Shoestring fries are a bit greasy, but I think if I had another beer, I probably would have liked that aspect of them.
Ugh, I forgot about the fries. Those were good for the first few forkfuls, before I realized they were burnt.
So, this makes me want to come home and do some samplings with you. Perhaps something can be arranged over the Thanksgiving weekend?
i have to say, TAP is one of those places i'll keep wanting to go to for no apparent reason. the food is pretty good, but not too cheap. the hamburger really is delicious but the fries are so thin they're almost impossible to eat. i enjoyed the mussels quite a bit, but felt horribly an hour after i got home. who knows if that is directly linked to my meal, but it was enough to discourage me from ordering it again unless i have a major craving and am willing to take the risk.
that cheese plate has to be one of the most pathetic looking things I've ever seen. what would anthony bourdain say?
Anthony would say that he wants to lie me down and make a woman of me.
I went to TAP for a going away party for a colleague that was leaving our company. Needless to say, I was not impressed. UH, no, not at all. It didn't make me angry (though I didn't get that pathetic cheese plate placed under my unamused bouche, either).
The whole place just drips evidence of someone in charge with a cutesy-yet-pompous vision of food and what they want for their restaurant. From the humorous yet cheekily annoying bathroom signs ('A bathroom experience.' or some such crap) to the -- what was it, white chocolate and chorizo or something like that? I can't remember anymore thankfully, my brain has built-in protection systems to protect me from such terrible culinary bastardizations.
My wife ordered some sort of rabbit food with chicken on it. It came vegan -- they forgot the chicken. The server was pretty awful (I finally handed my credit card to someone else to run because she walked by several times not noticing me), but I give her a little credit since it was a decent-sized (tho by no means huge or difficult) party.
That one long lunch at TAP showed me that they clearly have little to no respect for food and that they have a diminished capacity to execute in their kitchen. I see that we were not alone in the experience. I certainly won't be going back.
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