Tap House Grill At Ghent

Just went in for a quick drink. This is most definitely a relaxed atmosphere. You won’t be bothered by anyone stuff and uptight. You can be loud or quiet because there was a real mixture of personalities in there. I was greeted as soon as I walked into the bar by I’m guessing the manager as well as the bartender. I’m not big on beer but the drink I had is changing my mind. It had an alcohol content of 11.5% and 1 glass is all I needed. I’ve been here before so The last time I was there it was earlier in the day and the bartender let me sample different beers which is really awesome for non beer drinkers because you find out all beer doesn’t really taste like beer! Next time I’ll get food because that drink packed a punch. This place is great if you want an assortment of choices and you don’t want to be in a larger atmosphere like Yard House. This is a good place to throw up a messy bun and sweats and not feel judged. There is also an eating area outside where you can eat and watch the hustle and bustle of the Ghent area. This was a Thursday night and they were open until 1:30 am Great place!

Bottom line up front: this place is not for everyone. The 3-​star rating is based on my preference only.
Think of this as your local college bar. Cheap, scuzzy, pedestrian, but it also gets the job done and is a place frontline be there with a few friends, drink from the inordinate amount of beers they have on draft and just enjoy some very ordinary American fares. If you’re going to order the fried calamari, ask for it the regular way. Theirs comes with cheese.
The service is what it is — they are friendly and will provide you service, but you aren’t going to be treated like a rockstar. But then again, it’s also cheap so you get what you pay for.
The back of the bar has a juke box and a few pool tables. Though the quality of the tables isn’t all that great. So, if you’re wanting to play a serious game of pool, look elsewhere.
Tuesdays are trivia and open mic night — the latter comprises of some very brave people getting on stage to tell some very unfunny jokes. But that’s the charm of this place.
Weekends are a time to stay away from this place if you are looking for somewhere quiet to go. It features live bands and a cover charge. While that’s appealing to some people, it’s not really my scene.
Do check it out before you make a decision about it, though. In fact, do it twice before you make a decision.
As always, make sure to tip your servers and bartenders.

Let me say this place has completely changed since I first stepped foot here about 2 years ago. The tables are so sticky you can barely pick up your glass. They took away the best thing this place had going for it the Chesapeake crab burger. I had two random light up Easter bunnies right next me. This is the kind of place you want to go if you want to get wasted and throw up on the floor while the bartender cheers you on.

Big fan, and I’ll tell you why.
I stopped in on a Friday afternoon after picking up some chocolate creations (special order buckeyes from The Bonbonnier right across the street). Shopping makes me thirsty (as do most things), so I just planned on knocking off some dust before returning to the Naval base.
As one would expect from a spot named Tap House, the beer selection was good, but not great. They were out of the one tap of a local beer (O’Connor Great Dismal Black IPA), and didn’t have any Smartmouth handles, so I went with a Breckenridge Agave Wheat. Anyway, I’ve seen better selections, and was just a wee bit disappointed that I didn’t get any of the Norfolk offerings, as I’m only in the area for a short while.
One of their menus was sitting on the bar, so I perused, not expecting to see anything particularly attractive. There was what I would consider «standard fare», like Fish/​Chips, a Cuban, a Reuban, a number of really creative Vegan dishes, and some entrees. I typically steer clear of the «standards», as I normally don’t see much imagination paid to those items, and I could imagine a box of Gorton’s from the freezer being ripped open, or a hermetically sealed bag of something being dropped into boiling water, when ordered. I decided to give one of their specialties, a Spicy Beer Sausage in a red cider ale beurre blanc with potatoes and peppers, a try. Possibly the best meal and beer pairing that I’ve experienced… tart and buttery, savory sausage, and the vegetables were not overcooked. I could tell that some thought went into the preparation.
I saw a gentleman walk behind the bar in a chef’s getup, asked if he was in charge back there, then complimented him on the meal. I also pointed out that beurre blanc was misspelled on the menu, and suggested that if he was going to offer something as rich and redolent as acorn butternut bisque as the soup of the day, they should offer it both in a cup and a bowl (it was only available in a bowl), so someone could try it and still have room for another entre.
Well, Mario the Kitchen Manager and I ended up chatting for about 20 minutes. I got to try the acorn butternut bisque, and he talked about his corned beef marinate (48 hours) for their Reubens, and the slow cooking process for the carne asada on their Cubans. Sold on his clearly evident strategy to make his menu memorable, I promised to bring a group of co-​workers back to try them. And I did.
Seven of us showed up the next Tuesday (we referred to it as Reuben Tuesday… who could hang a name on you?), with five of us ordering the Reuben, one the Cuban, and the last an order of bruschetta. Both the Ruebens and the Cuban rocked, with the Cuban lauded as «the best that I’ve ever had» by Dave. Who is no stranger to a Cuban. He purred the rest of the afternoon. Great attention to detail on both — the rye and pan cubano were spot on, the sauerkraut was actually still a bit crunchy, and we could tell immediately that this wasn’t your run of the mill Sysco offering.
They made some happy and new customers, who will definitely work this into the lunch rotation on a consistent basis. I, sadly, only have a couple more opportunities to visit before I head back down to Florida. And I will. Keep up the good work, Mario and Tap House!

Excellent place to indulge your beer tastebuds. Large selection of beers on tap and bottle. Menu of flights and locals. Pub food to keep your belly happy too. Live music. I’ll be back for another flight.

I came here with some friends for Trivia Night.
It was hot day and it was not much cooler inside. Our table was sticky and one us had to find a rag to wipe it down after asking a few times. It was still sticky.
We were here early and while the deck was busy, inside it was definitely not. Our server kept forgetting to bring us things and got orders wrong. I’m still not sure if my vegetarian dish was actually the vegetarian version. All of this was before trivia even started. The person who brought us our food straightened everything out, not our actual server!
We had trouble receiving refills and my drinks had way more ice than I’ve ever seen put in a glass with vodka and cranberry juice.
I was really hoping to add this to my list of places to go when I don’t want to eat meat, but that’s so not happening with the sticky table and bad service.

I’ve done my fair share of bar hopping around Ghent, and have to say that Taphouse is just average.
Food: Honestly the only thing I’ve actually tried on the food menu is the tater tots with sriracha ketchup. Its pretty good, especially after downing a few.
Beer: Its an okay draft list. Its typical, with occasionally a few surprises.
Honestly, I’m usually there when its Monday…2.50 drafts under $ 5.its okay but honestly with so many bars in Ghent, its not the best.

I came in with a bunch of friends on a weekday, they host a trivia night which was a lot of fun. The server got around to all of us and never wrote down a single order, but he was 100% right on everything. Beer was great.
My big complaint about this place only had to do with the food. I expected this to be a bar where the food was going to fill you up. I looked at the menu and I saw a section called Big Plates. I ordered a sausage meal with potatoes which cost about $ 11, more than other items in different sections. I thought I was secure, but the plate comes out. It had 5 slices of sausage and small pile of cubed potatoes. If I was just admiring the look of the plate, I would have been satisfied. I was actually immediately disappointed when I noticed I had the smallest meal at the table when I was paying more than them. I understand that the sausage might be more expensive than a hamburger, but they shouldn’t put it under a section called Big Plates. I was hungry the rest of the night when I finished my meal.
Having well dressed plates at a bar that does trivia nights does not go together.

Ok so the atmosphere here isn’t my typical cup of tea, but the food and service was great! The new executive chef came out and introduced himself to us and made sure that the food was nothing less that spectacular! I had the brunch special which was a spinach and mushroom quick topped with a perfectly crafted creamy hollandaise sauce. It was simply incredible! I would definitely come back to eat anything this new chef creates! Great job!

Walking in, I was slightly unsure because the restaurant was completely, I mean completely dead! Never the less, we ordered mimosas and bloody Mary’s and ordered our food. When our food came, let’s talk about the fact that it even looked incredible. I had the «shrimp and grits» and it was AHHHHMAZING. Then, to top it off, the head chef came out, introduced himself and took pride in his food! He KNEW that his food was incredible and I honestly felt like if I didn’t like it, he would go back and make adjustments and made sure not to leave me unsatisfied before I left. I was THOROUGHLY impressed and very confused as to why the restaurant was still empty when I left! Come here for a great brunch! You will not be disappointed!

Terrible service asked the waiter to wife all the crumbs off the table and couldn’t even get half the table clean and the tables are so sticky I have to peel my menu off of them. Brought out appetizers late and then never refilled any of our drinks until we asked for a second time and I can see dead bugs everywhere. Don’t come here unless you want to be pissed off and have people ignore basic cleanliness and customer service.

This past Saturday my husband and myself decided to go to the Tap House to check out the beer menu that everyone raves about. We pull up to the restaurant and immediately it was not what we were expecting. From the pictures of other reviewers we thought it would have been classier. There was 5 people sitting at one of the tables outside in which when we walked in the restaurant one of the 5 people sitting outside was the bartender/​waiter. The beer list was extensive but the food menu was horrible. This place reminded me of one of the restaurants on The Bar Rescue before the rescue. We left due to we were looking for a place for dinner and a little fancier. We would return to try some of the beers but I would not eat anything from this place and we would be wearing flip flops and shorts if we returned.

I enjoyed this bar during a one week stay in Norfolk, that I went again the next night.
They have 44+ taps of varying types of craft beers from all over the US. And they usually rotate the menu from time to time.
Came in on a random Monday and Tuesday night and both nights weren’t packed with a lot of people. Tuesday nights is trivia night and they still had lots of seating available. Trivia night was pretty fun. Me and my buddy won trivia night and we received $ 25.
Service is pretty cool here. People were super friendly.

Hipster-​emo central. If you are into that, then you’d probably enjoy the scene here. Other than feeling a little out of place, the food was good. I got the fish tacos which was really tasty and HUGE! Beer wasn’t as cold as we wanted but that’s okay. Our waiter was really attentive. We never had to wait for him to come back!

I really do like coming to this place, especially for trivia on Tuesday evenings but so far my experiences have been pretty mediocre. Here’s a sum up of last night…
–Got the wrong beer for my first order — ordered a Smartmouth Rule G and got an Alter Ego instead because my server failed to tell me they were out of Rule G. If you’ve ever had these beers they are WAY different — (IPA vs. Saison).
–Said beer had a huge black chunk of something gross floating at the bottom of the glass and some other grass or something in it. I was sitting inside… I hate returning beers and I normally would just ignore it but this was too big a chunk to ignore so I took it back.
–Table was «shedding» old plywood all over our clothes because the table was falling apart. Gross.
–Ordered the buffalo chicken wrap — it was almost impossible to try to eat because they didn’t wrap it at all. That and it was too spicy. WAY too spicy. I don’t want you to think I’m a wimp either. I LOVE spice but this was intolerable. Yes eyes watering intolerable.
— Our bill comes out written on sticky notes, last night we were charged correctly but the time before our server couldn’t add and over charged us. Either way, how about a receipt?
I’m writing all this because they should get an honest review and a chance to fix some things. Some would be really easy to fix. But until then, check to see if your sticky note tabs are added correctly.
But love trivia so I’ll probably be back next week…

Any place that offer lindemanns raspberry lambic on tap deserves 5 stars. But minus one star for having a «bring your own heater» day on a freezing Sunday night. We ended up playing a few games of pool and playing some cool songs on the jukebox in the freezer of game room of the place. A big group was playing Jenga in the corner of the warmer room. I smiled to myself when I heard the clash of blocks behind me and for some reason, I didn’t have to turn around to see the mess it made — I could just picture it in my head.
While at the bar, I felt bad for 2 things: the girl next to me who demanded that she have alcohol and that she could down a whole bottle of everclear. Apparently she was already a couple of drinks in because I saw the sleezy fat bearded guy next to me get fresh with her and she allowed it. I also felt bad for the bartender who took offense when one of my coworkers asked about a sign next to the cash register that says «Dee’s Nuts.» It was an innocent question really.

The only reason I gave it 2 stars instead of a 1 is because of the beer list, which is surprisingly good with some rare beers on tap.
Besides that, this place isn’t sure if it’s a live music venue, bar, or restaurant, but it’s definitely sure that cleaning supplies aren’t needed. As we drank our first beer, the fella had a straight vie into the kitchen where he saw our waiter stick his ungloved hands into a vat of fries and start munching.
The setup is weird, and we actually joked (but seriously) about not drinking the water there. We had planned on having dinner, but we paid after one drink and quickly got the heck outta Dodge.

I am just shocked that this place has a high average. We came here on a weeknight and had just an awful experience. It would take a lot for me to come back here.
It was around 8 when we came in. It was a Thursday, so there wasn’t a lot of action. The server told us to sit anywhere. After a little while she came and brought us the menus. She took our drink orders and then it took a long time and finally we had our non alcoholic drinks. By this time we were ready to order, she needed to get a pen no big deal. Except then it took her another 5 minutes to come back. Keep in mind it was a rainy weekday, this place was empty. When she took our order we ordered an appetizer and then our meals. The time between getting our food and placing our order was reasonable, except our appetizer came out ten minutes after we got our food. We only got our beer (bottles) just a few minutes before getting our food. The timing was just wrong in every way possible.
The food was just so so. Nothing to brag about. It (should) go without saying that the beer selection is good. Maybe I would come back to catch a band and drink a beer, but for a fun dinner and drinks with friends or a date? Never again.

5 stars for the beer selection. Many local, American and world wide beers available. I’d recommend supporting local micro breweries and going with the Virginia Sampler.
2.5 stars for food. Hit or miss. Crab cakes and tots are great! Avoid the Nachos. For the price you would expect better. The cheese taste like it came from a can.
1.5 stars for the time it took to get our food. Not impressed.

Some of the best hamburgers in Hampton Roads.
I would give 5 stars but with the construction across the street the outhouse is not a viable option for lunch and the construction limits parking. It will be a 5 star place again.
The inside appears divey but the food can’t be beat. The beer menu is impressive. The only place that beats this beer menu is the Bier Gardten in Portsmouth.
The service is top-​notch and very friendly.