Went back for a second bite tonight, and sorry to be disappointed. I have observed far too often the new restaurant in town that goes all out after opening to establish a reputation, then slacks off in service, ingredients, prep or all three after it becomes obvious just how costly it is to excel in all three categories. Yet, that's what it takes to be a great eatery.
Our experience tonight, service was indifferent, and food was just okay. I raved about the wings last time, remembering them as being the second best in Harrisburg (Official BBQ), but tonight, while they were good, they were not great. The wings I had Thursday at Sturges were better. B & M had tomato basil soup, which I thought was no better than average. Special pizza was crab, bacon and mozzarella. B had sausage and broccoli rabe pizza, and M chose fish and chips. Pizza crust was chewy but burned on the bottom. The burned taste totally colored the seafood, giving the pizza a bland non-taste, not good. B's pizza crust also burned and tasted like it. Should do better with the brick oven.
Just an okay dining experience tonight. Not at all busy for a Saturday night.
We heard two things about the Federal Tap House, brick oven pizza and lots of craft beer, so we had to give it a try. Â This was the loudest restaurant we ever been in. Â The nose level was so high we had to lean into each other to talk. Â No normal conversation here. Â Yes, it is a bar and it was Saturday evening but, it is a restaurant also. Â Both are combined in one large room. Â Â Most likely more occupants that actually allowed. Â There is an upper level room but limited tables and chairs. Â As the evening progressed the bar crowd got closer and closer to our table and the F Bombs became every other word. Â Not that I have never left and F Bomb fly, but there is a limit and in public. Â The beer selection is the most we have ever seen in one location. Â 100 taps of craft beer from everywhere. Â The brick oven pizza was really good. Â Service was OK but I have to give that a pass as the place was jam packed. Â As much as I like craft draft craft beer and brick oven pizza I doubt if I will go back. Â John Wright and Iron Hill are better suited for us.
Review Source:I like this place. I dunno, I might love it.
Yeah, sure. It can have 5 stars.
You know why? They have a lot of beer. They are always super friendly with me. And the beer is always good. For beer alone, it's my place to go. It's never too loud like Anthony's and there is plenty of room. I'm always able to be seated, never crowded in by too many sweaty people, and I'm comfortable. They have that down.
The service is always good. Our waiters have never failed to bring us beers, check in on us, and bring us food in good time. Not only that, but they are nice. One of our waiters even let us take home both of our glasses when Star Hill was doing a 'get one of our beers and take the glass home free' thing. I heart you, man.
I like the food. The pizza is yummy - I'm a big fan of it. It's cooked well, the cheese is good, and I'm happy with it always. The duck fat fries with the aioli is darn good too, although not as good as others, it's damn good for Harrisburg.
A must-go for beer lovers. Â But . . . don't go expecting cheap beer - even during happy hour.
The fries were fantastic.
Food was pretty standard but over priced.
Service absolutely stunk one evening when I stopped in for happy hour. Â There were employees all over the place but it was like our two tables were almost invisible (even though we were near the entrance and bar). Â I eventually went up to the bar and waited a good 5 minutes before the bartender even looked at me. Â I don't understand how they have one bartender during happy hour at a downtown establishment. Â It made me miss Washington, D.C. where bars with happy hours were overstaffed behind the bar. Â Maybe it's because I'm a women and there's a stereotype of women not tipping well.
I'll only go back if my hubby is with me because he loves trying different beers (particularly if they're on a tap).
Everything is very hit or miss here. The food, service, and even the atmosphere, depending on the night.
The concept of the food is very impressive, but sometimes the attractiveness of the food description on paper did not translate to the dish itself. On the upside - it's not your typical bar food.
The service is pretty good but beware - the bartenders know enough about beer to get by, but many of the waitstaff are clueless. On my first visit, I ordered "so and so" beer and the waitress asked me to say the number it is listed under. Disappointing.
However, it is definitely worth a visit as the food can be very good depending on what you get and they do have a great selection of beer.
P.S. What's up with the happy hour?
Came to this spot as a referral from a local and was excited about all the beers on tap. We came in on a Monday night so it was fairly empty, but it worked since we got our food and beers pretty fast. The restaurant has a hip and trendy vibe, great for socializing. Our server was very knowledgable of their huge beer selection and gave great recommendations for each person.
The food was ok...I ordered the crabcake sandwich as our server said it was one of her favorites and ordered it with the poutine fries. The crab cake sandwich was good but I wasn't crazy about it. The poutine fries were disappointing - barely any gravy or cheese. But overall it seemed like a cool place and would definitely come back for the beer selection.
Tried it for the first time for lunch. Â Atmosphere is big, meant to handle hoards of 2nd St drunks on weekends, but not offering much in the way of comfort and cozyness at mid-day. Â The service was also surprisingly cold and inattentive despite how slow it was. Â
Sandwich was good. Â Fries cooked in duck fat a decedent treat. Â Chips cooked in the same fat disgusting.
Cool seeing all the taps and nice beers. Â This whole 2nd street no-style, economy drinking, pack-them-in places are just not my thing.
Nice rehab. Great atmosphere. Great beer selection. Great service. Will not go back.
Stopped in for Happy Hour. $8 beers were now $7. Really, why bother? Personal Pizza of the day sounded good, was $15. Can you say "overpriced"?
Pretty empty during happy hour, I wonder why.Owner got in his $70K SUV and drove away, so I guess he's doing OK. Â A good place to go if you have an expense account.
I had been wanting to check this out and ending up doing so with a large group. Surprisingly, despite it being very busy, we were seated promptly. The beer list is huge and there are some excellent choices. The food was fine. We had a burger which was good, but there wasn't anything unique or exceptional about, it was just a good burger. Also had the olives (never had olives warm before) and they were very tasty and the portion was sizable. The service was excellent, even with our large party. I'm really glad that this is here as a downtown option. I would take this any day over Dragonfly. I guess the only reason I don't rank Federal Taphouse higher is 1) it's pretty expensive for what it is and 2) the food isn't that interesting and again is expensive for what it is.
Review Source:Went this past Saturday with a group of 4. Beer selection was excellent and the server was friendly and helpful. I had the NY Strip steak medium and it was an excellent cut of meat and the steak was savory and well seasoned. The only drawbacks were experienced by my friends who ordered the pork and chicken salad sandwiches. The pork sandwich looked dry and sauceless without my friend having to tell me, and the chicken salad sandwich came off as cheap chicken cubes rather than roasted/shredded fresh chicken one would expect when paying $8+ on a sandwich the size of a Subway 6 inch sub. Also, once a big table arrived we were forgotten by our server and waited 15+ minutes to get our checks. Overall better than I expected and hopefully some of these minor hiccups get fixed over time.
Review Source:This is a refreshing change to 2nd street Harrisburg. First of all the 100 beer taps is amazing. The selection is obviously fantastic with great local beers and choices from all over the country. Not just a great variety of styles but a nice variety of breweries. There were a few beers they were out of which for a week night I was disappointed about but it wasn't like there weren't 99 or 98 other beers to choose from. My friends and I sat at the bar where they had the massive TVs which was nice for viewing sports. The bartenders were great and even once the HYP crowd came in were still very attentive and quick to get new drinks.
For food I tried the fried cooked in duck fat and the duck confit pizza. The confit pizza has far too much arugula on top. A little would have been great but it overwhelmed the pizza in my opinion. The confit was great and went well with the pizza. I hadn't really had a gourmet pizza before but it was good and cooked well. The fries were excellent as well.
The restaurant is new and beautiful on the inside. It's inviting and makes you feel like you want to hangout for a while and smell the wood fire.
Stopped in for a little bit of food, so I wanted to give a quick update:
I had the wings and the duck confit pizza. The wings are absolutely delicious! I am usually the type of wing eater that wants a puddle of hot sauce left over after I polish my dozen off, but these were an exception for sure. They are full wings, meaning drummettes and wingettes attached, which you don't usually see. They come with a side of hot sauce, but are certainly flavorful enough to ignore and just eat as-is. Definitely the best wings I've ever had of that style, and up there for overall wing experience also. I recommend an order or two of these!
On the other hand, the duck confit pizza was a bit of a disappointment. Our pizza had a very minimal amount of duck, and the little bit that was included was overcooked and tough. Along with there not being enough duck, they also overdid the carmelized onions on the majority of the pizza. This led to the flavor being pretty much one-note, and that note was just overly sweet. The basic components of the pizza lead me to believe that I would enjoy another pizza with different toppings, but I'm not rushing back to see if that's true.
Service was good and the chalkboard was complete this time, so that was nice. Unfortunately, I still don't think there is enough beer knowledge among the staff to entice me to pay an extra $1 per beer for the experience. The owners could learn a little something from a conversation with the owners/staff of some of the better beer bars in the Philly area (TJ's, Monk's Cafe, Capone's, Memphis Taproom, Station Taproom, etc).
I've been here for happy hour and for dinner. It is a good weeknight happy hour location...the crowds weren't too bad. For dinner, I was very pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food. I had a Taphouse Burger...and it was amazing. Usually I put ketchup on everything...but not on this burger as it was juicy and perfect without it. Will definitely be back for happy hour...and won't shy from dinner here.
Review Source:A great beer selection and nice selection of wood fired pizza choices including roasted duck with fig and Italian sausage w/ broccoli rabe. The service was attentive and only waited about 15 min when they were packed on Saturday night -I want to come back to see what the place is like on a week night
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