Tavern & Tap

Food and service is awesome! We were lucky enough to get Mardi B as our server and she took great care of us! She gets what real service is about. Drinks were tasty and the DJ that came in (we were there on a Thursday night) played great old school hits. I would definitely recommend!

After a long run I can’t wait to get to Tavern & Tap. Ashley is a great server and the food is really good! You can’t go wrong with a $ 2 mimosa or a $ 4 Bloody Mary!

One of the best brunches in Lansing. They have great mimosa and Bloody Mary specials in the weekend. Recommend to anyone looking for a great lunch or brunch

Horrendous service. Really wanted to love this place but can’t get over it. Food is fine, but lack of service always leaves a poor taste in my mouth.

Here’s the deal: yes, the service is traditionally pretty mediocre at the tables, but the atmosphere, the food, the drink selection, and even the pricing combine to make this a Very Good Spot. As a 32-​year-​old in the Lansing area, this is one of the best places for happy hour, dinner, and general hanging out. They even have a tasteful amount of TVs if you want to catch some major sporting events without the sports bar vibe.
I think their beer list is quite well-​curated. They generally have ~15 thoughtful taps featuring limited release stuff from the big Michigan breweries (Bells, Shorts, Founders, Dark Horse, scattering of Perrin and Arcadia etc.). The pricing is reasonable during normal hours and the weekend/​happy hour beer specials are excellent (used to be 4 oz tastes for $ 1, not sure if that deal is still on).
The food is a solid four stars. They have had both chicken and waffles and hamburgers every time I’ve been, and they execute these dishes well. It’s hard to have a transcendent hamburger, but their combo of burger and fries is on par with Hopcat in East Lansing if that means anything to you. In fact the general Hopcat comparison is pretty fair — Hopcat has more, but not necessarily better, tap options (yes there are overall better beers at Hopcat but what does show up at Tavern is as good as the 80^th percentile of Hopcat). The food style is pretty close to Hopcat too. I prefer the atmosphere at Tavern, it’s more intimate compared to the warehouse feel of Hopcat EL.
I just went to Tavern last Wednesday with a professor visiting MSU. Six of us had different entrees and everyone was complimentary of the food and beers (the professor breeds hops in Oregon and is intimately acquainted with beer). I had the country style ribs with bacon mac ‘n cheese. The ribs weren’t quite as tender as pops used to make in north Florida, but the flavors were good and overall it was still a four star plate (seeing a trend in the rating here?).
Anyway, I felt compelled to write a review after seeing some lukewarm ratings here. The food and beer and atmosphere are hard to beat in this area. The service needs improvement but is certainly tolerable considering the rest. I’d challenge anyone to name five better spots for going out and about with a non-​undergrad crowd in the area. I’d put this place in the company of the Beer Grotto, Taps25, Zoobie’s/Cosmos if you like a dash of hipster, Hopcat if you don’t mind the youths, and this is certainly a notch up from Lansing Beer Company and the recently-​slipping MBC (which was great for a while but ⁰⁄₂ on my last couple visits).
In the end, Manager of Tavern, please work on the service. It’s the only thing holding you back. Everyone else, try Tavern again. It’s pretty good.

I want this place to be good! I really, really, really do! But it’s just not.
The menu changes every time I’m there. Every time! And I’ve been there at least 7 times since they opened. The service is confused, scattered and it truly seems as though I was forgotten about many times. And their beer list leaves something to be desired.
That said, I do like their salmon salad and deviled eggs. They also have a special on Sunday where you can get a Tavern burger and beer for $ 8. Not a bad deal, and their burger is pretty tasty.
Don’t go if you’re in a rush. And don’t go if you’re picky about beers. I hope they can pull it together because there aren’t many options in this town, and sadly, this is one of the better.

Limited menu but the food was good. Will not go back due to the awful service. Our waitress ash checked up on us twice the entire time and gave herself 20% tip due to the size of our party. Took about 15 minutes to get our water but once we ordered the food came pretty quickly.

Had a really great Friday night meal with friends Two friends had the special — Shrimp Scampi. They said it was awesome! They were trying to help our server, Michelle, win a free steak dinner. My friend and I had the Tavern Burger and it was DEE-​LISH! Everything was great. I’m coming back. Ask for Michelle!!!

Good food. Staff was nice but very slow. Not in a rush to do anything. It’s a shame, the experience would significantly better. No one working the door, so you seat yourself, but then it takes 10+ minutes to be noticed and greeted. 10+ minutes for refills on water, 10+ minutes to pickup the credit card, etc.
Food was great as usual! Just need the staff to get hustling.

Not great service, but the food is what keeps me coming back. I swear, you can’t go wrong with a single item on the menu. It’s all THAT good!

Gripes: service is slow and a bit confused, as we had a few mixed-​up orders and communication between servers wasn’t very clear. They were very gracious and accepting of our complaints, though — even though it took some time to remedy them.
Food: Like other reviews have mentioned, a bit overpriced. I tried the pork belly, the tacos, and some of the lettuce wraps — not necessarily extremely creative, but presented and created weell.
Drinks! Drinks! Drinks! Their signature drinks are crafted from local ingredients and spirits, and after tasting quite a few, favorites = the mojito, the mule, and the old fashioned. :) They have a pretty great seasonal draft list as well.
TLDR: Came for the food, stayed for the drinks. Giving it 4 stars because I come back solely for the mule and mojito.

Was looking for some quality lunch within walking distance of the capital.
When the 3 of us arrived on Washington street, there were a bunch of choices.
Saw two gals coming out of grilled cheese & soup place and asked them, was that place good, or what do you recommend to 3 guys from out of town, she kindly gave us the scoop on several places, but must have sized us up as three guys over 50 and sent us to Tavern & Tap.
Walked in and it was seat yourself .
I did not want to stay as the music was absolutely blaring, seriously Way Too Loud at 1pm on a Friday afternoon.
But we were hungry & stuck it out.
Kim was our server, super nice gal & gave us the menu highlights /​favorites .
I ordered the brisket tacos with cinnamon sweet potato chips $ 14 –2 tacos
My pal ordered the french dip + cream of mushroom soup $ 12. + $ 3 soup up charge
I gave him one taco
He gave me half of his french dip so we could both try something different.
The brisket taco was excellent, grilled slightly and well stuffed with tender juicy brisket, plus pickled red onions, jalapenos, queso fresco & cilantro cream
Truly lit up my taste buds as a unique dish & combo of flavors
The french dip french onion au jus was spectacular !
Plus it also had brisket, swiss, onion straws, horseradish dijon and a grilled hoagie roll.
I’m not normally a fan of onion straws, but there was just enough crunch to make it a good fit.
I was simply thrilled with my food choices for being unique & wonderful tastes
Also Kim provided great service and refills and a quick cash out.
Plus the kitchen kicked out our food in less than 13 minutes.
And it was very clean & modern.
5 stars all the way.
But the prices are rather steep and that crazy loud music took away from the overall experience. That being my rationale for a 3 star review.

This is a very nice restaurant and bar. We enjoy the décor very much, has a very open feeling. The manager is very much in tune with his customers, always pleasant. The wait staff are friendly and seem happy, know the menu, good suggestions. Happy hour is 10:00 am to 3:00 pm every weekend, and during the week 3:00 pm to 6:00 pm. They do get busy on the weekends. Love the Bloody Mary’s.

This is probably my favorite place in downtown Lansing. It has a great location, good patio with a lovely view of the capitol, and nice décor. I’ve been in for dinner, late night drinks, and brunch, and enjoyed each experience. Brunch and drinks were probably better than dinner. Service is usually pretty good. They serve beer in some metal cup things on the patio which apparently makes the beer taste like metal (so I’ve been told by my fellow drinkers), so you might want to ask for a glass.
Cool place worth checking out.

Let me start out by saying the food was delicious and blew our expectations away. The service was fine. Nothing to rave about. But the prices seemed high to me for what you were given. We got a Chef Salad, The Bruschetta and The Lobster Rolls.
The salad seemed more of a side salad in size kind of bland even with the dressing. For that price, we could go down the street for something doubled that size.
The Bruschetta was perfect. It was a great portion to share and the truffle flavor was great but not overpowering.
The Lobster Rolls sliders were delicious. But, the bread was not toasted and sort of got soggy. Plus, there was a lot more bun than lobster on the sandwich.
The service was fine. Our waitress kept walking in circles, kept nagging us to buy more but we just ignored her and tried to enjoy our meal.

We have been here three times, once for brunch, once for dinner, and once for drinks. The first visit was for brunch when two of our friends were from out of town. My wife and I came from Milwaukee and our friends are from Chicago, two very brunch-​centric cities, so we have a strong sense of what we like in a brunch. And we were pleasantly surprised with the offerings here, especially given that Lansing doesn’t seem to fully embrace brunch overall. The service was friendly and prompt and we all enjoyed our orders.
Fast forward about 8 months and we were in a bit of a pickle due to another restaurant (Midtown) somehow losing our reservation for 15 people for our wedding rehearsal dinner. A member of the party gave Tavern & Tap a call and they immediately said they would make room for us. We arrived shortly after the call and we were seated within minutes. They made sure we had an appropriate amount of servers for the group so service was great. This was also the first my wife and I (and the rest of the party for that matter) had any of the dinner entrees. We were all very pleased at both the options available and their execution. They also had live music that night, with the performer playing/​singing us a requested song for the occasion and later coming back to congratulate us. Everyone in the party was very impressed overall.
The following day, our wedding reception wrapped up around 10:30pm and we still had more celebrating to do. Naturally, we thought we should continue the party at Tavern & Tap since they had been so awesome the night before. And they were yet again. Despite taking up about a third of the bar area, they made sure we had prompt service and made sure that we were enjoying the night and occasion as much as possible, which we did.
Of the many places that my wife and I have dined, Tavern & Tap has been one of the rare establishments that really made sure that we had the best experience possible on more than one occasion, and we look forward to more similar experiences there.

A classy looking joint with a George Washington/​Revolutionary Era theme? Count me in! While in Lansing on Business, I was happy to come across Tavern+Tap near the hip main street in town and was drawn in by the cool branding. Once you go inside, the atmosphere and design is reminiscent of many modern young-​professional restaurants on the West and East Coasts. I arrived during the super busy hour of 7pm and the place was packed but I was able to find a seat at the bar, which is nicely tucked in between the main dining area and back dining area, so it feels intimate.
My bartender was very helpful in picking a good local craft beer and even gave me a few different samples without even asking for them, which was a nice touch. The menu seems very experimental with many new twists on classics such as ‘Chicken in Waffles’ which I ordered. My meal came fairly quickly and dear god was it amazing. Everything was incredibly flavorful and hearty as hell. I generally try to eat healthy, but sometimes you just need some comfort food, amiright? This definitely hit the spot and is highly recommended.
If you happen to find yourself in Lansing for work or otherwise and are looking for a hip and modern joint with lots of good craft beer and quality cooking, look for the place with George Washington on the windows.

I came to town to visit a friend and we wanted to sit outside on a patio. She mentioned that Tavern on the Square had moved into the building where Edmund’s used to be. She also mentioned they changed the menu because let’s face it, the old menu was horrible. So I said what the hell and we went.
We sat ourselves on the patio. Whoever designed that space apparently failed out of their design program. The chairs do not fit underneath the tables which creates a total cluster because you are basically forced to get up and physically move the chair if the person sitting at the adjacent tables needs to leave or use the restroom. The space is cramped to begin with and the chairs make it even worse.
The happy hour specials were good. I originally got a beer which was $ 3 but I didn’t like the steel cups. I got the lobster roll minis and the spinach pillows. The lobster roll was $ 13.95 and the spinach pillows were originally $ 9.50 I think. You sure didn’t get a whole lot of food for those prices, four wonton like things with spinach in it and three 2-​bite sliders. Even my friend’s salad was tiny for $ 13. Everything tasted good but it seemed way overpriced.
The worse thing was the waitress. OMG! Do you not want a tip? I mean my beer sat empty and she came by to pick up an empty plate and she breezed away before I could even order something else. It literally took 25 minutes for her to bring the check. Then she promised to «be right back» to pick it up. Fifteen minutes later she returns, then 10 minutes after that she brings me back the card and receipt. My friend and I got there right before 5 and we didn’t leave until right around 7 and not because we wanted to loiter.

Great selection of beer and ale. The food is where this place really shines. Awesome sandwiches for lunch. Fast and friendly service makes this spot a winner while downtown Lansing. You are only steps from the Capital for a great history tour. My server Kristiiiiiii made this bust very pleasant.

First visit. Downtown restaurant bar.
First impression, adult lounge. With low lights, dark wood, contemporary décor, black and white accents-​I felt like an extra in an Hour Detroit Mag ad. This place turns Young Adult Sexy into a mood and experience.
The occasion, a friends birthday, found a perfect place to be great. Our waitress was attentive and patient. We all had separate checks and she handled it well. I appreciate her tending to the needs of at least 20 people and not losing a few marbles after we had a few.
The bars crowd was on a spectrum of age, dress, drinks and entertainment. They have several flat screens throughout, all tuned to a game, I only noticed one but I am a toddler to football schedules.
The music was tepid. I am not sure how the playlist was chosen but it was a Your Anniversary Party type of mix. Someone mentioned a DJ but I feel like DJ’s make restaurant/​bars even more crowd ambiguous and cheesy. Just have better playlists.
The menu is matte laminated and the smartest idea ever. A lot of swankier night life places want to pass a water wrinkled and food stained paper menu. T&T’s menu still maintained a clean look, the printing theme, the sections all easy to read and clear.
I was not able to get Black Label or Bookers but drank Red Label. I hope on my return I’ll find my other favorites. Our party was able to order several Lavender Collins, John Collins, Pickle Backs and shots so I have confidence in their bar menu. More visits will tell.
Guac and chip opinions were lukewarm, no one complained. It was crisp and fresh tasting to me. The chips were crispy, not too salty or oily. I ordered pork belly with fancy trappings, it was good but nothing spectacular, it was saved by the sauce.
I’ll return for the eats.