Central City Tap House

One of the most convenient "end cap" bars out there. I have gone to several shows at the theater and then after walked downstairs to grab drinks and dinner. When COVID hit and winter came, tap house had spiked hot chocolate drink specials that were perfectly paired with the iconic lights and candy canes at Bronson Park!

Go to food: Carbonara Pizza or the Nachos
Go to Drink: any of them :) They have a rather large selection!

I took my father here for Fish and Chips on a Monday around 5pm as he loves their fish. It was rather empty in the dining room (mostly due to COVID) and the waitress came right out. After placing the order, it took approximately 30 minutes for the food to come out, but were not in a rush, so we didn't really care.
The food itself was delicious! Along with his fish and chips, I ordered the Avocado Chicken Club with the vegetable of the day (green beans). On top of that, they run a "Millennium Monday" special in which all orders are 30% off (sign up for free for the club). You really cannot beat the quality of food at that price.

Anyways, since I signed up for the Millennium rewards, they sent me an email survey asking how my visit was. I was honest in the visit and my only concern was the longer wait for the food to come out despite the empty dining room.
Within an hour I received a very sincere email from the manager explaining how they are restaffing, training, and rolling out a new menu. This all makes since seeing how to the restaurant industry has been shaken by COVID.
To say I was impressed with the care and promptness from the manager with regards to my "complaint" is an understatement. It is refreshing to see managers who listen to their customers!

Based on all of the above, I will DEFINITELY return to the Tap House to try other items.

Came back here a year later, and this time it gets five out of five stars. There was an excellent selection of beers -- I had two different stouts -- and I got the fish and chips, which was as good as I remember. This time the service was much speedier, and the very nice waitress was also super-helpful when I clumsily knocked over a glass that fell to the floor.

The food was delicious and the service was outstanding and this was all told a great place to gather with friends and colleagues over delicious beer and pub food.

Prior to my last visit, it had been several years since I'd been to Central City Tap House. My boyfriend and I met with a group of friends for dinner and drinks before a concert at the Kalamazoo Theatre (pre COVID, obviously), which is 300 feet from Central City Taphouse! Super convenient.

Our party was seated right away and we were able to get our drink order in. Our server was pretty busy with a big crowd of concert goers, but we were able to get in and out in time. We ordered the Mexican street corn nachos to share, and other people in our group got wings that looked great. The nachos came with corn tortilla chips, sauteed corn, black beans, garlic crema, lime juice, tomato, red onion, four cheese blend, queso fresco, cumin & cayenne pepper. You can add beef, chicken, or pulled pork for an additional $4. These nachos were fully loaded with lots of toppings! As a nacho connoisseur, I loved them and would get them again. It was a huge portion - definitely shareable for four as an appetizer or for two people as a meal. Their daily specials are pretty good and I would probably stop here often if I lived in town.

Central City Tap House is in the heart of the downtown Kalamazoo Mall. It is perfect if you are downtown at one of the many stores or near Bronson Park. It is located right in the Epic Center. I went to the Tap House for a couple of work events in the past but this is the first time reviewing them since I joined Yelp.

I went on 11/20/19 after I attended a show at the Wellspring Theatre and it was around 9:30pm and we wanted food. The Tap House was doing 50% off of pizzas so we couldn't turn down that. We wanted to try something new so we ordered the Carbonara Pizza. It is smoked bacon, parmesan, spinach, garlic cream and a cracked egg on top.

Now I know what you are thinking, what? but let me tell you.... it is the best pizza. I was so surprised and it was so delicious. I can't even put it into words and that never happens. The garlic cream was so good and the bacon, parmesan, and egg were so good together.

As I am writing this, I am wanting one and might go over there right now and order one to go. It was perfectly paired and I have no complaints.

Overall: I give this place 5 stars. I have never had anything from there that I didn't like and highly recommend the pizza.

So happy we tried this spot first for drinks, then lunches & dinners. The food was consistently very good. The Prime rib on Saturday nights was exceptionally wonderful.
The short walk there & carry outs kept us following Covid requirements. The carry out cocktails were especially fun since the drink menu has unusual ones like pear Margaritas.
Definitely will revisit when we return.

The highlight of my visit today was a nitro CBS from Founders that was amazing. I had high expectations of the lunch...a 1/2 Reuben sandwich which was pretty good, but the soup...a brocolli cheddar...was another story. It was luke warm at best and the person who prepared it didnt wisk in the thickener properly and it was in small chunks throughout the bowl, which made it very poor quality. I wasnt there so much for the lunch as I was for the company I was with so I'll give a 3 star review based on the service we got and the ambiance of the place.

We decided last minute to try to go out to dinner for New Years. I was surprised that they had spots available, but so glad that they did! We even got there a half hour early and they were able to seat us immediately. Ben was happy because they sat us next to a beautifully decorated Christmas tree.
Our server was awesome, super attentive and new what to suggest for our beer. Weird to not have to look over the menu!
The food was amazing, and so reasonably priced. Will definitely go back.

We've had dinner and drinks here plenty of times over the years. I think our experience today might have been our least favorite. Our waitress suggested we get tater tots as an appetizer since we had our 2 young daughters with us and mentioned that they're really big. When she brought them we were surprised to only get 6 or 7 "tator tots", which were really deep fried mashed potato balls. They were ok but disappointing. My husband ordered the Grilled Ribeye Chimichurri. He ordered his steak medium rare and it was served rare. He ate it but it was very rare, cold and red on the inside. I think the cook judged the finished product by touch instead of temping the middle. I also like my steak medium rare but I couldn't have eaten that steak if it were served to me. It came with Brussels Sprouts that were crispy and delicious, the Yukon Golds were smashed and fried which were also very good. I ordered a Cheesesteak and it was good. The steak was tender, it was piping hot and the cheese was melted. The peppers were over cooked in my opinion because they were complete mush. The one side of the roll it was on was soggy. I ordered it with truffle fries and they barely had any cheese on them. I was disappointed that we paid extra for them. My daughters shared a kids hot dog meal. They use good hot dogs that have a tough casing which I prefer. The bun was grilled so it was kind of hard. What was impressive was that we had a couple pours of delicious bourbon. We had Stagg Jr. and Bookers. We asked if they'd sell us a bottle of bourbon and they said they couldn't. Our waitress never offered us a refill on our water our entire visit. She also didn't come back to ask how our meal was, she showed back up after we were finished eating.

The carbonara pizza here is one of the best versions on this pizza type I've had. Great flavors and not overly complicated. Beauty in its simplicity.

As a dry person, I rate bars and restaurants on their Shirley Temples. They serve it here, I'm happy to report. And it is a fine Shirley.

The rating is actually due to the waiter. We were in a medium-large group where most people were coworkers. Our group were complaining to each other about some work problems and a specific person, just blowing off some steam from a stressful work situation. After we paid, the waiter stopped all our conversations by telling us that he knew the person the group was complaining about and chastised us for 5 minutes then left. We just shrugged it off and continued with the rest of our evening
I'm glad he felt high and mighty though to tell us only after we paid and tipped...