TAP that

My man returned home from a weeklong business trip on Friday night, and before retiring to the homestead for the evening, we wanted to grab a quick, casual, yet tasty meal. We wanted to try something new, but I didn't want to wait or be stuck in a restaurant for 2+ hours. As we sped through Midtown, we decided to try out TAP, one of the newer of the Concentrics restaurants. I'm definitely a fan of the Concentrics brands... they rarely disappoint. I was hoping TAP would be no different. Marketed as a gastropub, TAP is a boisterous corner spot that boasts a great patio. What is a gastropub? According to TAP's website, "a gastropub is a British term for a public house (pub) which specializes in high-quality food a step above the more basic pub-grub." I had visited once in the past for a quick drink and enjoyed the patio immensely. This time around though, we ventured inside as the weather was a bit brisk for dining alfresco. We were seated immediately, which was a surprise for the popular nightspot. I had expected at least a 10 minute wait. The table we were given, however, left something to be desired. We were sort of crammed in between two large parties of after-work revelers who had seemingly had several drinks already. I'm not sure about you, but I just love to have my chair bumped and shoved time and time again by servers and drunk, overgrown fratters. Speaking of servers, I was less than impressed by the service we received at TAP. Instead of politely greeting us, our server started our meal by saying, "They told me to take your table, so..." Um yeah, thanks. We went ahead and ordered beers anyway - I had a stout and hubster tried out the apple wheat. Both were pretty good. We also had an order of the Old Bay Chickpeas, which I thought were delish. Light and crunchy, they were a nice way to start off our meal. By this point I was rather anxious to order and get on with things, so I queued up the flounder with artichokes and oven dried tomatoes while Mr. Soup ordered the pub burger on english muffin. Our food arrived rather swiftly, much to my relief. It was getting really loud in there. I must say, our dinners were plated beautifully. My fish was a gorgeous golden brown and was flanked with beautiful red tomatoes and bright green italian parsley. Hubster's burger looked nice and juicy, and came complete with a nice pile of shoestring fries, my favorite. The best part was the tiny chocolate milkshake that came on the side... very Iron Chef, very Food Network! As beautifully as it was plated, my dinner was definitely missing something... it was just a little bland. In my opinion the kitchen should have added a bit more lemon or even a tasty beurre blanc sauce to accompany. It took awhile for our server to come back and check on us, and by that point we were both ready to sign the check and leave. I think if I were to go back to TAP, it would definitely be for drinks only or for lunch. Personally, I thought their lunch menu looked much more tasty than the dinner menu... I really wanted to try the grilled cheese and cuppa tomato soup, but it was not available at dinner time. I think we'll try one of the other thousands of restaurants in the ATL first and give TAP some time to mature before we go back.