BURGER TAP & SHAKE
ADDRESS: 2200 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20037
Taking a Segway tour is very, very fun. You see the sights of the city, cover a lot of ground, and all while gliding around on a Segway. I took my first Segway tour of D.C. a few months ago, and since then, I’ve been hooked. While my parents were in town a few weekends ago, we signed up to take a tour from the folks at City Segway Tours and had an absolute blast. Riding around for three hours, however, will make you pretty hungry by the end of the tour. Our tour guide Peter pointed us in the direction of Burger Tap & Shake to grab a bite to eat afterwards.
Burger Tap & Shake (also referred to as “BTS”) is situated right on Washington Circle, and well within walking distance of the George Washington University campus. It was move-in weekend for the school, so the entire area was bustling with students arriving back to campus after the summer break. We got to the restaurant a little after 1:00 p.m., so there was a pretty decent sized crowd eating there already.
I took one look at the menu and already had a pretty good feeling about the restaurant. There was a whole array of signature burgers, each with its own distinct combination of toppings. The shakes sounded pretty good too, and not to mention they serve beer, wine, cocktails, and “shaketails,” their liquor milkshakes. My kind of place, indeed!
Feeling even more hungry now after standing in line and smelling the burgers being cooked, I ordered the Southern Comfort burger paired with the sweet potato fries, and a BTS (Butterfinger, Twix, Snickers) shake to top it all off. It was an absolutely gorgeous summer day, with low humidity and a light breeze rolling through, so my parents and I decided to sit at one of the tables outside. Even though the place was getting slammed with orders, they still managed to roll out our food in pretty decent time. I put the tray of food down on the table and got to work.
What a fantastic first bite to that burger. The meat was moist and had a great charbroiled flavor, the fried green tomato gave things a nice crunch, the pimento cheese oozed out and gave the burger a great savory flavor with a little heat, and the pickles rounded it out with their crisp, tart flavor. There was certainly a lot going on in that one bite, but that made eating the rest of the burger all the better.
The sweet potato fries were also superb, fried to just the right crispiness with a well-balanced amount of salt seasoned on top. I could imagine they would taste fantastic paired with some chipotle ketchup. That BTS shake was no joke either. I honestly didn’t expect the shake to have that many candy chunks in it, but every sip I took had candy in it, and when I got to the bottom, there was still at least a half-inch layer of candy left over too. Talk about the ultimate sugar rush.
What started out a casual burger stop after the Segway tour turned into a pleasant surprise, where I was impressed by both the quality of the burger and freshness of the ingredients. The variety of other burgers and shakes that I haven’t yet tried make BTS a high candidate for a return visit in the near future.
Let’s now take a look at the Burger Tap & Shake Dish Spotlight. Asterisks (*) below mark my recommended dishes.
** Southern Comfort Burger with Sweet Potato Fries **
Beef patty with pimento cheese, fried green tomato, sautéed vidalia onions, and bread & butter pickles.
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And finally, here are my rankings for Burger Tap & Shake:
Food: 5 / 5
This category gets top marks, without question. Food quality was great, ingredients were fresh, and the variety that’s offered, for both food and drinks, is excellent for whatever dining mood you’re in.
Atmosphere: 4.5 / 5
Floor to ceiling windows line the outer wall of the restaurant and look out towards Washington Circle, providing plenty of light inside on the nicer days. The menu is handwritten with chalk, accompanied with some neat chalk graphics as well. When it starts to get busy, you might feel a little packed in if you’re eating inside.
Service: 4.5 / 5
The food came out fast despite the large lunch crowd, and one of the staff even came by our table to clear out our trays when we were done eating.
Price: 4.75 / 5
Food-wise, the pricing is very reasonable, especially being a restaurant inside the city. $11 for a burger and fries? That’s pretty good. Shakes and alcohol, as you can imagine, will have a little bit of the D.C. upcharge there.
Overall:
18.75 / 20
(94%)
Categories: Restaurants, Washington, D.C.
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