Harry’s Tap Room

Pretty sad interior. Great freindly waiters and kids meals. Tired passee menu
They Closed.

I’ve got to say, service goes a long way, especially when you are trying to dine with kids. The waiter was great– he brought the kids water with straws and a lid– nice, then brought my toddler an extra fruit cup even though we didn’t order anything off the menu for him. Plus, the brunch was excellent– i had french toast apple caramel, husband had the mixed berry french toast. They have a kid’s menu where kids can order an appetizer, main dish, desert and drink all for $ 7. not bad! Food and service was efficient. Also appreciated when your toddler is ready to go.
we will be back!
also for the people w/​o kids– i would come back sans kids too, it is a huge restaurant, and i think they try and put the people w/​kids kinda separate from the people w/​kids, so it’s a nice brunch environment.

I went back to Harry’s for brunch with my mom and sister last Sunday, and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised and I definitely enjoyed myself.
The hostess was friendly and accommodating for us, since we had my niece (3 months old) with us in a stroller. She set up a sling for us at the table and took the baby into account when seating us. Very pleasant.
We all ordered bloody mary’s and different omelets (the Clarendon and the Garden Veggie). The service was fast and the food was simple and delicious and cooked very well. I also really enjoyed the breakfast potatoes served on the side.
Overall, a much better experience than my first time there. The main drawback was that it was quite hot in the dining room.

3.5 stars is the final verdict.
Location — 4 stars.
Ambiance/​décor — 5 stars.
Service — 4 stars.
Food — 3 stars.
I really wanted to like this place more. But I think my recent Sunday brunch here was a little. .. uninspired, to say the least. I think I’ve made a tastier (and cheaper) egg white omelet for myself at home. If it weren’t for the breakfast potatoes that saved the meal, this visit would’ve been a total flop.
I wouldn’t totally rule out a return visit to HTR, but let’s just say that I won’t be hurrying back anytime soon.

For Saturday, 6−18−11:
After a long day of sightseeing and eating overpriced hot dogs on The Mall, we hopped on the Metro and headed back to «our» neighborhood (where our hotel was located) and wandered down Clarendon’s trendy, fun and clean business district where there are dozens of fine eateries that tempt your need to feed.
With wife and son in tow, we paused and read each menu selection looking for that ONE item that said, «This is the place tonight!» Harry’s Tap Room spoke to my son… who is on his own journey to becoming a foodie of the environmental sort. Big into organic, buy local… you know.
Nothing WRONG with all that. I like it too. But for him, when he read the menu selections and saw that this was their focus… along with all those beers on tap… well…that sealed the deal. This was the place for tonight.
Surprisingly, we were seated right away even without reservations. The place was busy but not packed. It was nice. I liked the décor and after all that walking… when I sat down in the chair… I let out an audible sigh of relief followed by an immediate request for an ice cold Sam Adams. ASAP!
Yes. Very comfortable chairs. Although as we settled into our surroundings, my wife commented that this place appears to be really struggling with an «identity». And by that, she says «Listen to this music. It’s such a strange mix of EVERYTHING. The décor is modern, the food is fine dining but it’s also a pub. Kinda weird, don’t you think?»
Personally, I didn’t give a rat’s ass. I liked it. With my second beer in hand and looking at was coming out of the kitchen and being served at the tables nearby… this was heaven. Way better than that $ 9 hot dog, chips and soda we shared back on The Mall.
In fact, I even asked our waitress about this platter of veggies I saw an elderly woman savoring at the table next to ours. «Oh, that is the Farm2Table sampler with asparagus, mushrooms and spinach. Would you like one of those too?” — -OH YEAH!
So, the meal:
Son went for the Harry’s Classic Burger and said, «This is quite possibly the best burger I’ve ever eaten. The burger itself is so delicious. Perfectly seasoned. Here… take a bite.» I will admit, it was pretty tasty.
I went for the the Bacon & Blue Twin Filets. They were divine. Perfectly cooked just the way I like ‘em. Tender. Juicy. Flavorful. I was not disappointed in the least. In fact, I was ecstatic because here I had TWO of them! One would have been enough… and probably what you would get at most restaurants but this was TWIN filets. Double happiness!
My wife, on the other hand, ordered the Steak Diane. This was the menu item that made dining here a unanimous decision. Unfortunately, although the presentation was okay the steak itself was sub-​standard. Fatty. Chewy. A real disappointment. I had a bite and would have to agree. So they get docked a star for that.
Final wrap up? Service, atmosphere, location, food… yeah, I’m a fan. We’d go here again.

I went here last night for the first time and as soon as I opened the menu I was sold! I love, love, love that the beef is grassfed, the chicken is pastured, the vegetables are seasonal and the menu lists which local farms the meat and produce come from. These things matter to me but for those of you who don’t care, just take comfort in the fact that it means the food tastes better!
The location is great with the parking garage right there. Certainly blows away street parking.
Everyone enjoyed the appetizers (baked brie, calamari) and their entrees (a range from salmon to steak). Most of the ladies, including me, ordered the Sangria which was tasty (although didn’t seem like a traditional Sangria. That didn’t bother me at all, though). Overall, the food was great.
I should also mention that this was a corporate dinner and Harry’s was a great fit: enough selection so everyone found what they wanted, appropriate atmosphere for a casual but professional group. Nice enough location to impress our out of town guest. I’d say this is a great place to go for a date, for a night out with friends or for a business meal. I can’t wait to go back!

Went here for my mother’s day brunch since I was craving the bread basket. It is filled with mini biscuits, mini muffins, mini scones… delicious! I got the crab cake benedict since I love traditional benedicts. It was okay but not outstanding. I think there was too much breading from the crabcake and the english muffin together (or maybe it was all the muffins and biscuits I ate from the darn bread basket… ha). Service was pretty good and better than I have had at some places.
One thing that was surprising was when making the reservation, my husband was told nothing was available for mother’s day until after 2 pm (he being a procrastinator called the Friday before Mother’s day). We took the 2 pm reservation but then I quickly looked up on OpenTable that there was an opening for 2 people at 10:30 am. Unless there was an immediate cancellation after he called, I thought it was odd but they might have different systems in the restaurant versus online. Everything worked out in the end and got my brunch right on time.

After reading some other reviews, there’s not much more to say than what’s already been said. I’m aware that’s not what the reader cares to hear when trying to find out some information about a restaurant, but all I can offer is my personal experience.
Like others, I’d rate the food as a solid «m’eh.» What I mean is thinking back at the experience, I can’t remember a single thing on their menu. I do remember eating a yummy burger, but how much skill is involved in making a decent burger? They did, as promised, have a lovely tap beer selection. Again, nothing resonates in my mind that Harry’s Tap Room may have one of those beers that you NEED. To put it another way: we had a pleasant experience, but there’s no real reason to go back.
Mind you, I saw this place being built as Clarendon transformed and it took me something like five years to actually go to the restaurant. What I *thought* I was going to get was some overpriced, unimaginative food. It wasn’t overpriced, at least not overpriced as compared to the surrounding restaurants, but still unimaginative. On the flip side, I haven’t checked out the their brunch which is what a lot of the talk on here revolves around. You should always give a restaurant a second chance.

OK slap me now that I haven’t written a review for here yet!
If Charity reads this she will laugh till her eyes pop out more than likely… but this is where we started from on our 1^st date that lead to the gorgeous picture of us kissing on a beach in Marco Island?!
Been here so many times and never had a bad experience or a bad drink or a bad meal. It’s just not blow me away impressive. The ambiance is great the service is great but there is just something missing. I will say though the Bloody Marys here are great with Brunch.
If this place isn’t on the old stand by list for Arlington/​Clarendon you should just go ahead and leave the area because this place is as reliable as it gets!

I have to say, I came into Harry’s Tap Room in a fit of desperation after dragging my friend all over the Clarendon Area looking for a place to lunch. I know there are plenty of options but this particular day I just could NOT make up my mind. When we arrived at the door of Harry’s, I figured I’d just order a plain salad and get it over with. I hadn’t been inside this place before but for some reason I figured it was more of a steak house than anything.
The place wasn’t very busy on this particular Sunday afternoon and we were seated right away. Once we were handed the lunch menu, I was delightfully surprised to find, not only a good selections of salads, but also a lot of other interesting-​sounding vegan entrees such as the Ravioli of Eggplant Mousse ($ 16) and the Barley Risotto served with mint pesto (my favorite! $ 14). In addition, they have the option of ordering a Vegetable Sampler ($ 12) which consists of a choice of three of their side dishes, all which sound amazing (Gratin of Rutabaga and Sweet Potatoes, Catalan Style baby spinach, and Roasted Sunchokes and Cauliflower). I ended up picking the Veggie Burger made with edemame and shitake mushrooms, among other things ($ 9) with a side of cremini mushrooms.
I honestly do not remember what my friend’s choice was, maybe because I was really pleased with and focused on my own meal. The mushrooms were by far the best thing on the plate, but although the burger was a little bit salty, there’s definite potential there (the waiter told me it was a brand new dish and asked for my opinion on it. I told him about the saltiness and he said he’d let the chef know… so maybe that issue is solved?)
Thank you Harry’s for being vegetarian-​vegan friendly. I will definitely be back.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than brunch on the weekends. However, I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t quite deliver here when I visited last weekend.
The upstairs dining was nice, I like the windows and airiness to it. The elevator music wasn’t the best and definitely gave it more of a sterile feeling.
I ordered the Clarendon omelet (ham, onions, pepper, cheddar), and it came out a little greasy. Maybe they use too much oil in the pan? It was ok. My boyfriend had the bananas foster french toast, which was almost too sweet. Neither of us could finish. Perhaps that is in part because we filled up on the delicious breads served at the beginning of the meal. They had a cinnamon biscuit with a little glaze, and mini raisin muffins. Those were the highlight of the meal.

We were able to get a reservation for 8:30 on a Saturday night at 7 pm. I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. However, when we got there, we actually had to wait a few minutes while they set up our table and we saw at least 3 groups turned away.
We sat upstairs, which I liked a lot better then what I saw of the downstairs. It was an open and bright space. Our pre-​dinner cocktails were served very quickly and were a healthy pour.
Started with the calamari, which was 10 dollars and we were served with hmmmm maybe 10 pieces? Absolute rip off. I was worried for what the rest of the meal would bring. My turkey burger and fries ended up being delicious! The turkey burger had a nice crispy sear on it. My boyfriend loved his brisket/​bbq sandwich — I couldn’t even get a bite! My sister’s boyfriend had the bacon and blue — bacon wrapped steak with blue cheese sauce. This was really rich and decadent so bring your tums if you want this! The only dish that was so-​so was my sisters. She had the vegan eggplant ravioli. The sauce tasted jarred and it just wasn’t a good choice. I would skip it.
This is a fun, casual, place with good food for the price. I would go back.

My wife and I have been meaning to try Harry’s, and we’re disappointed on every front except ambiance. It’s a nice property and appears to be populated by well-​dressed twenty-​somethings. Unfortunately, this is not a demographic that knows jack in a hat about food or real beer.
This morning was our first visit, and we hit up brunch. We were promptly sat, but the server was quite scattered and did not have a real working understanding of the menu. (Asking for basic clarifications on common menu items shouldn’t stump a member of the wait staff.)
The food — waffles, pancakes, sausage — was pedestrian, unimpressive, and in the case of the pancakes not well prepared.
The price is quite high for what you get, and aside from a nice cocktail and the atmosphere, we found ourselves generally regretting the choice.
The very positive reviews I’ve read about the place are all either quite out of date or for the bar. I don’t expect we’ll be returning; I concur with Jeremy K, who seems to share my view that the place has changed quite a bit.
Not impressed, and not planning to return. If I want trendy preppy atmosphere, I can get that in plenty of places between Ballston and Clarendon without forking out a small handful of cash for unimpressive fare.

I’ve been to Harry’s numerous times since it opened and they’ve always had consistently good food. However after the dinner I had there on 11/​28/​2010 I can’t say that my friends or family will be in a hurry to return any time soon.
The problem…
In their effort to jump on the farm to table band wagon, the menu has been slashed to a scant few items from what they used to have and the prices have increased. My wife wanted chicken, but on the whole menu the only chicken dish they had outside of a salad, was a $ 30 whole roast chicken for two people. That was a far cry from what they had on the menu the last time we ate there.
Due to the limited menu which all four people in our party noticed, three of us chose soup and salad and one person selected the turkey burger. The burger was probably the best thing anyone ordered. The soups were uncermoniously dropped on the table by someone other than our server and he apparently was in a hurry to be somewhere because he was gone before we could ask for spoons (Harry’s gives you two forks and knife as your place setting but no spoon.) It took us a couple minutes before we could flag down our server for some teaspoons.
As for the salads… The Fall salad came drenched in dressing and was inedible. Fortunately, the server offered to remove it from our bill, but had to be reminded after the bill came with the charge still present. My wife and I ordered the chopped salad, me with shrimp, my wife with chicken. My salad arrived as ordered, her salad came as a side portion and without chicken. We were half done with our meals by the time the salad returned properly prepared.
This was a huge slide in quality and service for the usually reliable Harry’s, and on a Sunday when there wasn’t an overwhelmening amount of people to be served. I have to say I am very dissappointed in the menu and if I’m looking for farm to table, I’ll be looking elsewhere.

The food here isn’t really good, but the restaurant is beautiful. Very nice décor and the upstairs is a big dinning room with an open kitchen. This is a nice place to go, but not place that you want to send a lot of money on for food. I’m all about the food, so this place doesn’t catch me. I wouldn’t go back unless it was some occasion.

My mother and I had no clue where to go for a Mother’s Day dinner last night, but luckily we stumbled upon Harry’s.
I will excuse the hostess for seating us directly in the path of a drafty door since our waiter kindly moved us to a seat away from the draft.
I cannot commend enough the roasted red pepper and crab soup. The pepper has that perfect spiciness to it and the chunks of crab are plentiful. The corn muffins were sweet, yet I wish the bread that came with it were better sliced.
I had a decent glass of Kluge Estate Albemarle Rose wine and the crab ravioli for my entrée. The ravioli was fine, but nothing to write home about.
I tried a piece of my mother’s steak with asparagus. The steak was decent, yet I felt it was a little too peppery. The asparagus was really good.
The dessert, the chocolate chip bread pudding, was excellent! It was thick and gooey and those chocolate chips melted in my mouth. I honestly wished I had taken extra crab soup and bread pudding home.
The restaurant was luckily half full when we arrived, so there was no lengthy wait like what would’ve been had we went to The Cheesecake Factory or some place like that. I found the service friendly, though one woman who looked a few plastic surgeries away from being the Cat Lady complained about the service, saying they were having an «off night» (I heard the waitstaff apologize profusely to her). Entitled twat…
I would love to come back to Harry’s again, especially for that crab soup and that bread pudding!

I came to Harry’s Tap Room tonight for dinner with a friend. Neither of us had been before, so we thought we would give it a try. It was somewhat busy, but we were quickly greeted by the hostess and promptly sat upstairs. I’ll give the hostess extra points for asking whether we preferred a table or a booth.
We both went with burgers. After a waiting for a few minutes, we still had yet to receive bread, so we finally upon request our server brought some. I’m not sure if ‘upon request’ is standard procedure here or not, but most times not. Some cornbread along with some type of sliced grain bread came out with butter. I only had the cornbread, which wasn’t bad.
Only a few minutes later our burgers came out. They were served pretty quickly, I’m assuming because they were both cooked to about medium-​medium rare.
I had ordered a cheddar cheeseburger with fries. The fries were really good, kind of similar to the fries at 5 Guys. The burger was eh… The bun was kind of dry, the burger was pretty juicy, but there was absolutely NO FLAVOR. By far one of the most boring burgers I’ve ever had.
Service overall was okay, but definitely not great. Since we had to request bread and never received drink refills.
The hostess was sure to greet us on the way out.
Overall, the only positive part about this dining experience was the friendly hostess service. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to make me want to return to a restaurant, so I probably wouldn’t come back.

I’ve only been to Harry’s for brunches but I have to say they have the BEST crab cake benedicts I’ve ever had. I always stick with this when I go, but friends I’ve gone with have ordered burgers, the Cuban sandwich, and the soup and all were very pleased with their choices. The little muffins and biscuits that come at the beginning of the meal are delicious and you have to be careful not to spoil your meal by eating too many before you’ve ordered. The mimosas and other brunch drinks are pretty good. Everything is really fresh and is nicely presented.
I’ve been with a group of 6 and just with another friend and each time the service was good. The servers were relatively attentive despite the brunch crowd and are fine with splitting up the checks.
Harry’s is a mini chain and you can kind of tell because of the bland décor and the fairly standard menu offerings. Don’t come here expecting culinary innovation. However, Harry’s does an excellent job on the dishes they do offer and it’s my favorite place to brunch in Arlington.

We arrived hungry but looking for a lighter meal early on a Monday after a bus journey from NYC.
Service was very good. We asked for bread and very quickly a basket of small cornbread muffins arrived.
We had a hamburger and oyster po-​boy. The fries and slaw they arrived with did not lack for ambition but in terms of taste were no better than average. The hamburger and fixings were good (although a more substantial bun would have supported the works better). The po-​boy was a treat — not that easy to find in this area. The space seems a little too formal and sterile. The menu is very heavy on beef — which may be a plus or minus.

I’ve been there a few times, dinner has always treated me well and it’s worth going to, but their brunch is what I’d like to mainly shout from the mountaintops about.
I had the eggs Benedict both times my girlfriend and I went there, and both times they were nothing short of awesome. The only recommendation I could make to the Exec chef is that the potatoes that come along with it would be phenomenal if they were seasoned, but even without, they were still pretty good.
Definitely will be going back.