Harry's Tap Room

Another neighborhood go-to spot.

Located steps from the Clarendon Metro and easily walkable from Court House, Harry's stands out as "the nice American place" on a backdrop of deeeelicious Indian restaurants and bar-y type places.

bar-y: bär-ē, adj.
Quality of a restaurant that ensures that if you drank a lot, had a bite to eat, got trashed and had a one night stand, the gravest error would have been the bite to eat.

COUGHwhitlow'sCOUGHCOUGH...pardon me, I had a nasty greasy omelet stuck in my throat.

Dinner was good, but relatively uneventful. The butternut squash and ginger soup is a winner, but with that title, how could it not be? The endive & Granny Smith apple salad has all the winning ingredients, but for me something was missing...I like more (blue) cheese to balance out all that endive-iness. I haven't had the mussels, which seems like a mistake, so next time I promise I will, as long as it's not before 11:30am. ARBITRARY TIME LIMITER! The burgers (whether it's Harry's or the turkey burger) are burgers. Can't go wrong, nothing to freak out about.

Now BRUNCH! That's a meal I can sink my teeth into. Maybe that's because I adore brunch. First of all, and this is relevant to any meal at Harry's, the lemon wedge with my iced tea is HUGE, which is well recognized by us lemon folks. I only wish I'd get more lemon wedges as my iced tea is continuously refilled.

Moving away from the power of the tea, most recently I enjoyed the cobb salad at Harry's, as opposed to my traditional delicious omelette and the yummy accompanying grits. The parmesan crusted fried chicken on my salad was clearly freshly fried, as opposed to fried then rewarmed or kept warm under a shiny light thing. As I cut into it, I saw some juices (or oils, whichever) seep out, and the golden color was divine. I appreciated that I had to cut the chicken myself, as I'm sure it ensured keeping the heat and texture in place, but my avocado, egg, and cucumber were all in long, clumsy slices. In a deep asymmetrical bowl with a big clumsy butter knife, I had a hard time trying to cut these things up to make an easy enjoyable meal. The ingredients were mostly yummy (the avocado should have been used in my salad maaaaybe the day before), but the difficulty of eating it soured my mood.

I already said the omelettes (or omelets?) were great, but J's particular favorite is the steak omelet. Should I get steak? Should I get eggs? Lunch? Breakfast? Steak omelet solves this problem. Worry no longer. Cheesy grits are a happy sidedish, and the potatoes and pretty good too.

Speaking of brunch, next I'll review Tallula, a place where I literally have had almost everything on the brunch menu, thanks to some friends who don't mind sharing.

Harry's Tap Room
www.harrystaproom.com
2800 Clarendon Boulevard
Metro: Orange Line to Clarendon stop