Michael’s Bistro and Tap House

Really solid restaurant on the Corner in Charlottesville. I’m sure it’s been there for years but I just found it thanks to Unilocal.
Salads around the table were solid and my burger was cooked to order. Sadly, the soup of the day only comes in bowls (versus cups). Makes sense that all soup could come in both sizes.
Definitely a good spot to catch up with friends and family and enjoy a casual meal or drink.

Surprised by this place. I had never been here and after wandering into several other college dive bars around it found this a more quiet and cozy bar. Still caters to a college crowd but cleaner and good to meet up with group to start the night.

Exciting menu, delicious food. Atmosphere is very chill yet full of character. I went for lunch and will definitely be going again. The only thing was they were out of root beer which would have gone great with my steak quesadilla. I had gone in with the expectation I’d be able to order off the dinner menu but they only serve certain dishes for lunch. No big, just caught me off guard.

Good food in a comfortable atmosphere. Their egg roll daily special was delicious!

My fiancé and I have been wanting to get to Michaels for dinner one night, having high hopes from the menu. We ended up going for restaurant week, the first day of it. We went on a Saturday at 6:30pm. We were the only ones there to start, followed by a one top table and a four top table.
We started with the house made shrimp spring roll and spicy cucumber salad off the Restaurant Week menu. We waited 20 minutes. Only people in there and both apps are pre-​made and cold plates. It should not take 20 minutes. The cucumber salad was good both nothing to jump up and down about. A little bit of diced cucumber done in a quick pickle with two thin slices of radish on top. The spring roll was terrible. It had no seasoning anywhere on or in the entire spring roll, not even the single piece of butterflied shrimp (cut in half, one half in each side on the spring roll) served with a side of dijon mustard (tasted just like the boards head stuff you buy at the store).
Moving on to the entrees, my fiancé got the Beef Bulgogi. The steak was good, nice and tender, but only half of it was cooked. One end of it was completely raw (white fat still prominent) like it hadn’t all been sitting on the grill. The waitress didnt ask for a cook temp either. They used generic white rice, not bismati or jasmine. Kimchi was ok.
I had the Korean Style Clam Stew… this was a total joke. I got a bowl of small clams (un rinsed) in a shallow soup bowl with some halved cherry tomatoes, green onion, and some broth that was bitter and gritty. I had to ask for a plate for my clam shells and they didnt serve it with a way to remove the clams from the shells. There was SO much sand on the bottom of my bowl it was just plain awful.
Dessert was the best part of the meal, which isnt saying much. The monkey bread was great but the presentation was terrible. The mochi was ok. The strawberry sorbet it came with was great. The mochi was served in flat slabs, not the typical mochi type of half round cookie like thing.
Drink refills were far and few between.
We wont be back, even to try their regular menu.

I had the BLT. Bacon was flavorful, the lettuce was crisp, the tomato was solid and not mealy, overall great sandwich. The thing keeping it from 5 stars is it really is a bar first and bistro second so be so be aware that service will be friendly and the food is good, but it has a little bit of the «bar smell» and you have to climb up a flight of stairs to get to it. I’d go again.

Great place to grab some drinks. Beer selection is very good and there are different local beers on tap every day.
I strongly suggest going on Sunday for their date night special: $ 35 for a shared appetizer or dessert, entrée, and you can choose between a pitcher of beer or a bottle of wine off their date night menu. Amazing deal for really good food and drinks.
Has a nice ambiance to it once you ascend up the staircase. Service is excellent. Food is well-​priced and beers are good. What more is needed?

Wife and I went in on a Monday night and the pace was not busy at all. We were one of the tables and a bar patron or two. Our service was excellent. Local beers were delicious. Wife and I each had a pork-​belly mushroom risotto egg roll with cherry-​jam sauce which were incredible. We split a Caesar salad which was slightly better than a run-​of-​the-​mill Caesar. For dinner, I had the grass-​fed burger with onion rings. It was a good burger but not necessarily mind blowing. Wife had shrimp and grits which were delicious. We skipped dessert as we were full.
All in all, they have some great recipes and some tasty beers. Would defiitely go back as we had no issues!

Michael’s has always been unequivocally solid. There’s nothing that they do that’s startlingly good, but there’s nothing on this menu that’s remotely bad as well. It’s a totally great option any time of day too – beauteous outdoor seating when the weather’s nice. Infinitely better than any of the garbage sold at the Virginian or ‘eddy’s tavern.
They had great service and everyone who was working there was very friendly. I ordered the ½ BLT sandwich with some soup that was served cold (that’s the style of it) but I forgot what it was called. It was rather cheap — I think 7.50. The BLT was solid. But it didn’t fill me up so I ordered the other half also.
The lunch menu was not too long (but not short either). I went with a party of 12 and we fit just fine there.

Got the Portobello mushroom Napoleon for dinner. It was great– and its one of the only dish that’s vegetarian (outside of the salads). Little pricier and service can be slow on busy nights

I’ve returned several times for the lunch special (soup and salad — LOVED tomato and dill, so fresh and flavorful) and did Sunday dinner date special for $ 35 one time (fantastic deal if you’re OK with less variety).
Even though we came right at the beginning of the night, they were out of one of the two Sunday Dinner apps, so we were forced to go with the egg roll, which was just one roll cut in half. It also seemed like the cheapest/​easiest type of app to provide. (Believe me, I’ve made hundreds of eggrolls as someone who is Filipino.)
I did enjoy my main of a veggie napoleon as the potato was super crisp and I love goat cheese. My friend had the chicken curry which looked like nothing special to me. (As you can tell, there is a bit of a confused identity with the food.)
We split a bottle of cheap red — not too dry, a little more sweet — which encouraged a bit of lounging after our quick meal. That is the best part of Michael’s — how cozy it is in comparison to the complete dives on The Corner. The bar/​bistro always seems to fill up right after I get there with friends.

This was great. The pan-​fried chicken had some amazing gravy that would have impressed me at a higher price point.

I’d really like to give this place 4 stars but it’s just not possible.
Here’s the story:
Arrived fairly early for a Thursday night (6pm) with our 10 month old in tow. We’re on vacation and didn’t have any other options. The place was almost entirely empty but I don’t really care about that.
We were promptly seated and immediately told that their steam table had given up the ghost but they were putting a new one together, so all food production was on hold. It should be fixed quick but in the mean time let’s get drinks.
I enjoyed the Crispin Blackberry Pear Cider. Just enough CO2 to make it go down easy. The hubby had Three Notch’d Zombie Killer. A major win in his book. We could see that frantic activity was going on in the kitchen but were content to wait. Well, time kept ticking. I’d asked if I could get a roll or something for my son because he was starting to get bored. But was told no because the kitchen is completely torn apart. I still don’t see how someone couldn’t have grabbed a roll but ok. Finally, the kid is just about had enough and the server comes back over. I ask one more time how much longer it will be. Was told they were putting the legs on the table. I ask again for bread or anything for the now irritated baby. Server finally says he can run downstairs and get crackers. Which he does. Why didn’t this happen earlier? Anyway, I appreciated the gesture and my kid appreciated the crackers.
Finally, the kitchen is up and running. We get an order of the cheese fritters which are awesome! The tomato jam makes them even better. My 10 month old has quite the refined palate and agreed that they were money. I got the burger. It was very good. Loved the dressing on the salad. Hubby got the crispy pork belly. In his words… WIN. I asked for a little dish of the grits for the shrimp and grits for the kid. They were really watery and underdone but the kid lapped them up. Must have been the cheese in them. I’m chalking that up to the steam table debacle.
Anyway, we appreciated the service and food under the circumstances. A discount or free drink would’ve gone a long way towards making up for the night. If we make it back to C’ville, we’d probably hit it again but without the kid.

Great local food! Everything on the menu is cooked to perfection. Seriously yummy items = onion rings with side of mayo & sriracha; tuna tartar; egg roll special (only $ 4); any steak special (medium rare); chicken breast; chicken curry; and chicken wings (these come with the most amazing homemade blue cheese dressing).
Also a great place to drink… It’s the best place on the Corner by far.

This is my favorite restaurant in Charlottesville for a number of reasons. It has fantastic food, a great beer selection, an upstairs off-​the-​beaten path feel, and totally reasonable prices.
I have been here about 6 or 7 times and never been dissatisfied with a meal or appetizer. My favorite is the chicken breast dinner and the pot pie. And the chipotle spring roll special appetizer was phenomenal.
It’s not usually packed, which makes finding a table easy. My one exception was on Valentines day when they split up 4 person tables into 2 person tables and lined them up side by side. This was the only time I didn’t fully enjoy my experience there because I felt like I was dining with strangers on both sides. I felt awkward bc I had to keep my conversation down so I wouldn’t disturb the other couples only a foot away from me at a different table.
Besides that, I would recommend this to anyone in need of fantastic and reasonably priced meals.

Let’s get the negative out of the way… portions were a bit small. Good, but small. I had the shrimp and grits with the Victory Golden Monkey beer. The beer is worth mentioning on its own. Pairs great with the shrimp (man that sounds pompous).
Shrimp and grits were awesome. Full of flavor with bacon, tomatoes and scallions. I was hesitant, thinking it might be bland. I was wrong and man enough to admit it.
Several beers to choose from great environment and great service.
Definitely worth a visit.

Local beers, followed by a beef and bell pepper egg roll, and a strip steak special. The mashed potatoes were excellent. Service was prompt Andy water glass was full the whole time.

Came here around 8:15pm on a Saturday night, got seated right away. It still had a good crowd, so I was impressed. Service was friendly but somewhat slow… it took a while for them to take our orders, to get us our food, and to even give us change at the end. Everything was pretty much just slow all around.
I got something like the pork bolognese… something along those lines. It was really just some pork and a small amount of tomatoes in a cream sauce over fettucine, and it was super salty. I didn’t really like it that much. I should have gotten the portobello mushrooms — that was much tastier (my friend got it and I tried a little). The burger here was also quite good, as they make it to your desired consistency (medium-​rare, medium well-​done, etc). Prices were a tiny bit above average; my pasta dish was $ 13, the mushroom was $ 11, burger was $ 10. I’d come back for the portobello mushroom if I felt like splurging on a nice dinner.

I came here before a DMB Concert at UVA. We got in early enough that there wasn’t too much of a wait, but by the time we were done eating, there was quite a little line going. And there isn’t much room to stand upstairs waiting for a table. I’m not sure if they take reservations, but I suggest coming early!
We got a bucket of beers which meant 5 beers for something like $ 2.25 a piece. They had a great beer seleciton… including my favorite Victory Brewery! We started off with the egg rolls which were wonderful! (What eggroll isn’t???) And then each of us got the chicken pot pie… which wasn’t on purpose. But it was so good! Except I ordered mine without the potatoes… yeah… healthier that way. ha.

Delicious food, Bob Marley music, interesting food presentations, and dim lighting. What does this all equal to? A great atmosphere and lots of yums. Main downsides: the small portion sizes relative to their prices (esp. the appetizers) & the relatively crowded yet small space.
Expected price range: $ 13 – 15 incl. tax and tip w/​o appetizers. $ 20 w/​2 appetizers shared amongst 4 – 5 folks.
Recommended:
1. Thai Curry Chicken — quite delicious. The sweet jelly they add on top adds just enough sweetness and difference in taste, yet not overwhelming. Plus, the thick flatbread they provide you with is perfect for sopping up the curry remains.
2. Portobello Mushroom — It’s arranged in an interesting way. Potato (fried) on the bottom, then spinach and tomato plus the main ingredient: portobello mushroom with a side of fresh mozzarella. Looked good to me.
Not recommended (Appetizers):
1. Frog Legs — it’s delicious, as any fried food would be. However, the price of ~$ 12 for 5 – 6 tiny legs and little cajun taste to it, really doesn’t appeal.
2. Brie Platter — AGAIN, DELICIOSO. Major downside: such a tiny, tiny plate of brie + fruit (apples, strawberry) + nuts, such that it really doesn’t amount to the $ 11 cost of the whole thing.
Overall Feel:
Good for dates (though we went as a group), avoid the appetizers unless you’re up to paying more for less, and go earlier or try to beat the traffic cause it gets crowded and lines get long, particularly if you’re there with a larger group.