Mockingbird Taproom

So I ordered the pig the three way. The food was great but the service here sucks. Great selection of beer on tap.

Well, the place WAS decent enough. Food was good, and the beer selection was damn fine.
Can’t argue with a $ 3 happy hour on local draft beer.
But I went there last night for pub trivia, and it was shut down for non-​payment of rent. Notices from the Landlord posted on every door.
It was nice knowing you Taproom.
1 star due to not being open (which is the lowest I can give it)
3 stars otherwise

ehhhhhh, debatable. The stools, please, get rid of them. They suck. The small circular ones? No ones ass is that small! I can’t hang my purse off the back, my jacket slid off, my legs went numb, how does this promote being comfortable and wanting to kick back for a few drinks?
Food, meh. I ordered the hummus as I’m off fried foods for the month, and it was chalky and a bit dry. Pita was ok, but clearly from a bag (which is ok here) b/​c I got a piece of plastic bag in there with the slices. They also included cucumber slices which was nice. (Side note, biggest cucumber slices I’ve ever seen! that thing must have been giant)
Someone ordered the beef jerky beer dip, which LOOKS disgusting. Imagine cat food that has been thrown back up. The taste was odd, not putrid, but just odd. I pass.
I got lukewarm feelings towards tacos, rubbery calamari and a sandwich from the group as well.
Drink specials are good though. That is a definite plus, my happy hour was very cheap. But happy hour makes me hungry!

Mockingbird Taproom provides yet another gastropub-​type eatery in the already-​densely populated Dallas. Heck, with its Mockingbird Station location, MT does not provide anything above what you can already find all around the big D. But, again, who can complain with a hefty burger, lots of fatty appetizers, and a fairly «localized» beer menu – a prized possession for the Dallas beer snobs.
I am a sucker for pimento cheese, but the one here tasted merely like a spicy cheese foodstuff. If you are wondering what a foodstuff is, it is basically not pure cheese. The one here definitely had the same texture as a packaged foodstuff. But it reminded me of a Handi-​Snack on steroids. Do you remember that cracker stick and dippable cheddar combo?
For lunch, I can always go with munchies. Alas, the suicide fries. The giardiniera provided a zing to balance out the hefty queso coating my already-​coated-​in-​egg-​yolk-​from-​fried-​egg-​being-​popped fries. Meat-​wise, the brisket offered plenty of fat, though some pieces erred on the tough side. As a whole, the fries definitely hit the spot.
But the burger presentation left something to be desired. Specifically, the burger menu misled us to think that toppings were $ 1 each. I quote the menu: «wanna bulk it up? add two of the following for $ 1, three for $ 1.50 or four for $ 1.75.» But, they ended up being $ 2 a topping. So a $ 10 burger turned into $ 14 due to a mere 3 slices of avocado and 2 slices of bacon.
This joint does fire on all cylinders – beer, food, and variety – but the service disappointed, and some of the nuances of the grub fell flat. I may return, if the turnover culture of Dallas does not first plague MT.

I know they’re new, but I’m not sure I’m making a return trip to the taproom. Upon first entrance, all I could smell was the new-​restaurant finish that was smeared over the place. Initially, we were shown to a tall table, but that lasted maybe 15 seconds when I figured out there was no way I could balance on the ridiculously tiny stools they provided. I’m not sure what is up with the itty bitty stools, but the booths are comfy, so we moved.
They do have a large beer selection and some decent happy hour prices, though I had to go through several tasters before I found one I wanted. They were also out of some of my old stand-​bys. Confession time: I didn’t try the food. Everytime I tried to ask about an item on the menu, the waiter couldn’t tell me much about it. Other than it (re: everything) «tastes awesome» and has «good flavor». I gave up after a while and stuck to the beer.
Maybe it’s just growing pains, but I’m not in a rush to go back right now. If they can grow into their space, I’ll give it another shot.

Awesome happy hour for draft beers! All Texas craft beers are $ 3 from 4−7pm and after 10pm. Peticolas, Deep Ellum, and St. Arnolds just to name a few. All appetizers except the salads are half price too. They have some awesome looking macaroni-​n-​cheese but that isn’t on the special. I got the suicide fries which is a gut buster of heaping fries, brisket, queso, and a fried egg. Damn tasty and super filling after 3 – 4 high-​proof beers. The warm pretzel was nice and squishy.
It would be a 5-​star happy hour if the service was more prompt. I had to order a new beer at the half-​way point of my previous one to avoid being empty for more than 5 minutes. Although the place was only half-​full at the time, some of my friends were waiting 15 min and more for their drinks.

Went for Taco Tuesday and the tacos are really good. Lots of local craft beers as well as larger staple beers. Big place lots of windows… really like the atmosphere. Good alternative to all the Irish/​Britsh pubs… not that i don’t like Irish/​British but good change of pace.
I live nearby so went back to tray this past weekend… arrived about 10PM Got a seat at the bar but place had a good crowd. Finished first beer ordered the second beer then suddenly the place turned into a Disco! I am not kidding— DJ turns the music up so you can’t even talk to the person next to you. Then i start to notice before i am even ¼ into the new beer that everyone is leaving… by the time finished my beer and paid out i think 4 people were left in the bar. Manager said Owner wanted DJ to attract a late night crowd… I probably did not need another beer anyway but wow. They don’t even have a dancefloor so not sure what people were going to do… can’t Talk cant dance sounds like a bad disco to me.
I like the place just be sure to be out by 11 unless you are looking for a Disco.

I thought I was going to do a heel-​toe-​heel-​toe-​step-​ball-​chain-​shuffle-​shuffle… Challenge. But its not that kind if tap room.
I think the variety of happy hours alone will keep this place kicking. My visit was $ 3 for any Texas beers, half off appetizers, half off all burgers all night, then reverse happy hour kicks in at 10. This was a Monday night.
They have about 25 draught options and its a good variety. Then more bottles to really round it out. The buffalo style calamari was tongue tickling delight.

I’m just a big fan of Mockingbird Station and most of its stores — including MTR. I didn’t have any qualms with Vapiano and a bit sad they left, but MTR does a good job filling the void. The space inside is very… spacious. Large bar in the middle, many high tables, and plentiful TVs. They have a very nice selection of beer, most of which are local Texas brews. There’s also a nice cocktail menu although I just had a few Sazeracs and called it a day. The food menu looked promising but I only munched off Cliffton D.‘s order of fries. Thursday HH included $ 3 Texas beers on tap and half off appetizers so no complaints in that department. Overall, I think MTR has a good future and I’m excited to come back and try more items.

I liked the atmosphere here a lot more than the Italian restaurant (Vapiano’s, I think) that preceded it. It’s a little darker inside, which I think helps the ambiance tremendously.
Apparently we came during happy hour, so they were out of my first two drink selections, but I was happy with the one I finally ended up with. My wife’s drink came complete with lipstick on the glass. We flagged down the waitress, and this error was quickly remedied. Overall, their beer and wine selection seemed a little overpriced. Who wants to pay $ 6.00 a glass for Polka Dot riesling when you can get a full bottle at Kroger for the same price?
In addition to drink specials, happy hour also meant that their starters were half price. I settled on the Pulled Pork Sliders and an order of Suicide Fries.
The Suicide Fries come with queso, giardiniera, chopped brisket, green onions, and a fried egg piled on top. I found the combined flavor of all these ingredients to be really amazing, but this dish is kind of a big hot mess. The texture and taste of the chopped brisket was off, more stewed or steamed rather than smoked.
Next I moved to the Pulled Pork Sliders. Besides the obvious, the sliders come topped with a green apple slaw and bourbon-​molasses sauce, complete with a side of fried shoestring onions. These had a really nice sweetness to them, both from the sauce and the pretzel bread bun.
Our dinner wasn’t a complete bust, but it certainly could have been better. As my wife said, «Oh well, it was half price.»

On Wednesdays wings are 50 cents each.
This restaurant bar is owned by the same folks who own Park Tavern, and the menu is almost identical, so if you like one you’ll probably like the other. Why their restaurants are named differently despite having almost identical menus? No idea. Trying perhaps to fool the commoners into not thinking they’re dining in a chain restaurant seems the most likely explanation. Don’t be fooled! This is definitely a chain. They have a bunch of locations (all with different names, surprise!) across the US and according to their website, 4 different places with almost identical menus in Dallas proper with another opening in February. All the specials and such are again, almost identical to Park Tavern just on different days and such, so there’s really not much difference there.

Part sports bar and part gastropub, the new Mockingbird Taproom is a swankier twist on the plain old sports bar. I’d spied this place on Unilocal a couple weeks back and I’d been eager to give it a try. The décor is the dressed down version of The Porch on Henderson. Perhaps my expectations were a bit high but it wasn’t the home run I had hoped for. However, that said, there are certainly a few high points at the Taproom.
Upon arrival, the service started off quite attentive. Our server was chipper and suggestive. I loved the selection of tap beers and started with the Live Oak Hefeweizen. Definitely glad I went with my gut, it was a great Hefeweizen. We moved on to the «Big Sticks» appetizer which was large soft pretzels with sides of honey mustard and queso. The Pretzels were soft and fresh and paired nicely with the queso. I moved onto the Footlong Grilled Cheese which I read about previously. Like a giant three cheese sandwich stuffed with bacon and fried eggs. The sandwich was pretty good but the eggs yolks were far too runny for my liking.
Being a new place, I’m sure the place has a few kinks to work out. After our appetizers, our waitress was impossible to track down. I felt as if the place was overstuffed with staff yet scrambled. Managers kept asking us if we needed anything but then would forget our requests. Then the registers went down and paying the bill took quite some time. Luckily I always carry cash on me, you never know when you’ll need it. The service overall just felt friendly but too flustered.
Like I said, I’m sure Mockingbird Taproom probably has some opening kinks to work out. It was a mixed bag for me, loving most of the food and beer but bummed about the service. I’ll give it some time to improve and it could be a great place.

I love the fact that Shannon mentioned the seating in her review. Because it’s worth mentioning. However, I’m going to start with the more relevant info, and if you’re that into the chair story– stay tuned!
Happy hour runs 4 – 7 here, and then a reverse happy hour later on (maybe 10?). Happy hour is $ 3 Texas beers, $ 3 wells, and half off apps. There were a few apps that looked worth trying, and I will be back for them! Perhaps a nice place to snack after seeing something at the Angelika. We had a slight issue with our server disappearing the last 10 minutes of happy hour (but we have beer orders to place!). Other than that, happy hour seems pretty legit here. I will be back when I can enjoy a night of beers.
The mission of our visit was to appraise the Monday night Half Off Burgers special. Around the table we tried a few. Burgers range from pretty traditional, to a Vader Burger with 2 fried eggs on it. The Vader burger also sports a wing sauce that they try to sell as incredibly hot. But… I think it was just a standard Tabasco sauce. Some add-​ons you might consider: goat cheese and fried onion strings. Served with fries or homemade chips. As a bonus– if you’re actually still doing your New Year’s resolution, you can opt for turning any burger into a chicken sandwich.
I thought there were enough TVs in the place. But perhaps there are certain angles when seated that you can’t see a TV? I guess just be weary of this when you come in, or tell the host what your preference is.
As for the chairs…
When I was seated at my table, I was offered this table, or a table in the corner that was darker, but had better seats. I opted for the table with better lightning. How bad can seats be? Well– with a partner in crime, I ended up switching out the crappy chairs for the ones at the other table. Best of both worlds. And for the record– new chairs are on the way! These crappy ones must have looked so slick in the catalog, but just not the right ergonomic fit. So go soooon if you want to experience these chairs for yourself– otherwise, wait a week or two and go experience something much more comfortable!

With so many restaurant/​bars in town its hard for anything to stand out this point. With that said, Mockingbird Taproom does. After one visit, Mockingbird Taproom has moved to the top of my list of restaurants to eat at while in Mockingbird Station.
The staff here is great, attentive and friendly. The food is consistently good and I haven’t had one thing that I didnt like. Their burgers are served on pretzel rolls, which add an interesting aspect. I particularly love the greek burger, loaded with goat cheese, spinach, cucumber and cherry pepper relish. Their wings are also great, and there are 9 different flavors of sauce including YGHUT (You’re Gonna Hate Us Tomorrow) which is made of ghost pepers and habanero and is HOT HOT HOT!!! In fact, I think my eyes are still watering from having these 5 days ago.
The only bummer about Mockingbird Taproom is that there aren’t too many TVs so it’s not the best place to watch a game. There are TVs but they are placed sporadically and arent large enough for a group to sit and enjoy.
I really hope that Mockingbird Taproom keeps up the good work!

With all the options in Dallas, I would pass on going here again.
We went to watch A&M and OU bowl game, so we expected things to be busy, but not such slow service that I ended up ordering beers from the bar after waiting 20 minutes for the waitress to bring them. We had to literally walk around the restaurant to find our waitress and then convince her to take our order.
The food that we had was decent, but nothing stellar. Beers were a little warm and I got one that came only about ¾ full.
The absolute worst part is the bar stools. THEY ARE THE MOST UNCOMFORTABLE SEATS EVER! We had people ranging from 5’1 to 6’4 in our group and no one could get comfortable. I ended up standing most of the night.
All in all, I’d pass. Dallas has other places with more beers, or better burgers or more attentive staff.

Stopped through Taproom last night on a whim and a craving for some wings, and it happened to be their media grand opening party or something from 6 – 730. Initially was rejected at the door not being there for the event (around 7), but the hostess was kind enough to let me wait it out at the bar before they opened the tables up after the event.
The cool thing was that I got to free-​load on some of the random food samples that servers were bringing around, which was a great way to taste a few items I may not have ordered — from 3 or 4 of the various boneless wings, to a ‘tirabeersu’ which was pretty good.
The selection of beer at Taproom was pretty impressive, with pints starting at $ 4 and going up from there, but it’s always nice to see some interesting craft selections (both local and not) available.
For food, I had the bourbon molasses and YGHUT (you’re going to hate us tomorrow) wings along with the beer jerky dip and kettle chips. I absolutely love wings, and these are very very good — can’t think of a place in DFW that does wings better off the top of my head. The YGHUT were very spicy (was still able to finish them, but it was a deep burn), and the bourbon molasses were a nice change-​up from usual honey BBQ or something of that ilk. The beer jerky dip and kettle chips were also on point, and would recommend those as a starter.
All in all, I’ll be back for some of the other weekly specials (half price burgers Monday, $ 2 tacos Tuesday, and half price wings Wednesday)… Good start Taproom!

wow, here do I start. Had such high hope for this place. My first impression was this place as an identity crisis. Picture of women in bikini’s holding a fish, employees with the word «flight crew» on their t-​shirts, and odd decorations. Absolutely no cohesion to the joint.
Service-​was greated by the hostes who then ended up being our waitress, guess short staffed. didn’t understand the menu. when I asked «how are your winds» her response was, «well, it’s chicken so uh, I guess there good» needless to say I ordered the pork sandwich. since our hostes/​waitress was at the front door alot, could get her to refill our glass to save our life. then our normal waiter showed up. he was friendly but the first impression was already established.
food–
friend ordered the burger with chille/​jalepinos with the crema (minus the chili) well — it arrive with no crema sauce. she thought it was average
humus was yummy
pork sandwich was total underwhelming with no seasoning. so were the fries
most employees looked like they were lost and unorganized. hope they can get their act together

An unexpected find in an unexpected location. From the outside, the bar wasn’t incredibly inviting– but once inside, we thought the modern décor was welcoming– and not cold.
The selection of Texas beers was great– and our server was also great. We also ordered the hummus from the menu to give their food a bit of a test, but didn’t find it very impressive at all.
Will definitely give this spot another shot in the future. They had a fantastic happy hour special– which will certainly encourage a return visit.

What a great place! Love the décor inside, modern and fun without being cheesy. Great, laid back atmosphere.
We stopped in for a few beers last night, i think our waitress said they had only been open to the public one day. You can still smell the new paint. Anyway, they had a really extensive beer selection and reasonable prices ($ 5-​$ 7, mostly $ 5). They also had quite a few Texas beers to choose from.
The food menu looked so good, I literally wanted to try everything! But, seeing as our visit was post-​dinner time, we stuck to only one appetizer to split. We got the Mother Clucker Mac & Cheese. So yummy! I think it had four different cheeses, but the buffalo chicken really made the dish. They were cooked perfectly. Also, the portion was a really good size… more than enough for two people.
Service was great as well. It was spot-​on, and very smooth. Not normally what you would think of when a place first opens, but they nailed it.
Can’t wait to go back and try more food!

Found out about a sneak peek night they were having (last night — December 19^th) via Facebook and signed us right up for that sucker!
The short of it:
To sum up the main reasons for the 5 stars — The FRIED CHICKEN SLIDERS!, the nomalicious «Mother Clucker Mac» (Buffalo Chicken mac & cheese), the foot long grilled cheese and of course I’d be remiss not to mention the terrific service we received from our server, Kimberly! Fabulous and extensive draft beer selection.
I will preface with that the food was complimentary that night, however I’m writing this as if we paid for it. Portions were huge and the prices are beyond reasonable. Between the 4 of us, we received two free appetizers and an entrée a piece, and only had to pay for drinks and tip.
All the things we tried:
Fried Chicken Sliders — I rarely order biscuits and even more rarely like gravy, so this didn’t necessarily catch my eye right off the bat. Luckily I was the only one at the table who’s eye it didn’t catch — this was probably tied for the best dish we had, and my bff’s BF was obsessed. The only word he could get out was «amazing» as he chowed down with a crazed look in his eye. If they decide to do a brunch menu, I can only hope this is an entrée.
Calamari — wasn’t great, but wasn’t bad. It was Calamari.
Mother Cluck Mac — Love. I just love. The mac could have been a tiny bit dry, but my genius boyfriend asked for an extra side of buffalo sauce for me and suggested I smother the dish with it and it was fabulous. Everyone agreed it was the best dish we had. I want it again now actually.
Foot long grilled cheese — I’ve never had a grilled cheese on a baguette before and now I’m wondering why. The tasty smoky bacon bits really stood out even through the layers of gooey cheese, and the fried egg was perfection.
My best friend got the «Breath Mint» burger which we had high hopes for due to the promise of a horseradish crust. We LOVE horseradish. To be honest it just tasted like a regular burger with no hint of this alleged horseradish and perhaps a bit overcooked (she ordered it medium). It was in no way bad, but just wasn’t what we were expecting. I’d likely try the million other mouthwatering sounding offerings before I’d try a burger again there. The BF got 2 brisket tacos and one chicken. Once again, not bad but not as stellar as some of the other things we got.
Lastly, our server Kimberly. She was seriously great. In no way did it feel like this was a sneak peek/​soft opening night, when one would expect there to be kinks to work out. Anything we asked for (extra side of buffalo, tabasco) she literally immediately went and got and we had it within 30 seconds. It was fairly crowded too and she did have other tables. Plus she gave helpful suggestions when we asked for them. There is nothing I hate more then asking about menu items and the waiter simply saying they’ve never had it without feedback on something else they have tried etc. The managers were very present as well and the taller one was especially welcoming and friendly.
Absolutely recommend and will be back soon, especially since I live only a mile away :)