Cuisine: American
Address:
Nearest MRT: Bayfront Station (Circle / Downtown line)

Black Tap is famous for its award-winning burgers, towering milkshakes, craft beers and cocktails and in Singapore, we are lucky to have the first Asian flagship of this New York City institution. Black Tap brings a timeless NYC vibe to Singapore, rocking an old-school hip-hop soundtrack and a bespoke mural drawn by a local artist.

At Black Tap, the menu features the ubiquitous craft burgers. Highlights include the classic All-American Burger and award-winning Greg Norman Burger, which is delish wagyu beef topped with house buttermilk-dill, blue cheese and arugula served on a soft potato bun. Lighter options include burger salads and a vegetarian falafel burger.

To end off your dining experience, supplement it with one of Black Tap’s over-the-top CrazyShake milkshakes, made from scratch at the CrazyShake Bar. Go for original favourites such as Cotton Candy, Sweet n Salty and The Bam Bam, or choose classic flavours such as Chocolate, Vanilla and Black Cherry. It is definitely a perennial favourite for the kids but not so much for adults, who do not have the stomach for such diabetes-inducing drinks.

The restaurant also offers a good selection of 18 craft beers – 12 of which are on tap – and cocktails. The craft beers on tap go at $17 a pint. There is no happy hour promotion, which is a pity. We had a 4 pints Pacific Ale, Kona Big Wave Golden Ale and Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale. The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale that I wanted was unfortunately unavailable on that day. The beer was fruity with hints of hops and overall refreshing. The colour of these three beers was more or less the same as they had 3.5 to 5.7 ABV.

For the children, they definitely loved the giant milkshakes. Classic shakes go at $12 each, and the one below was on promotion on that day, it was the Apple Pie shake. We expected a slice of apple pie to be used as decoration on the top, but apparently it had been blended in together with the milkshake.

The Crazyshake was eye-catching indeed, priced between $20- $25 indeed. Such outrageous prices, to me this could be for a main course at another restaurant. Anyway, the Cookie Shake ($21) that the kids ordered to share contains cookie crumbles tipped with a cookiewich, crumbled cookies, chocolate chips, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle. The children definitely slurped up the milkshake with delight, but towards the end, it was just too much whipped cream so they did not finish it.

The main course took around 20 minutes to be prepared on that day due to high customer flow. This is the All-American burger ($23) which is a huge portion. It is made of prime burger, american cheese and a special sauce.

The Old fashioned ($24) is a prime burger served with shitake mushrooms, swiss cheese, caramelised onion and horseradish sauce. We changed one of the fries to onion rings ($3 supplement). However, the onion rings are too huge and not the type of onion rings that we would have preferred.

This is another Old fashioned burger, but with the original fries.

Lastly, for me, I ordered the Texan burger ($26), which comes with prime burger, aged cheddar, crispy onion ring, bacon, sweet baby rays bbq sauce and mayo.

For all our burgers, we had the burger patty done medium. The meat was cooked nicely, but slightly dry as compared to Shake Shack. The portion of fries or onion rings given on the side were huge, such that it was too much for me to finish. We did not really enjoy the pickle as we are not fans of it.

There is a lot of hype about Black Tap since this is the first store that they opened in Asia, but it did not meet our expectations. Burgers and milkshakes are quite pricey here, but due to its prime location at MBS, it is inevitable for the prices to be hiked up. It took over the location of Carnivore, a Brazilian restaurant previously. As with new burger joints popping up all over the island, I am sure this place is a try-once and forget it after a while. If you are not into craft burgers and paying a premium, I suggest that you stick to your comfort food at fast food chains such as Burger King, McDonalds and KFC.