Taco Mac - Metropolis

adirondack88

New York

4.25/5  rDev +8.1%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

This place is "strictly commercial" but with a huge number of taps and pretty good food so they get it right. I saw stuff here like "Mojo Rising" Double IPA (Best IPA ever) that is rare on tap on the East Coast. This location is near GA Tech so there are a large number of students here. That could be a good or bad thing depending what you are into. I think there are quite a few different locations for Taco Mac in Atlanta so there are different atmospheres to choose from. I also went to the location near the stadium that I enjoyed quite a bit.

10-16-2010 23:46:55 | More by adirondack88

DoubleSimcoe

New York

3.44/5  rDev -12.5%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.75 | selection: 4.5 | food: 2.75 | $$

The wife and I were going to Empire State South (a fine restaurant!) and guess what, there is a massive Taco Mac right across the street! My first Taco ever... Inside it looks like any suburban chain restaurant, but the long, serpent-like bar is plenty cool.

140 taps! Great Divide Yeti, Dragon's Milk, Trobadour, Boulevard Nommo and Tank, Green Flash Friendship and a bunch of local/regional brews (French Broad, Duck Rabbit, Red Brick, O'Dempseys, Red Hare).

The place was empty on a weekday at lunchtime during Christmas, but the bartender looked hurried and overwhelmed, and it takes time to get a beer. Here I learned that service is the Achilles' heel of all Taco Mac locations!

The ambience is blah and bland, the food is mediocre but goes well with beer (queso and salsa).

Come for the beer only! The selection is damn good indeed.

03-04-2013 01:38:37 | More by DoubleSimcoe

7h324nd0m1

2.7/5  rDev -31.3%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3 | service: 1 | selection: 3 | food: 4 | $$$

I have been to many different Taco Macs throughout the Atlanta area. I will say this is the first one that I have had absolutely no desire to go back to. Our waiter was an absolute moron, and the service was extremely slow. Myself and my party waited about 10 minutes for each beer that we ordered (3) when the place was nearly empty. One of my beers came to me wrong, warm and awful. At the end of my time in this hell hole, we asked for our checks to be split, they came to us in pairs, with orders STILL on the wrong ticket. On top of this, I had to ASK for my brewniversity card back and he couldn't tell us which one it was. So a member of my party had to tell him how to do his job and find out which card was mine (no my name wasn't on it, but I have never had a problem with it before.) Throughout this process the waiter didn't say sorry for the wait or anything to try and make our experience any better.

Thank you "Taco Mac Metropolis," you have made me never come back to your store. I will spend my hard earned dollar elsewhere.

02-10-2013 20:16:03 | More by 7h324nd0m1

nobles10

Georgia

5/5  rDev +27.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

I absolutely love Taco Mac. I usually go to the one in Kennesaw, and finally got a chance to go to the one in Midtown after a Braves game one night. The selection of beer is great, with no shortage of beers to try. the food is also quite delicious. I also love the atmosphere of a sports bar, as I love being able to watch multiple games at one time of different sports. I would suggest going to Taco Mac to anyone who enjoys good beer and enjoys trying new beers, as well as those who just enjoy sitting at the bar talking sports with friends and or random strangers over a beer.

05-21-2012 16:47:51 | More by nobles10

BuckeyeOne

Washington

2.45/5  rDev -37.7%
vibe: 2 | quality: 2 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 1.5 | $$

I stopped in Taco Mac Metropolis on my last night of a three-day trip to ATL. I had a feeling what I was in for but decided to go based on the reviews here on BA. I was sorry almost immediately that I was swayed by these reviews.

The place is a huge, loud, and rather dirty sports bar filled on a Tuesday night with fratboys, their girlfriends, and older dudes who probably weren't in frats but now want people to think they were.

I've never been impressed with beer bars with excessively large numbers of taps. There's really no way a place like that can keep their hoppy beers fresh and are unlikely to be able to keep all of those taplines cleaned. While I can't speak to the latter issue, I was right about fresh IPAs or lack thereof. I ordered a Founders Red's Rye and a Sweetwater IPA and didn't finish either one because the hops had faded and they were malty messes.

And given it's called Taco Mac, I ordered simple beef tacos --- they were terrible. The soft flour tortillas were oversteamed and the taco meat with grimy. Gross.

Two pints and two tacos set me back $19 before tax and tip. Not bad.

I would never encourage a BA to go to this place. Spend the extra time and head out to Decatur and hit up the Brick Store Pub and Leon's Full Service for great beer and food.

04-18-2012 04:41:43 | More by BuckeyeOne

JohnRioux

5/5  rDev +27.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$

Corey makes great points, all true. But those things that he dislikes about Taco Mac Metropolis, are actually the reasons why I love this place. Like him, I've probably had most of what's on the list, but I am always able to find something new that I haven't had. I am a Brewniversity member having almost 300 different beers at Taco Mac.

As for the wait staff. It's true their beer knowledge is likely limited to what light beer they'll be drinking that night to get drunk. But I don't go to taco Mac to get my information about beer from my server. I want the beer to do the talking. Every since I first chose a beer off the massive beer list, all I expected was the adventure of trying something new, knowing very well that I could hate the beer equally as much as I could love my new found favorite.

Taco Mac Metropolis has become the place where my old fraternity brothers and their spouses and girlfriends reunite for Georgia Tech games, or when we are all in town. Taco Mac has everything to offer us: excellent beer selection, including many Atlanta and Georgia brewers; great bar food (I always get the hot buffalo wings!); and a great atmosphere to watch sports and hang with the locals. I like that I can always be myself and be with my friends at Taco Mac, and not really worry about much else. I like that I don't have to worry about the service or the quality of food and drink. Taco Mac, at every location, continues to deliver for me. I will be a lifelong customer, lover, and advocate for this restaurant and bar.

03-22-2012 14:58:02 | More by JohnRioux

coreyfmcdonald

Georgia

2.8/5  rDev -28.8%
vibe: 1.5 | quality: 2.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4 | $$$

Taco Mac Metropolis...an odd place in Midtown with a great beer selection, but not much more.

The atmosphere here is very unimpressive. I feel like I'm in some sort of a mix between a diner, a sports bar, and a night club. I really dislike it.

The beers are generally served in incorrect glassware (unless standard pint glass is appropriate), but the beers here are generally fresh (though I haven't really tried my luck with many bottled/canned IPAs - a true test for me).

The service here is not bad for a restaurant, but not good for a beer bar. The bartenders generally have some beer knowledge, but the servers generally have very little.

The beer selection is pretty decent. They have A LOT of beer, but much of it is mediocre/standard. I have a hard time picking out beers here because I've generally had everything. For a sports bar, the selection is very good, though.

I actually find the food quite decent at Taco Mac. It's not the interesting, well crafted dishes of Brick Store, but it's good for chain bar food.

The prices are actually quite high. Some drafts can go for nearly $10, which you will not see at the other craft beer bars in Atlanta.

10-27-2010 20:27:52 | More by coreyfmcdonald

DrewKid4

New Hampshire

3.85/5  rDev -2%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 3 | $$$

As a Georgia Tech student, I really wish there was a typical local dive bar in walking distance that was popular with students, like most colleges in America. The problem is, you have to drive to get to them in Decatur, Virginia Highlands, or Little 5. I have flocked to the Taco Mac for reasons from friends' 21st birthdays to having a session with a couple friends during Pint Night, so I have had a lot of experience at this place.

The atmosphere is nice and clean, although the din of well over a hundred people in there at any time makes it less bearable than your typical Applebees or TGIF. Speaking of those chained restaurants, Taco Mac has that commercial feel, but is pardoned due to its dedication to beer and sports. The servers are hit or miss with beer knowledge, some are just students paying bills, and some are full of beer knowledge and will advise anybody and are usually pretty good at it. The food is alright, but probably not worth the price paid. Again, it resembles what you would get at an Applebee's type place. Now on to the beer.

Suckered into a Taco Mac Brewniversity card, I have tried to hack at it with the massive selection at this establishment. The major downside to Taco Mac is its price. You can go to most any regular person's bar outside of a city and pay much less (and probably get it in the correct glasses too) but you aren't paying for the beer at Taco Mac, you're paying for availability. The choice is what you are paying for, which works for most curious beer lovers like myself. It is a nice place to go with a large group of friends for special occasions, but not a place for the average joe to go have a pint, especially not in the price range for college students. The best times for a normal visit is during Thursdays to get the beer of the month and getting the pint glass of that company. Definitely worth the higher price.

06-18-2010 02:31:42 | More by DrewKid4

SimpleBeerLover

Georgia

3.98/5  rDev +1.3%
vibe: 2.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | food: 4 | $$

This is my go to establishment for getting drunk with friends. It's located within easy staggering distance of Georgia Tech campus, and the selection of beers is excellent. It's a great place for discovering new beers with friends. Food isn't out of this world, but is very tasty, if slightly pricey. Beer is somewhat more reasonably priced.

Waitstaff is friendly but can't always answer questions about beer well and is often confused when you order a beer with a long German name. Waitstaff will refuse to serve you a pitcher if you are by yourself, but has no problem serving two pitchers to two people, for some reason.

Atmosphere leaves something to be desired, especially on game nights: loud, crowded, hard to hear your own thoughts sometimes.

Not perfect, and significantly less classy than I like, but the selection is unbeatable and it really is one of my favorite places in the area to go drinking.

04-25-2010 03:25:46 | More by SimpleBeerLover

planetscott

Georgia

4.08/5  rDev +3.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 5 | food: 3 | $$

This is my favorite Taco Mac. The bar is like from a 1960's movie of what the future would look like in the 21st century. The seating area is large, open and on two tiers. I rarely rate bathrooms, but these are always very clean.

The food is just average bar food. There are a couple of things I enjoy, but I am here for the beer selection.

Beer selection. HUGE. They often have cask events which is what I usually attend.

The service is spotty, but they do have some knowledge of the beer.

Parking can be an issue so I just pay the $2 in the deck.

10-29-2009 14:13:02 | More by planetscott