Black Tap at Marina Bay Sands started in SoHo, New York, and has expanded globally. It has a 80s, 90s hiphop Run DMC vibe and is known for their burgers, which are featured in NYCWFF’s Burger Bash, Time Out, Zagat, and Dan’s GrillHampton.

One reason why it is always crowded is that it prices its food reasonably unlike other restaurants at MBS. Because it’s affordable, it attracts more customers.

The menu itself is limited to appetisers, burgers, salads, and milkshakes. All burgers are served with lettuce, tomato, a pickle, and french fries. With an additional $3, you can substitute french fries with onion rings or sweet potato fries or house salad. You can also add on for the burgers, such as avocado ($3) and bacon ($3) or even extra patties.

This is “medium” but other places would have called it “medium-rare.”

For the doneness of their patties, they do it one level lower than you order, as we were warned by the server. If you order “medium,” it will turn out “medium-rare.” The server had correctly advised us. We ordered “medium” for beef, which turned out red in the middle; “medium” for lamb patty turned out pinkish in the middle.

The Greg Norman

We got their award-winning The Greg Norman ($27) which include wagyu patty (220g), house buttermilk dill, blue cheese, and arugula. The combination is awesome and it is quite delicious. The beef patty is succulent and tasty. The burger as a whole is rich, only slightly pungent, all undercut by the bitter arugula. Fantastic.

Lamb Burger

As a contrast to the beef burger, we tried the grass-fed Lamb Burger ($24). I like the patty because it has a lamby flavour, lamby not gamy. When you eat it, you know it’s lamb immediately. It’s very distinct from the beef burger. I know what I just said may sound silly, but when I told my partner, he said that’s stupid. But when he tried it, he said he knew exactly what I meant.

Unfortunately, there is something missing in the combination with pickles, pickled onions, swiss cheese, and house buttermilk-dill. Not sure what it is? It’s not as complex as and couldn’t hold a candle to The Greg Norman.

Although the burgers aren’t huge, they are accompanied by a lot of fries, and that made us full.

Cakeshake

They have normal milkshakes at $12 but of course we had to order a crazy milkshake which starts from $19. The cakeshake ($22) is topped with a cake. The whole thing must have been 2500 calories. The cake itself is just pure sugar without any other taste. The milkshake tastes like artificial vanilla. It’s bad, very bad. Even between the two of us—and we hate to waste food—we couldn’t finish it. I gave up after only two spoons of the cake and three sips of milkshake.

But I would definitely recommend you ordering a crazyshake when you’re here. Although it may taste like a nightmare, it’s fun like a fantasy. I saw several kids screaming, going crazy when they saw the milkshakes.

Black Tap is a good choice to eat at MBS when you don’t want to be ripped off. The burgers are tasty and the service is commendable. But the food suggests that it is perhaps more suited for children, teenagers, and young people. We paid $86 for two persons.

Menu

Food: 6.5/10
Decor: 6/10
Service: 7.25/10
Price / value: 6.5/10

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–Fatburger, Tanjong Katong: Make Burgers Great Again?
–25 Degrees Burger, Hotel G, Middle Road: Hollywood A-Listers’ Favorite Burger Joint from Los Angeles Now in Singapore!

Written by Dr. A. Nathanael Ho.