James L.
Yelp
This past summer, I found myself visiting the Tysons Biergarten a few times. Once because I had a training session in the area and stopped in to wait out traffic, and on a couple of other occasions I made the painful trek down Route 7 because I have friends who work at one of the many nearby consulting firms, and they seem to like this place.
However, you wanna know what Tysons Biergarten really is? It is an attempt to recapture the nostalgia and youth of being your 20's, all while trying to escape the soul crushing reality of being an office drone in the corporate dystopia that is Tyson's Corner.
Tysons Biergarten tries so hard to remind people that even if you have to wear an off the rack drab suit, that you can still be cool and hip by hanging out and drinking beer on picnic tables, all while using plastic tokens to pay for drinks - since using cash or credit cards is so early 2000's. There are plenty of other reviews explaining how the token system works, but I am in the majority of reviewers who think it's dumb and gimmicky.
The only thing more abhorrent, is the food ordering system...followed closely by the cuisine itself. There seems to be a belief that people only want to interact with kiosks and tablets for services, since talking to a live human to order food is a concept again...from the early 2000's. So walk into the kitchen and then place your order on the tablet hanging on the wall, and wait for the food. Look, I've been to Austria and Switzerland so I have a pretty good idea of what Bavarian cuisine associated with Biergarten's should taste like. The food here, is an insult and not an homage to true European biergartens.
The TBG loaded fries are advertised as "fresh fries topped with two different cheese, onions, scallions, and special sauce." Well these fries might be "freshly" defrosted out of a freezer since they were extremely soggy and the special sauce tasted like diluted thousand island. The various sausage platters I've tried aren't terrible, but also nothing special. If you have to order some food, I'd recommend either the jalapeno cheddarwurst or the Kielbasa. Both of these sausages have a familiar flavor to most people, and can be dressed up with some mustard on the side.
When I was last here in late August since it was god-awful hot in DC this summer, I was sitting there around 6pm strategically camped under an umbrella for shade, and I watched as legions of folks were walking around with their lanyards from places like CVENT, KPMG, and Booz Allen, just to name a few. I get it. Everyone wants the nice six-figure salary associated with being a H.P.C. (aka Highly Paid Consultant) but not the hours or "golden handcuffs" that accompany that line of work.
So in that regard, I give Tysons Biergarten a star for at least TRYING to provide some sort of respite to people after logging a long day at the office. Another star also because after flagging down a bartender at either the upper or downstairs (I recommend the downstairs) bar, the beer selection is actually decent, and at Happy Hour, the prices are really good for Tysons.
BTW - forget about parking anywhere near the place. Follow the signs to the parking garage about a 3-5 minute walk away; just remember to bring your parking ticket so it can get validated on your way out.