Black Rock Bar And Grill

Reviews 3

RO

Robert Peters

TLDR; Decent food but an expensive novelty for cooking your own meal; kitchy My wife, son and I decided to give them a try this past Friday evening. The decor is nice, a good size bar area and comfortable spacious seating indoors with a small outdoor area provided as well. We were seated pretty promptly for arriving at 7:30 on a Friday before Easter Sunday. The restaurant was full but not overcrowded at the time. We ordered the Dueling Pretzels appetizer and were not disappointed by the size of the portion; it was easily enough for a table of 4. The inner section, and the draw for the "Black Rock" experience is the center section of the menu which offers various Surf and Turf options which will be brought to your table on a 750 degree lava rock. Your server will ask how you like your meat prepared and then proceed to tell you how to slice the raw meat and how long to cook it on the searing hot stone in front of you. A novel approach to restaurant food preparation. If you are not handy in the kitchen, this may not be for you. If you are uneasy about how seafood is prepared, this is definitely not for you. There are traditionally prepared for you options including chicken, ribs, pasta and salads, as well as burgers and hot dogs. Our 8 year old son was underwhelmed with his burger and thought it lacked flavor; the MacDonalds bun it arrived on didnt promise anything greater initially. My wife ordered herself the Signature Kobe Burger medium rare and noted that it arrived medium, with no trace of pink to be found inside. She opted to eat it instead of sending it back and was also not impressed with the quality of the burger, noting that similar burgers at similar restaurants were less expensive and that many restaurants tasted a higher quality of beef, particularly for Kobe. I ordered the 9oz Sirloin with a 4oz Maine Lobster tail add-on (total: $29.98) from the signature experience portion of the menu. The presentation was pleasing and the cut of meat I thought was better than average. The Lobster tail I would have thought was 1/2 its weight. The waiter offered a quick tutorial on slicing and cooking the meat and seafood with times by desired preparedness. Being a home chef I was comfortable enough with preparing my own meal; a truly novel experience as you can feel the heat from the black rock on your plate and the nice sizzle and aroma of meat being seared, without flame, right in front of you. Wine was overpriced for the offering, with the average 6oz glass being equivalent to the cost of the bottle in a retail location. Murphy Goode Cabernet was $15 for 9oz glass where the bottle retails for $12; I always find this type of overpricing grossly distasteful. Having been a bartender in a 5 Star restaurant in a major metropolitan area I know that restaurants crawl on the profits of their bars the pricing should be commensurate with the offering. Overall the experience was fair and I would go with friends who wanted to try the experience, but I wouldnt frequent of my own volition.

MA

Maurelle Copeland

Here is my review that I posted on their Facebook page last night re: our 8-31-16 visit: I went on a date to Black Rock, Tampa on Dale Mabry this evening. I have been watching the progress of the restaurant and when the sign went up saying it was "open" I couldnt wait to visit. Tonight I went. They have amazing looking steaks that are brought sizzling to your table on lava rocks. They cook right in front of you! Everyone seemed to be enjoying them BUT I just wanted a burger. So for my main entree I ordered the grass fed Angus burger. I ordered it with no onions, no garlic aioli and medium well done. My date also ordered a burger. When my burger came, it was covered in onions. I told my waitress, she was very apologetic. I told her that I just wanted to make her aware but I would eat it anyway. Then I cut the burger in half it was extremely rare! I mean mooing rare on the inside. That I could not eat (due to health issues). I told the waitress and she said "no problem we will make you another and I will make sure that it has no onions this time." I said thank you. About 3 minutes later she came back with a brand new burger (the first time I ordered it took about 20 minutes to get the burgers). I said, wow that was fast. Well maybe a bit too fast. I looked under the bun and guess what. Yep, TONS of onions. I cut into the burger and it was still way too pink. I told the waitress, she said she would tell the manager and asked me if I wanted something else. I said no thank you. My date asked for the check. While we waited for the check, the chef came out and started talking to the guests saying that he hoped they enjoyed their meals and if there was anything they needed to just ask for him and let him know. I told my date that when he gets to us we will tell him about the burger. Well, he passed right by our table and didnt even speak to us. He went right to the booth next to us without even a nod, like we werent even there. After that our waitress came back with our check. My date said, you know you should take her burger off the check because she couldnt eat it. The waitress said oh, well I couldnt find the manager. She took the check with his credit card and I guess she found the manager because my dates burger was removed from the bill. Mine was still there. At this point we just signed the bill and left. Now, 1. The waitress DID try to make things right. 2. I really wish a manager would have stopped by just to say something. I was trying to be as polite and respectful as possible, perhaps I should have made more of a fuss but I really just wanted to go home. 3. Im not sure what the policy is for when a customer is not satisfied but dont leave your server hanging out there alone with a customer complaint. I would have loved to be able to say great things about the food but I only ate some sweet potato fries, they were OK. So.. will I go back mmmmmm... maybe but it will take a while.

AE

AE C

Winter 2016: Update - Poor lunch experience. Not waited on for 10 minutes, then only waited on when I went to bar to get water. Already small cup of chowder not even full & messy. Learned Greek Salad has no lettuce in it. Server mentioned this & nicely offered to put lettuce in. Decided not to order it. I dislike when places get too creative w/ core ingredients. A Greek salad w/ no lettuce....what?! Not likely to go back. Spring 2016: Unique experience, quality ingredients, do not usually like fries but they are fantastic here. Friendly service, but a bit slow. I sense it was because they were so busy, not lack of effort/attention from server per se. I figured it would be expensive, but it was more over priced than I expected. I realize things like steak and scallops are premium item and the unique concept comes at a price. But the prices for proteins, as well as other item seemed over the top. Key lime pie was good. I think I will go back for lunch and see how it goes price wise & service wise. Had lunch here about a month after our first dinner here. Mon thru Fri lunch menu has some solid choices. I had soup (NE Clam Chowder & wedge salad). Person w/ me had a burger. Great burger for the price, came w/ fries (excellent fries!). Chowder was excellent, best chowder I can recall having. It was a smaller portion than I expected, though. Lots of clams in it. Would rather have a smaller portion of this than a larger portion of gloppy, overly thick chowder elsewhere. I did not care for the wedge, however. The dressing was way too salty and strong and there was too much of it. Too much cheese and not enough tomato. Service was just OK. Waited a bit longer than I felt we should have for our order to be taken and drinks were not refilled. (They were not busy, either). We will go back because in general I like this place & there are many interesting items I want to try. The dance clubby music was a bit much for me, but I realize they are going for a certain vibe. In the future may ask for a table not directly below a speaker. Had lunch two more times here. Good service both times (well, excellent service one time, with two refills of water...much needed because of bisque...see below). Shrimp Po Boy was ok, but nothing spectacular. Came w/ their excellent fries. I also had the NE Clam Chowder....so good. Had bruschetta. It was good, but 4 pieces for $12.99 is steep. The balsamic was great, but still did not justify the price. Lobster bisque was flavorful, but MUCH too salty. The lobster claw sticking out of the bisque makes for a spectacular presentation, but in the end is poorly conceived. They provide a cracker and seafood fork for the claw. But it has soup all over one end, so a mess when getting meat out of the claw. If I order this again (on the fence b/c of salt issue, though), I would ask for the claw on the side.