Blackstone Steakhouse and Grill - Mississauga — Restaurant in Mississauga

RAW chicken - Food poisoning & Terrible Experience at Blackstone Steakhouse & Grill – Ruined My Son’s Birthday

We had a Monday night reservation to celebrate my son’s birthday, which was easy to make. Upon arrival, we were greeted and seated promptly, but things quickly went downhill.

We asked to be seated at a booth that was empty, but were told it was reserved. We were promised we’d be moved when another booth opened up. That never happened. Instead, I watched as they cleaned the booth and seated another family there. This was already frustrating, but we remained patient.

Our server spoke so softly that we couldn’t hear her over the loud music, so we had to keep asking her to repeat herself. Then, when our appetizer arrived—jerk chicken nachos—it was a disaster. The nacho chips were dripping with oil, clearly fried in either old or improperly heated oil. There was barely any jerk chicken, just tiny crumbles hidden beneath a layer of low-quality cheese that oozed even more oil. It was inedible. The server offered to replace it, but we decided to send it back and wait for our main courses.

The main dishes arrived quickly, which seemed like a relief at first, but I soon discovered my chicken parmigiana was RAW. I had already eaten half of the chicken before I realized it. I called the server over to show her, and her excuse? “It’s the lighting.” I explained that my daughter’s chicken from her penne Alfredo wasn’t raw, and she was sitting right next to me in the same lighting.

I was horrified and went to the bathroom to try and vomit out what I’d eaten, fearing I’d get sick—which, unfortunately, I did. I now have food poisoning. My son’s birthday was ruined, and the whole family felt terrible that I couldn’t enjoy my meal.

When we were paying, my husband still left a tip, knowing it wasn’t the server’s fault, but I asked her for her name. Her response was shocking: “I’m not allowed to tell you my name according to business policy.” What kind of restaurant refuses to let staff share their names? I then went to the hostess stand to ask, and even they refused to give me the server’s name. After asking for a manager, I was told there wasn’t one. The hostess claimed to be the supervisor, but initially denied that too, giving me the runaround. Finally, after making my son go to the car to grab the receipt, I found out her name. This whole ordeal was completely unnecessary and insulting.

For a high-end steakhouse, this kind of treatment is unacceptable. Even fast food places like Tim Hortons have their staff wear name tags. The fact that your servers can’t give their names or that there was no manager on-site is appalling.

Dimi was the server and Sashi or Sachki was the apparent supervisor. Poor customer service skills for a busy restaurant.

I’ve read other reviews about how the quality at Blackstone is declining, and I completely agree. It seems like students are being hired as chefs and servers, and the quality is suffering as a result. For a restaurant of this supposed caliber, you should be working to fix these issues, responding to negative reviews, and improving your service. There are plenty of other halal steakhouses offering better service and food at a fraction of the price.

Thanks for ruining my...

I waited 6 months before writing this review because I actually enjoy the food here! Read this with light hearted tones; just sharing a funny story.

I usually get the Chicken Parmesan or the Penne Bolognese. It's safe to say I order the Penne Bolognese 80% of the time and I love it! On one of these occasions, when I received my penne, it was spicier than usual. And I mean spicier as in I could not feel my lips! And I swear, I tried to eat through the pain. Our waiter came by and asked how we're doing, and I told him my penne was too spicy, and asked if they had some plain tomato sauce that they could add to it to make it bearable for me to eat. The waiter instantly said, no problem let me check with the kitchen. He got busy and never returned.

Another waiter noticed I wasn't eating so he came by and asked how everything was. I told him, listen man I order this dish every time and it's not usually this spicy, is there anyway we can add some tomato sauce to it or if they could give me some yoghurt, or something. He answered with, no the penne bolognese is always spicy. This obviously bothered me as I order this ALL THE TIME. I told him I don't agree and that it is definitely spicier than usual. There was a back and forth and he said he will check with the kitchen and return; he took my plate with him.

The original waiter came back with a new plate. He told me they remade the penne and it should be less spicy now. And he also added that he and the cook tried my previous plate and that it was bland and in fact not spicy at all, while happily smiling and nodding at me. This was obviously annoying to hear, but whatever, I just wanted to eat. ALSO. The other waiter was trying to say the penne is always spicy and this guy and the cook said mine was bland. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

I looked down at the new plate he brought for me and noticed that these chuckle heads have added chili peppers all around the dish! So I asked the waiter, why would you add chili peppers?! My original plate didn't have chili peppers. And he says, don't worry it's just garnish and then merrily walked away because HE SURE SHOWED ME.

I was astonished. But, like I said, this was my favourite dish, so I ate around the chili peppers, paid my bill, and drove back to Hamilton. YES, that's right. I drive from Hamilton for the Penne Bolognese here. It's really good.

I've also attached pictures of my original plate, and the replacement plate (notice the excess of chili peppers). My last point, I can never finish this dish because there's so much pasta but my replacement dish had 1/5 of it's usual pasta portion (see picture). Moral of my story, if you want your Penne Bolognese then don't complain about your Penne...

Food was good, great halal steaks. The steak came out perfect if u get the chef's special. The Taste n came out just the way I like it. However! That being said. #1 Appetizers came out, no app plates or utensils given till we asked 5 times. By the time utensils n plates came, apps were done. #2 we order steak bites, 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️ they are amazing with the small pasta, forgot what that's called. But it came out, again after asking (I swear like 10 times) after meals were done. So as a dessert. So we told 3 wait staff to cancel the steak bites, a manager I'm assuming (as she never introduced herself) came to us and said they are done, and the waiter forgot to give that order hence why it came out late. She continued on saying she will do us a favour and charge us 50%! Lol at that point we told her nah that's ok, they can eat it. I said to her, I can understand a mistake was made by the new waiter, however, as good customer service, she should have just said we apologize and brought it out on the house. We guess what, she brings it saying it's on the house, as a friend said to her, we will be posting a review. #3 when she brought out the steak bites, again no plates, no utensils, when we asked, and this killed me, they threw on the table plastic forks no plates. Like WTH! #4 we were not asked if we wanted dessert #5 water was never topped up #6 I think I should stop, cuz I can go on and on and on about the service. #7 oh in the start we wanted to order the $140 prime Tomahawk steak 45-55oz n share amongst us, and was told it wud take 45-50 minutes to cook, so we cancelled that option. At the end we told the "manager" had we known the steak bites would take and hr or so we would have went ahead and ordered the most expensive steak.

The food is great, but service is below 1 star in all honesty. I think they all including owner, manager need to be trained on what customer service is and how a waiter is suppose to bring out and service a table. I actually advised the waiter as well as the manager how it shud be done, plates n utensils first, water, then ask what we wud like to order, at the least. #7 gratuity is automatically added, well hell no that was going to happen, so I asked to take that off. There was no service provided. Like I said in the beginning food great, service...