The Black Market Virginia — Restaurant in Brambleton

Let me start off by saying that the restaurant itself is very nicely put together. It’s a beautiful space. Unfortunately after that, the whole experience falls apart.

1. the wait staff is poorly trained. We had to clear our own menus as they were never collected by our server, even after they arrived with cocktails (more on that in a minute) and starters. Even when plates were cleared our waitress put one of them on the unoccupied table next to us and left it there for the rest of our meal. We had to ask each time for our water to be refilled when it was empty. Cocktails were made poorly (lots of vermouth in a dry martini and a lemon drop so tart it was almost undrinkable) and the last of our cocktails was delivered to the table after we had time to finish our starters.
2. The food was not remotely up to par. Two of us ordered steaks, one salmon, and one pasta. The steaks were a baffling combination of overcooked, but somehow also cold. This was almost undoubtably because they were fired and the salmon had to be re-fired, as it was absolutely hammered when it came out. Our entrees arrived and the pasta never came. After getting the attention of a server they hurried to the pass and it was pretty obvious that they had to make the pasta on the fly as it was never fired. When it arrived it did not include the burrata supplement, and after speaking to our server they said that they were out of burrata and apologized. The Parmesan truffle fries were very good, and they did comp the pasta and bring a complementary dessert.
3. paper napkins. Normally something I would not mention. However we were all dressed very nicely and the paper napkins left lint all over my fiancé’s dress.

The fact that the total bill (even after the comps) was over $400 makes the experience and food inexcusable. Please do not repeat...

This was one of the worst experiences for a “high-end” restaurant I’ve had in a long time (maybe ever?). We had to flag down the waitress multiple times to ask for water, to order entrees, and to order more wine. While most of the food came out fine, one of us ordered the bucatini cacio e pepe which came out with what appeared to be egg noodles and was completely dry. It was sent back and when a fresh dish came out, it was a completely different pasta (actually bucatini that time) and when we made a comment about it being different the waitress said “yeah, we decided to try something different and it didn’t work”. Sorry, but you don’t test out new pasta on random customers. That time, the sauce was basically a soup with some pepper on top. She then finally asked how our food was tasting when everyone was done and the individual with the “soup pasta” commented about it and she just walked away. As she was clearing the table, she spilled water, which is fine, accidents happen, but she left the entire spilled glass of water all over the floor. It was never cleaned up. Overall, poor experience and there are SO many restaurants in the area that are significantly better that I can’t possibly recommend it to anyone.

One additional comment on the wine: while I understand they also sell wine retail, they have multiple VERY expensive and highly respected bottles of wine (I.e. Ridge Monte Bello, a $500 bottle of wine) just sitting upright on an open shelf, exposed to sunlight day in and day out. That is not how bottles should be stored and it’s a disgrace they...

We had a great time here. It's awesome to have a high-end restaurant that is close by. The food was absolutely fantastic. That said, it took a while to get served and we had to find the waiter several times.

We got the ribeye for $120 that was pre-sliced. The crust on it was great and it was cooked to perfection.

We also got mussels that was more than enough for one person. The sides were also really good. We got spinach and fingerling potatoes. No complaints there. The wine list was great and they had few new ones that I have not had before that were exceptional.

We did get a spicy rigatoni that was a bit too Al dente. However it was unclear if this was intentional. It was a bit chewy and since we had all the rest of our food we ended up not sending it back.

We also had a bit of a kerfuffle where it was implied that our check was split equally. However, in hindsight it looks like wine was put on one tab and all the food on another. So we ended up paying for the other party that came with us accidentally. Probably should have checked a tab a little bit better in hindsight. Just went with what the server said at the time. Oops!

All in all I woul recommend this place. The food is great and hopefully they get a few more servers on staff soon. Totally forgiven since they are brand new and it's definitely difficult to hold on to service...