The Blacksmith Restaurant — Restaurant in Dyersburg

I didn't feel good about giving the restaurant a "2", but probably should have. I didn't, only because I am still glad to have it as an option in the Dyersburg area.

Starting with the positives: We like the decor, and it's good that they make a good baked potato, because that saved the meal.

The negatives:

It's not hard to mess up chicken tortilla soup, but they did. It was more like unseasoned chicken broth, with grilled chicken and melted cheese on top. And yes, even that could be decent, but no. And there was 'green' floating in it, and I initially thought how odd it was to have spinach in chicken tortilla soup; well, that's because it wasn't spinach, it was green tortilla chips that had been there for so long that they were dissolving, so there was also the consistency of cornmeal within the chicken broth base. Terrible.

The burger was dry and fairly tasteless.

You know how a godd bar staff - especially one that is also waiting the food orders for the bar tables - is usually hustling as fast as they can go to get drinks refilled and ensure that everything is tended? Not here. They took our order, but our drinks were empty more than once, while they stood lazily behind the bar. No one hustling. We left our table twice and went to the bar to ask for drink refills. They were nice enough; I just don't think they understood what it took to do the job well.

The soup, which was untouched, was pushed to the edge of the table and sat there full until we left, without bar staff noticing (a bowl at the literal edge of the table) or asking if anything was wrong.

And so, with the less than adequate service (I didn't fault the wait staff for the food), thank goodness we can do the math to leave our intended tip, because at the bottom of our tab, 15% itself wasn't even among the suggestions - their suggestions were 18%, 20% or 25% - again, more than a little presumptuous, considering the typical is 15% and anything more is based on really...

Hubby and I went here last night for the first time. Service was great. Our waiter was perfectly attentive and polite, 5 🌟 for him. I had the soup and hubby had the salad (that come with the entrée) for appetizers which were both very good (though the soup was quite a bit smaller then i anticipated, it was still good). We both ordered the ribeye with a loaded baked potato which is where the 3 stars come in. Baked potatoes were really good and my steak looked amazing and tasted really good but was definitely cooked rare instead of medium rare, not that huge of a deal. I ordered $2 sautéed onions for my steak and got barely cooked onions. Where the biggest disappointment comes in is my steak was a nice about 1" piece of meat, my husband's on the other hand was maybe a half inch slab that looked like it should of been turned into ground beef instead of a $33 steak dinner. The waiter commented that I'd ordered the onions and didn't eat them, I was honest of why so he offered to remove them from our bill. We're not nit picky people but for $100 dinner for 2 people, there are certain expectations and while this restaurant was good overall, for the same price and more food, we'll be going to...

Service was excellent, Raegan (sp.?) did a great job for us. She and everyone there should be paid handsomely, especially for how overpriced it was for what we got. I applaud the offering of a vegan burger patty (theirs tasted like Beyond Meat, I but I could be wrong), just wish vegan cheese would be available too, but I'm just flexitarian, so that's not a huge deal for me. Broccolini was great in flavor, texture and color. Charcuterie board had a more than adequate portion size of meats, surprisingly, but seemed to lack enough bread or cheese to go along with, or anything else like dried fruit, nuts, etc. The prosciutto, it smelled like feet, not gonna lie. It took me a bit to even realize because the underlying flavor was good but it was suddenly unmistakable and I had to let the rest of the prosciu-toes go to waste. Massive dessert sizes compared to most restaurants, but still not worth nine dollars a plate, least of all for desserts not made in house. Women's bathroom first stall featured an advertisement for trivia at 7 on Thursdays: this is not true, unfortunately, according to our waitress. Gonna come back, regardless, and try...