Black Canyon Restaurant — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

I made reservations for 7:15 pm last Thursday. Upon arriving, the hostess seated us at a round table that had 5-8 chairs. We would have preferred to sit a booth. We weren't even asked if we had a preference. Once seated,  my girlfriend and I ordered. We both ordered the filet mignon. She got the smaller one, I got the bigger one. Our waiter, who's name I can't remember, brought us our drinks. I had a Michelob Ultra and she had a martini. After our drinks, our waiter asked if we would like bread. As, I stated, my girlfriend and I ordered the same thing. She received a salad and I did not. We were eventually brought our food. Both of us ordered medium rare. I cut into mine and it was rare... almost extremely rare. I ate a couple bites and our waiter finally brought bread. He noticed I wasn't eating mine and asked if it was under cooked. I said that I would just take it home and microwave it. He said he wanted the manager to at least come see it. I watched him go talk to him for a couple minutes and when he came back, he said the manager would give us a free brownie. I was pretty insulted and declined. I mean, an $8 brownie for a $40 steak? C'mon. Almost any restaurant would either comp the meal or give another steak. My bill came to $127 and I tipped the waiter $25 despite his poor service. Pretty bad when I had a better meal from Taco Bell earlier in the day. We will not be returning.

edit since I can't figure out how to respond to the owner's response to my review, I'll edit it here. His response was partially true. They did NOT offer to "upcook" my steak. He did ask if it was undercooked, I said yes. After I told him I'd take it home and microwave it, he said he wanted the manager to look at it. The manager did NOT come over. As I stated, they offered a brownie. It was insulting, considering I paid $127 for a salad, two baked potatoes, one properly cooked steak, 2 drinks, and bread. I did call them on the way home just so I could tell them how I felt and so maybe they could do things better so other people didn't have a bad experience like we did. The manager was nice and apologetic. He said he was too busy to talk to me and was under the impression that we weren't "upset" over the situation.That wasn't true. He stood in one place with his arms crossed for most of our time there. If he would have came over, I would have told him how I felt. He did offer a gift card, but only after I had called. He didn't say for the full price of the meal. I assumed it would have not been worth our time since they initially offered an $8 brownie. If the owners would have checked or read their emails, I would not have made this review. As I've told the manager, and as the owner stated in their response, I will not be coming back. There's plenty more restaurants in the city that are more deserving of our business; especially after the owner has a sugar-coated response to my review with partial facts based upon...

Would give 2.5 stars if I could. The food is very eh, not exactly bad but you can definitely expect more for the price. I had the BC Oysters, the Bison Burger and the Chef's Featured Cheesecake (at the time, it was a chocolate-Oreo thing). My friends had the Ribeye, the BBQ Ribs, and the pulled pork sandwich which I could sample pieces of. Honestly, this review doesn't deserve colorful words either way because I found most of the flavors very average.

The BC Oysters looked appetizing. Honestly at $3 a piece they weren't bad, but I felt all the extra toppings kind of clashed with the taste of the oyster. The regular oysters had tequila sauce which wouldn't be my jam anyhow, but when you think of fresh seafood, I don't think you'd think of burnt bacon, sharp cheddar and creamy spinach. It came out hot and looked amazing, but tasted like fancy Chinese buffet mussels more than anything. The oyster itself was underwhelming and the whole thing didn't taste like much.

The Ribeye was tough and greasy, not the good kind of marbled fat but because they rubbed molten fat onto the steak, or something. At least that was what it looked and tasted like. It's also slightly under-seasoned, but other than that it wasn't bad. They do use good quality beef and the steak was consistent enough.

The BBQ ribs were the highlight of the meal, moist, fatty and juicy. But even then, the seasoning was very underwhelming. It LOOKED like there was a lot of sauce, but surprisingly didn't have much flavor to it.

The bison burger was...... alright. The fried jalapeno was a weird thing to add, and the bison patty didn't taste all that different from a regular beef patty. Just a little smellier. The fries and sauces that came with it were also just alright. Everything was just alright.

The cheesecake was the most offending dish of the meal, I thought, but even then it wasn't exactly good or bad, just very heavy. The whole thing basically tasted like Eagle Brand condensed milk (yes, even the cheesecake itself, not just the cream they pour onto it), and the chocolate tasted like cheap almond chocolate, without the almond. There was a very strong Oreo taste that appeared in your mouth every now and then if you looked hard enough for it, but you wouldn't be able to pinpoint what it is.

I couldn't sample the pulled pork sandwich, but my friend who had it summed it up in one word: "Salty".

Overall, not a very bad experience, but there are better places out there. This is definitely one of the more expensive places too. Just left me kinda empty afterwards I guess.

(Photos were only taken halfway...

Wood fired filet was excellent. They nailed the medium rare temperature all the way through and the wood smoke flavor was top notch. I would normally order a ribeye at a steakhouse because it is a more forgiving cut to cook, but current dietary restrictions forced me to the lean filet if I had a chance at eating a steak tonight. I was not disappointed for sure. They did not over season and let the wood fire flavor shine. Gumbo was very flavorful and the wokked veggies were great as well. Although for my current dietary restrictions, the veggies had a bit too much oil for me to have very many. This would not affect the majority of people and the flavor was delicious so I wouldn’t knock down their rating because of this, just calling it out for anyone that needs to limit the amount of fat they intake. Also to be fair, I didn’t tell the waitress about the restrictions, I just tried to order things I thought I could handle and took the risk because no other sides were allowed with all my current restrictions (soft foods, low fat, low sugar, no crusifserus veggies, no white potatoes and very low starch). Price for the steak was a good bit above mid tier steakhouse prices, but the execution and flavor was more comparable to the higher priced steakhouses. Hypothetically, if I were given the choice between a free Ruth’s Chris filet and a free Black Canyon filet, I’d choose Black Canyon. My wife and I agree it has joined our favorites list. I’m looking forward...