The Blacksmith Restaurant — Restaurant in Jackson

Sit down. I have a lot to say. As a former Italian Restaurant Owner in Daytona... I may be more critical than some, but I speak/write only the truth. We made reservations for 2:30 the day before due to the way the website is shown/displayed. The foods looked great. LOOKED is the key word. I called because our meeting ended early. When I made the reservations I asked for a certain seating. I answered the question what occasion was, both our birthdays. I took the time to call to be sure they had a table and so they could remove reservation. Thought I was being helpful. THERE IS NO REASON TO ASK FOR RESERVATIO! ZERO. we were greeted by a lady that asked if the table was ready for the ones that canceled. ?? The person that sat us said nothing. Not a word. I noticed she and several others walking back and forth the whole time. At first I thought they must check on the guest. Nope. Looked at us. I will try to be P.C. I thought that since reservation gave options on seating it would be a nice, smaller area. I think it was upper level, don't quote me on that. We were sat at the very 1st booth at the door. There were PLENTY OF OPEN SEATS! The door? Really? It'd be understandable had they been slammed. The table was sticky. There were crumbs on my side. It smelled like well Like someone wet their pants. Our server was very nice and tried hard to pay attention to us. It was again obvious her station /area was the patio. We felt like a burden . She was really nicentered anyway. Not sure if we were being punished or her. We were really expecting so much more. We had a pretzel and meat and cheese board to start.. Pretzel was great. The board was not so great. The Brie was very cold. The other cheeses' looked like they had been sitting out for a while.. The prosciutto? Thick Canadian ham! With grizzly nevermind! The menu was a joke. Better like chicken. The Bloody Mary was horrible, it was pink at best. The added bacon- I'm not sure it was cooked well. Or at all ( yes it was thrown in microwave or pan for 20 seconds) I had a hamburger. I asked for mediumwell to well. A Lil too med rare. I ate it anyway . Overall it had a good flavor.. We passed on the few dessert items as we were over the whole experience. I have a pet peeve about loud music and t.v.s. My problem there. We paid, took the 4 steps to the door. I said thank you. 3 people standing there. I expect at least acknowledgment. Without return guest you will find yourself jobless from a job you hate.. . There is no need to respond to this. Nothing you can say will change our...

Adding this review so that anyone considering making the trip to Blacksmith has the info. We went on a Friday to have lunch on a road trip. We passed a lot of cheap, quick options along the edge of town and headed into the historic downtown. The menu looked great, the reviews were promising, and when we arrived the restaurant itself looked nice and the food smelled great.

It was a busy period for the restaurant and we were informed that the wait for a table for two would be about 35 minutes, but given the option to order in the bar area. We thought that sounded good and sat down at the bar itself. Two other people were there woth drinks and looked to be doing what we hoped to do, waiting for food. No staff were there, so after a bit we checked in with the hostess, who said the bartender was doing double duty as a server. So we asked if we could look at menus while we waited, and went back to the bar.

The menu looked great. We were enjoying being off the road and were initially up for waiting for some good food. Three more people came in and sat down next to us. Then bartender arrived and seemed frazzled. She looked at the five of us and said “I don’t know when I can get back to you all.” The other party then asked if they could have menus, too, and that set off what I can only describe as a temper tantrum.

The bartender slammed down three more menus, five wrapped cutlery sets, and reminded us that she didn’t know when she could get back to us, or when we could order, and then there would be a wait for food. Then she started slamming things around preparing drinks, and it was not only rude but also a bit disturbing. She didn’t make eye contact again, and after looking for other nearby options on our phones, we left. The hostile atmosphere was uncomfortable and didn’t seem promising. I think the two people who had been waiting or food were served and the trio who arrived after us also left.

I get that restaurants are under staffed these days, but we wouldn’t have sat down had we know what a problem that would be. It would have been kinder, and better management practice, just to turn us away at the door. We ended up leaving Jackson and ate pretzels in the car. If you decide to chance a trip to the Blacksmith, may you have better luck...

If you are told there is a wait time of 10-15 minute to be seated inside, be sure up front takes down you name so when you return they don't tell you it's going to be 20-25 minutes wait. I told the new hostess we were told 10-15 minutes by another hostess only 15 minutes ago. She called over the original hostess who rudely said" y'all didn't leave a name so we didn't know y'all were coming back!" To which I responded " How did you not know when we said Okay! We'll be back in 10 or 15...and YOU didn't take a name!" We went back to the car and I called and asked for the manager. Jessica apologized and said they were rearranging some tables to accommodate a large party, and to please give them a couple SECONDS and took my number for a text. 10 minutes later I received a phone call. It was Jessica saying" We've been trying to reach you to let you know your table is ready." And at the same time I received three back to back text ...first &second said the same thing "you've reached the front of the line" and the final one said I was removed from the wait list. We were obviously forgotten! We went inside only to be greeted by the hostess again saying " It's going to be about 20-25 minutes..." I interrupted her" No! Jessica said our table is ready!" We were seated and our order taken. When the order came, one order was wrong! (We were a party of 4) Lexi, our server, was very apologetic and the order was corrected. Because of this, one in our party got to watch the rest of us eat before our food got cold and felt rushed to eat hers because we had plans afterwards. The large party that everyone was so preoccupied with and evidently caused all the confusion was finally seated about 15-20 minutes before we left. And to think this very poor score could've been adverted at any point with a genuine apology and prompt, courteous service! The food was good , at least.( Despite this poor score, we still left a...