Blackstones Steakhouse — Restaurant in Stamford

My two stars is a reflection on the staff not the food. I run a local community group that has about 10,000 people local in Fairfield and Westchester county. A few people I know have raved about the Greenwich location. Having just moved to Stamford I decided to try this local location. I heard they were part of restaurant week, so figured it would be a great opportunity to try the place & see all that they have to offer. My husband and I usually dine at Morton’s in white plains, it’s a favorite of ours but thought this would be great to maybe find a new local place we could start going to. We made a 9:45 reservation. Arrived and were told they had to get a table ready, waited about 20 mins with the hostess walking back and forth rather distraught. She then brings us to a bar table where a group of guys were sitting and asks them to get up, that she was seating at this table. I am normally not picky but we did request a table in the dining room. The bar area is just a different vibe and I was looking to get a different experience during my first time visiting & looking to have a more intimate experience with my husband. We asked the hostess if there was another table available and she shrugged and said I don’t think so. My husband asked to speak to the manager who approached us pretty confrontational stating that no one promised us a table, they can’t do that on a Saturday night. Very confused by his defensive, unnecessary approach I just sat there in disbelief because I’m used to restaurants that try to make sure customers have the best experience. We would have kindly understood a simple, explanation & a manager who tried to see what he could do. They ended up getting a table ready in the dining room. When we entered there were tons of tables that weren’t cleaned off. I understand restaurants are busy especially on Saturday nights but you have to expect and be prepared in some way to have a decent crowd especially when your offering a special menu. We waited a long time for a waiter to come over…the owner did approach our table and my husband explained what had happened upon our entrance. He did apologize but didn’t do anything going forward to ensure we had a better time, which to me was disappointing. The waiter we ended up having was nice. The food was great, though it did have to be heated. I really enjoyed the steak, & thought the food was fresh and nicely prepared. I would give the food a solid 4 stars. The restaurant itself is sleek & has a chill vibe with music playing. Maybe if you go there earlier you could have a nice experience but I don’t think they are prepared to live up to late night reservations. Not sure I would recommend based upon this...

Went to Blackstones Stamford on Valentines Day with an 8:15 reservation. Arrived and were given our drinks and one appetizer after about 45 minutes. The menu wasn’t advertised online as prefix for Valentine’s Day, and was simply their menu with half the options and double the price. After ordering our appetizers and drinks we waited for our steak dish, pasta dish, and two sides. As we waited we were not checked in on by our waiter. At 10:15, we began to realize how late it was getting and started asking the waiter when our food was expected to arrive. He said a few more minutes and we shared that it was getting late and we had been at the restaurant for 2 hours having only eaten one appetizer and our drinks. We waited for 10 more minutes and still didn’t receive our food, so we asked for a check as we both had work the next day and didn’t want our meal at this point. 5 minutes later our entire meal came out and we asked to send it back; obviously not wanting to waste it but spending $200 on a steak dinner at 10:45pm after no service all night was not the way we wanted to spend valentines day. After we asked to send it back and for our check once more, the manager came out with a bottle of champagne, and began pouring it for us telling us how beautiful of a couple we were; essentially just buttering us up so that we didn’t leave unhappy. We kept asking for the check and our waiter came back and said he would comp our appetizers and drinks. Instead of the check finally coming out, our meal came out AGAIN. At this point, we asked the manager if he was planning on comping our meals as we asked multiple times to not have it sent out, and he said that they would give us a dessert and a discount. No thanks! So we got our check from our waiter and we’re not comped on anything, leaving the resteraunt at 10:45 without dinner. Thankfully there was a McDonald’s across the street that we ate at as it was the only thing open at this hour. ALSO, if you scroll down the reviews, you’ll see 10 new reviews the day after Valentine’s Day to drown out the poor reviews that were left- these are definitely fake as they were all posted within 1 hour of eachother. Get it together blackstones- if you’re charging $90 for a filet mignon at least...

The Worst Service I have ever received in a restaurant. Along with a meal that was mediocre. Prejudice staff. Food: The table ordered two burgers, one pasta dish and scallops. The burger lacked flavor but the fries were delicious. The pasta was good and would recommend as well as the scallops. We also ordered from their limited selection of cocktails and it was mediocre. Would just directly order a beer. Service: When entering the host scoffed at not having a reservation for 5 , I offered to leave as I understand it was a last minute request but they mentioned they would fit us in. Walking into the restaurant it was half empty ( due to the pandemic and being a Monday night). When we finally were seated we had to ask for the drink menu 3 times finally receiving it after ordering our meals. We did not receive the bread until after our meal has been served in comparison to the tables around us that received it when they arrived. Once we received our meal and we had not had a single staff check in on us, despite us trying to flag them down. When we finally asked for the check we had to wait an additional 30 minutes for it. As a reminder this was a half empty restaurant on a Monday night. To clarify our waiter ( who was an elderly gentleman ) is the source of this complaint as he has clear prejudice against our group. The reason we I mentioned they had a prejudice staff is the older gentleman was clearly ignoring us and at times you can clearly see he sent over his coworkers to help us. When one of our members asked for an appetizer as a meal ( was not hungry) , the waiter said " really? an appetizer that's all your ordering?" when responding back to that he was not that hungry he responded saying " ok I mean if that's all you can get " and then continues saying "SO is everyone in this table just gonna order appetizers then?". This was him assuming we people of color would not be able to afford the meal.

We ended up tipping at the end of our meal as we knew the service industry is in need now but we know that we would never come back to this...