Blackbird Tavern — Restaurant in Temecula

We had dinner at the Blackbird Tavern last night, and we will not be returning to this restaurant. The good things about this restaurant were the short rib fries appetizer and the bacon sour cocktail- my husband really enjoyed the cocktail! Now for the unenjoyable- our order was incorrect, as I requested no feta cheese on my flatbread and the flatbread came out with feta cheese. It was not too much of an issue, as I informed our waiter. He offered to have them remake it, and I declined, telling him that instead he is welcome to take it back and that I would take the Korean potstickers instead. When the potstickers are brought out, mind you, after an incorrect order, they were completely burnt! Black, charred, burnt. At this point I am starving, so I eat the potstickers that are the least burnt, and try to scrape off the black charred crust. Still I left several potstickers on my plate. The waiter asked about them when he came to clear some plates off of the table, and I informed him that they were burnt, but that I was able to salvage a few of them to eat. After our dinner was finished, the restaurant had transformed into a nightclub at this point. I am 6 months pregnant, and on our way out of the restaurant, we stopped at the restrooms. At this point I had to use the restroom badly. There was quite a line for the women’s restroom, and after my husband used the restroom he noticed that the men’s restroom was completely empty. He offered to watch the door while I quickly used the men’s restroom before we left. As I walk toward the men’s restroom, the bouncer outside banged on the window and rudely told me that I cannot use the restroom. My husband explained that I was pregnant and that we were leaving the restaurant, but that I needed to use the restroom badly, yet there was a line for the women’s restroom and the men’s was empty. The bouncer still denied me access to the restroom. So I waited for the women’s line, uncomfortably. After I used the restroom, we left, and we will not be returning. This was a very unsatisfactory dining experience, coupled with the rudeness of the bouncer not allowing me to use the restroom. I do not recommend this establishment. There are many other, much better, and much more friendly establishments for dining in Old...

TL;DR - Blackbird Tavern management/owners didn't like a critical review, didn't contact me about it directly, but went to my boss' wife to pressure me to remove it. I didn't, I don't work there any more because reasons, so now you can read the whole story.

An update to my previous review - here's the background in condensed form:

I visited Blackbird as part of a company party. We were a group of 50, and had made reservations ahead of time. We booked for 3-5pm on a weekday. When we got there, the staff herded us into a corner of the patio, and was rude when some of our group wandered outside our assigned area and sat at other than the designated picnic tables in order to get out of the sun.

The staff went as far as to move purses/coats left sitting in the Forbidden Area without asking, and taped quickly-printed "RESERVED FOR DINNER GUESTS ONLY!!!" pieces of paper to the tables they wanted to save for the non-existent dinner patrons in the empty restaurant populated only by a half-dozen regulars at the bar, and our party.

In response, I posted a two-star review, and because I don't think it's fair to throw shade on a business without letting them know why, and give them a chance to at least respond, I also sent detailed feedback through their website explaining what had happened and why I felt the staff had been unpleasant. I left my contact information as well, so that they could respond directly if they chose to do so.

Instead of contacting me, the management (one of the owners, if I remember correctly) did the tiny amount of detective work required to figure out who had made the reservation, and complained about the negative review to my boss' wife who had organized the event. She texted me in a state of concern about "how this reflects badly on the company," despite the fact that the only people who could possibly even know what company it was were the owners and staff of Blackbird Tavern.

So my recommendation is to avoid booking any events with Blackbird Tavern, based on my experience with the staff, but especially due to the vindictive reaction of the management/owners to a...

We came here with some friends on a Saturday night around 8pm due to their recommendation and experience the weekend before. We were planning on sitting at the bar but that area was packed so we decided to go stand out by the fire pits until the bar cleared. It started raining so we went in and decided to get a table instead of sitting at the bar. We sat there for a good 30 minutes with none of the staff acknowledging that we were even there, despite being seated by someone. We tried to flag someone down but were ignored. The place wasn't incredibly busy, and everyone at the tables around us was being served so it was a bit frustrating and a bit surprising since everytime someone who worked there passed by our table was empty. Someone from our group mentioned that the previous weekend they were there and the place was packed and they were served with no problem, so it was strange that no one had even come to ask us anything. We waited a couple more minutes and decided to leave. As we were leaving, one of our group decided to tell the girl at the front about what had happened and she apologized and asked if we'd like to be seated again. We decided not to, since we had already been there for a while and then went outside to wait while another person from our group used the restroom. Another employee came out and apologized and asked again if we'd like to be seated again, but again, we decided not to. She apologized again and said she'd let the manager know what happened. The decor and atmosphere seemed really cool, but the service was non existent. Not sure if we'll come here again. I gave 2 stars due to the appearance of the place and also that once they realized we were having an issue they did try to make it...