black & blue Steak and Crab, Albany, NY — Restaurant in Town of Guilderland

I would like to start off by saying that Black and Blue Steak and Crab has been a favorite restaurant of my mine for special occasions for the past several years.

Tonight, 12-09-22, my wife and I patronized the restaurant for her birthday dinner. We started our dinner with shrimp cocktail and oysters, which were good. A couple of the oysters had large shell pieces (presumably from shucking) that we had to pick out of our mouths. I understand this can happen, so nothing was mentioned to our waitress.

My wife and I both ordered steaks. Mine was a porterhouse, which I ordered medium-rare. We also ordered two sides, a cauliflower gratin and hash browns. There was a rather long period of time that passed between the starter and the dinner, which led me to believe that something happened in the kitchen with our steaks. My suspicions were confirmed when the food came out. Both sides were cool to the touch, meaning that they had sat while the steaks were being prepared/re-cooked? Nothing was said by our waitress regarding the long wait time. Rather than make a fuss, I decided to continue with the meal and make the best of the situation. When I cut into my steak, I immediately noticed that my steak was rare.. blue rare. Cool to the touch. I did say something to the server, who did offer to bring it back up to temp “aka: re-cook it”. After 10 minutes the steak was brought back out and it was cooked to my specified temp.

After eating some of our food, we decided to have the rest packaged to go by our server. I assumed that we would be offered a free desert, or perhaps a beer would be comped from the bill for our trouble. Nothing was done.

I consider myself to be a fair and understanding person, but I also feel that when you pay a premium price for dinner it should be outstanding. This dinner fell short of the mark. A $64 steak should come cooked to temp and I should not have to sit waiting while my wife eats her meal. Sides should be hot when they get to your table. Things like this are simply not acceptable.

I do hope taking the time to write this review catches the eye of someone at the restaurant who can address...

The building is gorgeous and almost brand new built across from stuyvesant plaza on western. An industrial spiral staircase and an impressive glass display of wines in the lobby give a big city luxury feel. On the right is spacious 4-side bar and surrounding booths, I feel like its perfect for happy hour after work.Tonight we sat in the dining room to the left of the main entrance. We started with rare vos (ommegang), juice bomb (sloop), and pretzel bread. Black & blue has the multi-server system like other 5 star restaurants in the area (barnsider looking at you). But where I've found other restaurants multi server system feels dissheveled and blame-shifting, black and blue is without a doubt the best service I've ever had in my life. Our main server Debbie was so knowledgable about where, when, and how the seafood served tonight was caught, and what made each oyster offered different from the next. Our backserver AJ made his role clear as a part of Debbie's team, but was comfortable entertaining us and getting us anything we needed just the same. For an appetizer we got a HALF seafood tower, which is offered but not listed on the menu! And considering the seafood tower is $89 DOLLARS I feel like we should just pause for a second. Lump blue crab, 1/2 Maine lobster, king crab legs, jumbo shrimp, and a sample of the oysters in house, all over ice. Caviar, vinegar, fresh lemon halves and votive-warmed butter all offered for garnishes,. I could've eaten 3 towers of their shrimp (u4/u5) which were SO juicy and all the oysters in the kitchen. The lobster was a bit tough? Maybe it's just the first time I've had lobster over ice? For entrees we had the 60-90 day dry-aged bone-in rib eye done "garlic" (with roasted garlic and a baked potato with sour cream and chives +$11), the roasted half chicken with root vegetables and au jus ($29), a side of 2 scallops ($15.50) mashed potatoes and asparagus, and a full mac and cheese-risotto, three cheese, bread crumbs ($13). Honestly, their food is great quality, but I still don't think Sean cominsky's food is worth those prices. That rib was dry. The mashed potatoes and asparagus...

We celebrated buying our first house by going to Black and Blue for the first time. It took 10 minutes to be greeted in any way by someone who told us he would be helping our server but he refused to take our drink order he only dropped off bread. It was another 14 minutes before we had drinks on our table. Our waitress zipped in and out from our table after that clearing plates but not staying long enough or giving us the opportunity to ask for refills or napkins or anything. At one point we did get a refill order in and the waitress came over to the table next to us while holding our beverages and proceeded to have a 15 min conversation with the table next to us while not dropping our drinks. We were waving her down trying to get her attention but she was wrapped up in the table dressed in suits. Maybe they looked like better tippers but I guarantee we take care of all our service providers. I was so frustrated I got up to go tell the hostess to cancel the drinks and at that moment the waitress followed me over and told me to go back and sit at my table!! With this level of service I could have sworn I was at a Wendy’s however I’ve had better experiences at Wendy’s. The food was phenomenal the steak is to die for here but I will not go back! Someone reached out to me on social media to figure out what went wrong and assured that I would be hearing from a manager, they offered a gift card and I decline because I am genuinely just trying to share my experience I’m not looking for handouts. When I didn’t hear back from the managers I posted here to maybe catch someone’s attention. My partner and I were so happy to celebrate this milestone together and we were quite disappointed that our table was the only table not receiving service in this waitresses section. If I knew her name I’d post it here but she has...