Black Powder Tavern — Restaurant in Tredyffrin Township

The friday evening my foursome visited the tavern the fully-seated main dining area hosted a live musician (who was quite good). The atmosphere was lively, but not too noisy to have a dinner meeting at a comfortable speaking level. The crowd was a mix of ages and expectations: some there for fine food, others there to celebrate with families and groups of friends with multiple rounds of adult beverages.

The menu bridges "bar food" up to the lower end of "fine dining" fare.

The ingredients are fresh, and favorably comparable to the standards of white tablecloth locavores. The plates are prepared with obvious care and served cheerfully by the staff. The portions are good-to-generous and the flavors are the result of an apparent focus on more than merely satsfying customers.

While not wowed, I was pleased with the seasoning.

Interesting to note that, on this second visit for me, the bar served the same drink to me with different garnish on the second round, and the kitchen sent out one of our four entree plates with the wrong ingredients. The waitress cheerfully apologized for the incorrect entree and it was rapidly replaced. I didn't mention the difference in my two cocktails, but it reinforced that diners should be prepared for such variances on a busy Friday night. Rather than relying on the kitchen or the waitstaff to double check what's presented to you, be ready to check your glass and plate before the staff leave your table. I will return to the tavern, but more likely for brunch or lunch, when I'll expect a less harried, quieter, and more quality-controlled experience. Recommend the salads and seafood items that are featured on the dinner menu. Deserts are definately sharable and, on special occasions, worth the mega calories. Cocktails received mixed reviews with 2 of our parties' 4 different selections missing the mark. Parking is plentiful and immediately adjacent. Probably better at night for groups of friends and families--but not a 1st or 2nd date. Nobody dressed to impress. Plenty of jeans and ball caps. Lots of little...

We hosted a brunch at BPT after our son’s baptism. The pros: initially the event coordinator was great. She answered emails quickly, answered all questions, and seemed to be very accommodating since we were not exactly sure of the number of people that were coming. We were offered the downstairs, bigger room and the room upstairs if needed depending on the numbers. The brunch display was beautiful, the food was good (we received many compliments), and they replenished the buffet when needed. The manager working on the day of the event was fantastic! He checked in on us frequently, and even offered to make me a plate since I was hosting, which was so sweet of him. The cons: the event planner that initially was great ended up over booking or something that day. Instead of being up front about the error she was trying to make it seem as if I had made a mistake. We then ended up having the event in the dining room, they did not seat any one in our section but the bar and all the high top tables right behind us were still open and it was not as private as I wanted. The most annoying part of the entire situation was that instead of moving the other party that they booked over us into the dining room, they put us there. I had booked 4 months in advance, and I know they booked after us because both rooms were open when I signed the contract. The entire situation stressed me out, but it was only 3 weeks before the event, Black Powder Tavern was already on the invitation and I could not find another place so late. The only issue the day of was that one of the servers was rude. She gave one of our guests a hard time about a miscommunication during the drink order and she appeared to be pretty annoyed by the number of kids, that was not a huge deal though, just not something you want to deal with when your trying to host an event. Overall, the day of was good. Personally I would not have another event at BPT just because of my experience, but I am sure the chances of them overbooking again are...

Update 11/08/21 - A return to form.

I never had the opportunity to contact the General Manager who reached out below. I've been traveling on business the past few months and only recently saw their reply. However, given that outreach my wife and I decided to go back to BPT last week.

Excellent - It was an extremely busy dinner service. It appeared their event room was fully occupied in addition to dining room and bar. The service was exemplary. The food fantastic. None of the complaints listed in the 08/09 update below were applicable to our experience last week.

Based on this return to form I think we will be working BPT back into the regular rotation.

Update 08/09/21 -

Since our original review (below) we have worked black powder into our weekly routine. We still very much enjoy the restaurant. The food is very good and the ambience is nice. However, lately we have had several experiences of very poor service. Always with the same waitress. Most recently the waitress never came to check on us after food was delivered. Instead we could see her chatting with other staff and a few patrons she seemed familiar with. Meanwhile we had to flag her down from across the room to get the check - which then took 20 minutes.

Also occasionally the staff will play random hip-hop/pop music very loudly. It seems very contrary to the historic ambience of the restaurant. When it's quiet it is fine, I don't even know what music would fit a building from the 1700s. However, once any music is loud enough to distract from conversation it becomes a problem. Due to poor service issues and loud music I'm reducing to 3 stars.

Original Review - Excellent!

We went at lunch and everything was excellent. The service was fantastic. Our waitress was the bartender and even still we were well taken care of. The restaurant was full which makes the service quality even better in that context.

The food...