Blackbird Dining Establishment

We were not offered the option of bottled water
Never sent bread and servers seemed
Totally overwhelmed and confused
Food was mediocre at best not worth the confusion
Saving grace were the desserts!
Lemon cheesecake and pumpkin sponge were very good !

I was having dinner with a friend who made the reservations. Neither of us knew it was restaurant week until he made the reservations. I thought the interior was nice — a bit confusing because there are actually 2 restaurants in one space, separated by a wall.
Our waitress was attentive and courteous as well. She explained a bit about the menu and left us to talk and make our decisions.
The RW menu had 4 courses. Appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert. Turned out my friend and I got the same things except dessert.
We had the handmade capellini with tomato compote, fresh herbs, and shaved Parmesan. It was very good. The pasta was served al dente, the compote was flavorful and the fresh herbs helped the dish quite nicely.
Then we had the farmers green salad with bacon, which had spinach, Granny Smith apple, dried cranberry, candied walnuts and Gorgonzola with a nice creamy dressing. Very delicious.
Then for the entrée we had braised beef short ribs with potato purée and au jus. The potatoes were a bit too salty and could have been slightly creamier. The short ribs were good — just the way they should be: kind of fatty. The entrée was also a bit small for me — but, it is dinner for $ 35 and they had 4 courses.
For dessert my friend had the flourless chocolate cake with a berry compote, and I had the bread pudding with walnuts, cranberries and salted caramel sauce. It was delicious — warm, sweet but not too sweet. I really enjoyed it — especially with the cappuccino.
Overall it was a very nice meal and I would certainly return.

Probably one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had, I was extremely disappointed
And to make it worse, I was the one that arranged the dinner for the meetup group I run for people new to the area/​I am responsible for showing them around and doing my due diligence researching places so I felt quite embarrassed forcing 15 people to endure this terrible dining experience
It was a mid-​week/​6pm dinner reservation (I specifically choose off times because we are such a large party)
We’re the only people in the entire restaurant and the night started off great with our fantastic staff who set out special champagne flutes since I had called ahead and explained we were doing a champagne tasting for my group and they were very helpful and courteous and accommodating
We order our food and find out the soup of the day is 86’d…its 6pm and they have already run out of soup so the substitute was actually the side of lentils that came with another dish (not really a fair sub in my opinion)
and then we wait… and wait
Our servers finally say someone got sent to the hospital because they cut themselves and they’re super busy next door (I go to the bathroom and peek – only 2 tables… slammed…I’m sure)
Mind you this was just our appetizers! Even if there was only a bus boy back there he could make some salads in under 2 hrs
And then my friend’s chicken on her salad was raw, so they took it back and then just re-​fired the same two pieces that she had cut into (thankfully to check it was cooked) so it was all dried up and chewy and when she explained this to the server they looked at her oddly – I’m sorry you make a new piece of chicken and toss what you served and give her a new salad since you placed RAW chicken on a bed of greens (mind you its a $ 14 salad) I expect better from a restaurant of this caliber
So with the subpar food that came out after hours of waiting – we called it and asked for the check because at 9pm I was starving and was not in the mood to wait for more food to come out hours later that was not well executed and extremely overpriced
There are far better options in Collingswood and Philly, save your $$

I live in Collingswood and have dined at most of the restaurants and have a great dining experience at most. I recently eat at Blackbird and was completely unimpressed. The service was subpar and the food was terrible. My crab cake had 4 pieces of lump crab and the rest filler. My salmon was awful and obviously not fresh.
There are multiple dining options in Collingswood that are great. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM! I would highly reccomend Joe Pesce, Zeppoli, Sappori and Nunzio.

Great byob right off the collingswood patco stop. TUNA TARTAR IS AMAZING.

Wow… What happened here? We came with such high hopes. Maybe it was due to the stormy night? Wow, a nightmare of a meal, which was inedible. It was Restaurant week, no open menu just a tasting menu was offered.
Started with the Mussels Tasty, small Morsels with some added grit to really add to the appetizer.
We then had the Fried Oysters which was two nicely prepared oysters with some Ginger and what we think was an Avocado purée.
The meal took a drastic down turn. I received the Short Ribs which were served over Mashed Potatoes, Seared Asparagus (best part of the meal) however, the meat was tasteless and bland.
Lips ordered the Tilapia. Holy Cow what a poorly executed plate. The Fish was breaded, put on top of we think Soba Noodles swimming is a sweet mess of a broth. The breaded fish because it was on top of this sweet broth and terrible noodles absorbed the moisture and became a spongy limp piece inedible flesh.
Ok so 2 of 3 of the courses were horrid. Lets try dessert! We’ll have the bread pudding please. The server (who was very nice) placed two plates of what we thought looked like a dog pooped on a plate. A total disaster. Bread Pudding is pretty easy. This overtly sweet mass of cheap tasting Halloween Candy almost seemed like the «Chef» drizzled Hershy Syrup on top of this Dog Crap. One small taste and we both kind of looked at one another. No, we can not eat this.
Ok, check please. We have had enough. The Waitress was kind enough to remove one of the entrees. «yes, it seemed like it had too much broth.»
Thanks, I had next to nothing to eat, Lips did eat the Short Ribs to stave of starvation.
Many enjoyed the BlackBird, Many recommended a visit. Ouch, this sucked. So, disappointed, so hungry. Pass the Pretzels.

Yeah– it’s not quite a 5-​star restaurant, but South Jersey is an Italian neighborhood so you’re gonna get some critics– am I right?
Loved the panko fried oysters with avacado as an appetizer along with a pretty good onion soup (go to Quebec for REALLY good onion soup!) The battered Tilapia was quite good, and, yeah, there’s too much food. You role out of there. Wife had the Truffled risotto with wild mushrooms and liked it enough that she wouldn’t let me have more than one little bite. We both had the brioche for desert.
So Blackbird stays on our short list for when we don’t feel like driving into the city.

BEST OF PHILLY GNOCCHI IS RIGHT ON!
It was so good! I really enjoyed Black Bird. The price was decent, the waiter attentive and the food amazing. I have a gnocchi obsession and these were seriously the best I have ever had. Little potatoy pillows of perfection! I also really enjoyed the sauce they were in.
I wouldn’t call Blackbird «upscale» it’s not Denny’s but it’s no Chop House either. It’s a nice semi casual dining experience in SoJo.

Really good! Portions appear small, but are actually very filling. Perhaps a little expensive for what you get regarding food, but the ambiance makes it worth it. I would go here again.

I’ll preface this review by saying, if you’re not satisfied with the portions at blackbird, you probably need to quit eating so much.
We tried the romaine salad, gnocchi, and lamb with potato goat cheese ravioli. every dish was well balanced and delicious. Although the gnocchi were GREAT, they were not the best i ever had. Since i make them myself I’m a gnocchi snob.
The portion sizes are actually perfect, you don’t leave feeling like a stuffed pig. As one reviewer suggested, I am not «starved for high end restaurants» I live 14 miles from the city, we all do, get over yourself! This food is just good. I damn well near licked my plate.
They lost a star for not asking which restaurant I wanted to dine in upon reservation (supposed to be west side gravy-​best mistake ever!) and for not giving us one of the 5 ice buckets next to my table for my white wine.
Rod was an excellent server, but the hostess was a tad ungracious.
We’re trying west side next week!

I don’t get the hype. Are people in South Jersey so starved for an «upscale» dining experience that they actually think this is it?
The first thing we noticed upon being seated was the noise. Perhaps we dined on an especially rowdy night, but the noise level rivaled that of the Pop Shop during Sunday morning breakfast. But… I could deal.
I ordered the Pan Seared Sea Bass with roasted red pepper risotto. My husband ordered Chicken Leg Confit with choucroute and pomme purée. By now we were convinced that this was one of those restaurants that serves you a carrot slice carved to look like a crane atop a half-​ounce piece of meat and lettuce leaf and calls it a gourmet meal.
Without too long a wait, our entrees came out. We were partially right about our assumption. A huge white plate housed small portions but with only mediocre presentation. No fancy carrot cranes here.
The chicken dish sounded far more pretentious than it deserved. An overly-​salted chicken leg sat atop a scoop of mashed potatoes and some peas in a lake of gravy. The chicken had no real flavor apart from SALT. I don’t even know how you’d get chicken that salty. It tasted like it had been sitting in brine for days. I’d also like to comment that in our house, we don’t appreciate culinary pretenses. If you’re going to serve mashed potatoes, call them mashed potatoes. Slapping a fancy French name on them doesn’t give you license to charge twice as much. I enjoyed the choucroute, though. I’m not a fan of sauerkraut, but this was sweet and mild.
My sea bass was edible, if a little undercooked. The risotto, to be fair, had a fabulous flavor. By far the greatest food of the night. Only problem, it was positively swimming in oil and butter. I felt the consequences of that later in the night while I suffered terrible indigestion. Despite the small portions, neither of us finished our meals. Needless to say, we weren’t impressed with our dinners or the overpriced bill.
I won’t even get into the rude service we had.
After paying our check, we left unhappy and un-​sated. I wouldn’t call Blackbird our worst dining experience in Collingswood (*cough cough* Inde Blue *cough cough*) but it takes second place. A shame, really, because its sister restaurant West Side Gravy is charming and tasty (though that too suffers its own problems).

If it were socially acceptable, I’d do naughty things to their pan roasted tenderloin of veal dish. I mean it’s about to get weird. Wait, what?!?
I heard about Blackbird via one of the ‘Best of South Jersey’ lists put out by South Jersey magazine. Four golden forks … check. Food sounds top notch … check. In-​laws are in town so there’s a good probability that I’m not paying … check.
First impression; this place is hard to spot. I’ve actually been unsuccessful while trying to find it over the past year. This is every time I’m driving down Haddon Avenue though; so it might not be a fair statement. Our reservations were actually on the night of the ‘hurricane’. Everyone must have stayed home that evening as there were only several people in the restaurant, which means I can’t comment on wait times, volume, service, etc.
Anyway, let’s talk turkey. I was actually able to try a good portion of the dinner menu during one sitting. I’ll give you my impression of each.
Appetizers
1. Thai chicken spring rolls, spicy, mustard, sweet chili sauce — $ 11
a. Disappointing. Overpriced. Missing the mark.
b. You only get four very, very thin rolls.
c. Sauces are excellent. But why such a plethora of sauce for so little substance? You’re teasing me Blackbird. I want to go nuts and start dunking like Shaquille O’Neal. Appease me.
2. Tuna Tartar, pickled ginger, green onions, Miso dressing — $ 11
a. Impressive. Reasonable price.
b. Great presentation.
c. Worthy of your appetizer selection if you’re only getting one.
3. Prince Edward Island Mussels, fresh herbs, natural jus — $ 11
a. Excellent. Worth the money …
b. Although I feel like you’d have to try to mess up mussels.
b. All the more reason why an equivalent price for the spring rolls is out of whack.
Entrees
1. Pan roasted tenderloin of veal, fricassee of morel mushrooms and asparagus, sherry cream — $ 28
a. S-​W-​E-​E-​T J-​E-​S-​U-​S. I’m no culinary expert, but I think I just found religion. I’m six to midnight.
b. Veal cooked to medium perfection. It’s like butter in your mouth.
c. Small crunchy asparagus cylinders.
d. Throw in the mushrooms and sauce … this dish is tight.
2. Pan seared loin of lamb, baby arugula, pine nuts, golden raisins, parmesan, fresh squeezed lemon, tarragon essence — $ 27
a. This is taking 2^nd place behind the veal dish.
b. There’s a lot going on and you’ll love every bit of it. Lots of flavors.
c. The lemon brings everything together.
3. Imported orecchiette, sweet Italian sausage, slow cooked tomatoes, broccoli rabe and parmesan cheese — $ 24
a. A very good pasta dish. You’ll eat the leftovers as soon as you get home on the couch; assuming any make it out of the restaurant.
b. Pasta cooked perfectly. Al dente.
c. Good sauce. Like the broccoli rabe but could have dealt with less.
Overall I was impressed. I think the food is slightly over priced. Not a lot; I mean your meal will be solid and you can never go wrong with a BYOB. But in my mind I’m thinking about and comparing another top notch place, which I’ll be reviewing soon. Regardless, the veal dish had me at hello. I will return.

One of my South Jersey favs. The food is delicious, but the service is inconsistent, so 4 stars.
BYOB– don’t forget to bring your fav bottle!
People rave about the gnocci. It is delicous, but I think by far the best app here is the tuna tartar. Its a little different, with big chunks of tuna, instead of the minced tuna pieces, but I think this is what makes it a stand-​out dish. Order it, you won’t be disappointed.
The fish dishes are ALWAYS excellent, mostly because they know how to cook fish properly. Ask for a half portion of any pasta dish as an app. Good home-​made pasta, not the best I’ve ever had (I give that award to Arugula in Washington Twp) but the sauces are always incredible.
Though the service is inconsistent, its never awful. They share wait staff between their other restaurant West Side Gravy and it shows. But we never have a bad time here. Always a good night out.

I was so excited when Blackbird moved to Haddon Ave. in Collingswood, since I’m a big fan of walking to dinner from my house.
I came here with my husband and mom (she was in town from MN) and was SO excited to introduce her to one of the many amazing little restaurants in my little town… but sad to say we were not WOW’d.
Our waiter forgot about us at first, so we had to wait quite awhile to wait for our wine glasses to arrive. And to top it off our wine was OPEN… so we were JUST about to start passing the bottle around, when I was finally able to flag someone down.
Our food was only so-​so. I ordered the lamb, my mom ordered the veal, both were only ok. Both cuts of meat were decent, but not great, they were cooked perfectly, however, there was NO flavor. Thank goodness for the fresh thyme on top so at least I could sprinkle that over my meat.
My husband had the gnocchi, which was too potato-y…and the sauce had lots of basil, but again, not enough other flavors to blend it all in.
I guess we’ll come back and give it another try… it was GOOD, just not great.

Our first return to Blackbird since they moved to Haddon Ave. The atmosphere is not as good as the more quiet intimate surroundings this establishment had on Collings Ave. And the service on this particular occasion was poor to middle at best. The menu can use some freshening up and we found the food last Saturday to be just OK. The sea bass special was the best part of the meal. I see a lot of really good reviews at Unilocal for Blackbird and have to add that I have dined there at least 10x over the past few years. I guess I was left with simply expecting more.
The new location is loud and shares the space with another restaurant. I can take the noise — but expect an excellent food experience in return.

Good stuff. Much publicized gnocchi were very good. Mussels which were a special were cooked just right. Salmon entrée cooked perfectly and excellent. Linguine in porcini sauce worked well.
Noise level on Saturday night was staggering; my only complaint along with really weak dessert.
Will return and avoid the weekend noise.

We came here unaware that it was Farm to Fork week in South Jersey. Score! The four-​course menu was an awesome deal.
Best gnocchi I’ve ever had, hands down. I hate how other restaurants serve huge, tasteless pieces with a standard cream sauce– hello, the sauce is neutralized by the gnocchi! Blackbird’s was the complete opposite of that: small, delicate pieces that melted in your mouth, complete with a creamy tomato and basil sauce. OMFG.
Course two was the raw scallop with avocado. This one didn’t tickle my fancy as much. I’m not really a fan of avocado, but it was surprisingly okay… but the scallop paired with it tasted a little funky. Just my thought.
Now, for the main course! Pan-​roasted salmon with potatoes, artichokes, olives, and peas. The salmon was roasted perfectly, with the skin crispy. My kinda salmon!
For dessert, I opted for the chocolate zucchini cake. I didn’t really taste the zucchini, but the cake was moist and not too sweet. Big plus.
Mmm…if they paired the gnocchi with the salmon, I think I would wet myself.

The Gnocchi dish alone is good enough for 5 stars and it’s not from being starved talking. My friends and I came here on a Sunday night at 8:30pm, of course starving and ready to devour a whole cow. Looked at the menu, 4 courses for $ 35. We looked at each other a bit confused thinking this is the BEST deal or we’re delirious. We found out from the waiter that it was the South Jersey Farm to Fork week, we were so happy and proceeded to order as much as we could off the menu.
All 4 of us started with the Gnocchi and mozzarella in tomato cream sauce. The gnocchi just melts in your mouth and the bite size is perfect without making the eater feel stuffed from potato and breading. We ate everything and licked the bowl. I’m not a huge gnocchi fan and I loved it. For my later courses I ordered the crudo scallop over a bed of avocado salad and pan seared salmon in pesto sauce with potatoes and spinach. The salmon was cooked perfectly, pink and slightly raw in the middle with a crunchy salmon skin. I couldn’t stop eating, seriously. We literally carried our stomachs out. The waiters are friendly and attentive here. Definitely a cute restaurant to bring friends. Probably not a date, unless you like telling everyone in the restaurant about personal things.

Any nay sayer who thinks you can’t find a good restaurant out of city limits has obviously not been to Blackbird! Blackbird is a decent sized, yet comfortable spot on the edge of Collingswood. It’s painted in warm tones and features glass windows overlooking the main street, which provided a great view of the falling snow this past Saturday.
Rather than order individual entrees, our table of four decided to order numerous items off the menu and share them, family style. We each started with a salad. I had the Blackbird Romaine Salad. It was dressed with the most delicious creamy lemon parmesan dressing and topped with a parmesan crisp.
Next, we all shared the three homemade pasta dishes — the potato gnocchi with fresh mozzarella, tomato and basil sauce; linguini with wild mushroom porcini sauce; and finally the polenta ravioli with white anchovy sauce. While they are all wonderful, the linguini with porcini sauce is where it’s at! The rich, flavor-​packed sauce coupled with the fresh linguini was out of this world. While my arteries were crying, my taste buds were singing! Also of note, the gnocchi were unbelievably light and delicate.
For our entrees, we shared the rack of lamb with smoked mozzarella risotto, the crispy duck confit and a special for the night — seared yellow fin tuna with fried rice. I did not try the lamb but the duck was bursting with flavor, though lacking crispiness. The tuna was cooked to perfection and was very tender though the accompanying fried rice was salty.
For dessert, the clear winners were the Chocolate 3-​Ways, especially the warm chocolate cake, and the ginger orange cake.
Service was very attentive and informative. We were also visited several times by the chef, but that may have been due to our VIP dining companion.
Blackbird has definitely earned a spot on the «must visit again» list!

My mom and I returned for another lunch at Blackbird on Friday afternoon, just before Labor Day weekend. The restaurant was empty, with the exception of our table. Our server put our wine on ice and ran through the specials. He filled our water glasses, returned to take our order and headed back to the kitchen… all the while, our unopened bottle of wine sat taunting us from the ice bucket. When our server reappeared and said he was going to get us some bread, my mom decided to speak up about the wine. All was well once the cork was released and the glasses were filled!
To start, my mom had the romaine salad with creamy lemon dressing and a parmesan crisp. It was very good and the perfect size. I opted for the soup du jour, a carrot ginger concoction that was delicious down to the last spoonful, which I obtained by tipping the bowl (that’s the nice thing about having the restaurant all to yourself; no one is watching!).
For our meal, we both opted for the smaller portion of gnocchi, which recently won a Philadelphia Magazine «best of» award. The gnocchi was not the thumb-​sized variety that I’ve had in other restaurants. It was smaller and paired well with equally sized bits of fresh mozzarella. The tomato-​based sauce was very rich and shreds of a bitey cheese were scattered atop the dish. The smaller sized portion was perfect for lunch and is something I would definitely recommend.
We passed on dessert and lingered over our remaining wine instead. I am once again looking forward to next time.