Foods from The Black Thorn Café
Comments

2012 Aug 14
I had a poor dinner experience at Blackthorn and contacted them (poliely!) through their website. I never heard back, so I emailed them last week. No reponse.

It's too bad, because I REALLY love their brunch — the eggs benedict are awesome, and so is the coffee. At this point, I think I am too disappointed by the fact that the restaurant will not respond to me to go back :(

2011 Jul 10
I'd like to be able to post a review of brunch at the Black thorn Cafe but I left without eating after waiting almost an hour and a half. People arriving way later than us (we were a group of 6) were eating before we even got our coffees. After getting up and telling the manager that we were on the verge of walking out, the only thing he could manage to tell us was that ''it takes different times to cook different things''. Our whole table had exactly the same order - eggs and bacon.... They were clearly short on servers but the manager was standing around doing nothing. He offered no apologies and no other reasonable explanation so we left, never to return again.

2009 Aug 13
Stuie86 - Curious... I can't figure out why you just didn't tell the server the issue with the "the toothpicks" upfront, instead of picking them out and eating around them... and then expecting a "discount" on what... your entire meal (which you say was $ 44.44 a lot more than just the Sausage Pasta Entree).

Strange story... the idea that there would be toothpicks throughout the entire tomato sauce and that the server would acknowledge this.

2009 Aug 12
Went to the Black Thorn tonight. I had the sausage pasta, it came with a secret ingredient...tooth picks. There were large pieces of tooth picks spread out through the pasta. Not fun when they poke you in the mouth. I took them out and ate around it, when I told the server about it she said she would try to take it off my bill. In the end they took off $2.60 off my $44.44 bill about 5%, pretty poor in my opinion. I was also shocked when the server then told me they found tooth picks through out the entire tomatoes sauce. Just a warning for anyone thinking of going. Make sure you aren't getting a secret ingredient!

2009 Aug 10
Had lunch here last week. It had been a few years since I had gone to BTC. Ordered the duck spring rolls, they were disappointing. Although the rolls were large and came fresh out of the fryer, the taste was lacking. I expected more. The spring rolls were followed by the shrimp and lobster salad. Although it tasted fine, it wasn't what I had expected. The dish consisted of mixed greens on one side of the plate, with a mayo-laden shrimp and lobster mix in half an avocado on the other side. Neither dishes were that impressive. My friend ordered the mussels. I didn't try one but she said they were good. They looked very fresh and plump to me.

2009 May 27
(Long time reader first time poster)

Went into the Blackthorn today for lunch with a group of people from work. The place wasn't too busy and right from the beginning the server was very nice and welcoming.

I had the soup of the day to start. It was a Curried-Carrot and it arrived promptly and nice and hot. The flavours matched well but overall the soup was missing that extra oomph. Fresh cracked pepper helped raise it up a notch (no pepper on the tables...only on request)

For my main I had the pound of mussels in the coconut-curry sauce. This time it was bang on. A great blending of the tastes and a welcome choice apart from the normal beer, pernot/cream or tomato sauces. Only one down side...our table was served the last of the bread in the restaurant as their bread order "had not arrived yet that day" so I had to ration the bread that was available to soak up the remaining sauce.

Final comment. I had to settle for a Leff Brun to drink cause even though both the table menu and the online menu said they offered the Bellevue Kriek Belgian Lambic that I was looking forward to; when I ordered it I was told that they no longer carried it. A major pet peeve of mine...if you change the menu....change the menu.

Over all...thumbs up though. A great lunch, with good food and friends

2009 May 17
Went here for brunch today on a whim (was freezing my butt off at the tulip festival and needed a warm place to sit) and was pleasantly surprised. Service was friendly and fast which was very important because I had my kiddies with me. All of us including the kids loved our meals. The sausage was excellent and the eggs were cooked perfectly. One of my little guys got the fruit and yogurt plate which also came with a muffin and granola..he was too happy. The price is a bit more than some places but I really felt they had a higher quality food. The only thing I would change is to have real pan fried potatoes. I believe they deep fry theirs...but I could be wrong. Also if you are dining with little ones it was great because we sat in the back room which was pretty loud so we didn't stand out at all :)

2007 Feb 6
My mother always said if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it all all...so I'll start with something positive, the atmosphere. We had the private booth as one of the friends we were dining with is related to one of the kitchen staff (I won't name them, but apparently he wasn't working that night). It was very charming at first and we were really looking forward to a delicious meal, but I feel compelled to share our disaster.

Truly, this was a nightmare dinner. First they mixed up the salad orders that 2 of the 4 of us placed. Not just switching them and serving them to the wrong people, oh no! Completely mixing up the ingredients so both salads were perverted versions of their original. This could have been a happy mistake, but it tasted terrible. The flavors did not blend well.

Next was my main, the Tin House Tenderloin, a $30 entree. I ordered it rare. It came out well done. I sent it back with the servers assurance it would be done correctly, even if he had to do it himself. It came out again. It was medium well. I gave up. The potatoes and vegetables accompanying it was hopeless as well so I just racked it up as "one of those places you will never visit again".

Lastly, b/c we were dining with a relative of an employee, my boyfriend and I felt extremely awkward about complaining in the first place. We thought at least they would make amends at the cashier. This didn't happen. It was the most expensive waste of a meal that I didn't eat to date.

If I had to say something nice, I would only applaud going for the atmosphere and drinks. Best I can come up with.



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2009 May 5
You've got to give a place credit when they put pizza and burgers on their Brunch menu. I had the Texas Pizza, which had a sweet BBQ sauce in lieu of pizza sauce, and chicken breast pieces. The pizza was pretty large for a single-serving, and I did think the thin-crust was a bit soggy. But overall, it was a good pizza. My gf had the bagel and lox (cured salmon fillet), and I'm told it was excellent. They didn't skimp on the salmon.

Service was attentive, and the atmosphere is great. They have a front and back patio, as well as a decent-sized interior.

Worth a visit, in my opinion. I know I'll be going back to see more of the menu.

2008 Apr 7
I decided to stop here on a whim on Saturday morning for brunch. I had a water and eggs benedict ($13), while my friend ordered a caesar ($8.50) and eggs benedict. She was impressed at the preserved beans in the drink, but felt that the price was steep.

The eggs benedict was quite good. It came traditional style, with a salad, home fries and a fruit salad garnished with mint. The ham wasn't your deli sliced ham, but rather as if they'd cut it off a freshly cooked ham. The egg whites looked as though they'd been whipped and tasted a little watery- maybe it's just a different style that I have yet to encounter, as most times it's just hollandaise sauce on top of poached eggs. Anyhow, the eggs were good and runny and the hollandaise sauce was just right. My friend thought it could've been more rich, but I suppose that's more of a subjective opinion!

Service was attentive in the first half, though it dropped off around halfway through the meal. I'd go back... the food was good and the ambiance was nice.




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