Blackfinn Ameripub

decent sized bar!

Blackfinn Ameripub is a place that I have been wanting to try since it opened. Though it has not been open for too long, it's already gotten decent reviews on Yelp. I also did not realize that they are part of the Blackfinn restaurant family that is in DC. Yes, I experienced my "living under a rock moment for the day". But I was able to move on, once I finally got the chance to eat here.

My boyfriend and I came to Blackfinn on a Sunday evening in October. With Sunday Night Football and the RedSox playing, needless to say, Blackfinn was busy. The bar area was packed. I will say that their bar is a decent size; plenty of space to enjoy the game. Blackfinn also offers the Beer Towers that you can order with a group of people (really hope no one is out there working on this tower on their own...) with deals especially made for game days. Thougbh it was busy, my boyfriend and I were seated quickly and had a good spot in the restaurant area facing the games that we were interested in. Decent sized beer and wine list with a mix of local beers on tap as well as different bottled beers. I had the Star Hill Pumpkin Porter and the boyfriend had the Devil's Backbone. I was not a fan of the porter, I made the rookie mistake of not realizing it would be a really dark beer, which I am not partial to but I drank it. There are worst things and I wasn't about to waste the beer. My boyfriend enjoyed his beer of choice.

Blackfinn Ameripub is a good representation of how Amurica is a melting pot, in terms of the food. One look of the menu and you can quickly see food from different parts of the country. The options range from typical bar food, to Asian inspired dishes, Jambalya, burgers, and good ole' comfort food. It's an extensive menu too and we definitely took a few minutes to look over it. After the initial panic of what are we going to order subsided, we decided on the following: Mac and Cheese with Pulled Pork BBQ for me and Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf for the boyfriend. Ohh my goodness. The chefs at Blackfinn know what's up. We basically ordered comfort food which they brought to the next level. I mean Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf?? The meatloaf itself is good, comes out moist and full of flavor. But the bacon just brought the dish to a whole other level. With collard greens and mashed potatoes, my boyfriend was pleased. The Mac and Cheese is so rich and the iron skillet it comes in is deceiving. It does not look like a heavy dish but everything they put into the Mac and Cheese and you get stuffed. It's not just mad and cheese. It's mac and cheese and peppers and bacon, If that's not enough, there's the Pulled Pork on top- so good. You do get to choose between chicken or pork, I definitely recommend the pulled pork.

Service was good the whole night. Even though they were busy, we saw our waiter and he checked on us many times throughout our dining experience. It's a fun spot and welcome addition to Merrifield.

This is an update to my previous review. A couple hours later my boyfriend (who had given his number to the restaurant so they could text us when a table was ready) received a call from the General Manager apologizing for our experience. I also received a reply today to my early post from the Manager.

I appreciate that we were actually heard and I hope that they will learn from this experience. The fact that they are taking the time to reach out to us is why I have updated their rating to 3 stars. Any place that is willing to go above and beyond to make a bad situation better is okay in my book.

We just moved to this area and are still interested in eating here one day. We will give it another try.

So it may be pointless for me to update my review with the same star rating but I'll explain why I'm doing it. After attending a Yelp Elite event here I was really impressed by the food and attentiveness of the staff. They gave us a coupon for a complimentary flatbread so we had incentive to return. My husband and I probably made the mistake of coming on Friday night at dinnertime. We had to wait 20 minutes--which was totally understandable. I liked that they just offered to text us when our table was ready so that we could leave and walk around a little.

Our second experience was A-OK. We shared the buffalo chicken flatbread which was as yummy as I remember it being from the Yelp event. He got the ahi tuna sandwich and I got the ahi tuna salad. We both thought that our meals were OK--maybe not quite worth the $15 each price tag.

Our waitress was good about taking our orders, checking on our food, and refilling drinks. But, overall, we thought things felt super rushed and could have been a tad friendlier. I totally get that it was a busy night and that almost all of the tables were full, so maybe we just keep coming at bad times of the day.

Overall, I'd still come back for drinks and the flatbread. I keep forgetting about that $10 beer and burger deals sign that I mentioned in my previous review. We'll probably come back for that. Anyways, since my first review was really closer to 2.5 stars, I'm giving them the full 3 stars this time and saying they are A-OK.