Blacksticks

I know this restaurant has a history going through phases of good and bad service, whether this is due to changes in staff I’m not sure. However, I thought it was currently going through a good phase so we booked a table on Thursday for Saturday. We booked for 8.30, but I rang on the day to ask if there was any chance they could bring it forward to 7 or 7.30. They said they couldn’t, but they had a table available for 6pm, but needed it back for 8.15. Found this confusing, if they had a table available 6 – 8.15, how come they couldn’t bring the time forward?
They rang back and said if we arrived for 8pm they would seat us as soon as a table became available. We were happy with this and arrived around 8.15.
There was a free table so we thought it had been worth arriving early. We were wrong, we were being seated upstairs, but there were no free tables. I mentioned that we were told if we arrived at 8pm we would be seated earlier if a table was available. The staff said ‘no, that’s not possible, when someone turns up for that table they will then have to wait.’. Explained to them how could that be the case, if we have both booked for 8.30, but we have been told to come for 8, we will both we seated by 8.30!.The girl just walked away, how rude!
At 8.40 there were still no free tables upstairs and no communication from staff. I went downstairs to see if the other table was still free. It had been taken, but a member of staff asked if she could help. Explained the situation to her, she said the owner took my phone call and he meant if our table was free earlier we could eat earlier, even though he said if a table becomes free earlier we will seat you.
We were eventually told the table we booked would not be available at all, the party seated there had still not order desert, we would need to wait for the next available table. We were eventually seated at 8.55!!! We were asked if we booked late? It appears they had squashed in as many people as they could and could not deliver.
Not the service I would expect and the staff upstairs were very rude and unprofessional.
However, the staff who served our table were fine. Won’t be visiting again, will be Smiths I think.

Funky little restaurant on the main road in Monton village, Blacksticks is on the site of the former Bistro 221 restaurant.
I was there recently for a family meal and was impressed by how quickly we got served, we got drinks straight away and then they gave us just the right time to choose from the menu.
I started with a tian of prawn, crab and fennel marmalade which had the ingredients bound together in a cylindrical shape, didn’t know what to expect when I ordered it but was very tasty and not too filling.
For main, I had the pan fried duck which came with greens and a potato rosti, plus I’d ordered some fat chips on the side. The meat was pink and full of flavour and was a very tasty meal.
I was a bit full after that but treated myself to a slice of chocolate cheesecake for afters, and was pleased that was quite light and was a good finish to the meal.
The bill was around £200 for a party of five, that includes a couple of bottles of wine — it might seem a little pricey but it is a really good restaurant, I would definitely recommend it to others…

This is our favourite restaurant, the food, described as modern european is out of this world. The service is equally good. We even had our christmas lunch there!