black & blue steak and crab

vegetarians not welcome. i was invited to a party at b&b knowing this is ameatand fish place, most restaurants offer options for nonmeat/ fish eaters. black and blue had one vegetarian entree to offer. only other option was to order their "signature" side dishes. these are ruth's cris knock offs and not that good.
the mac and cheese was interesting with rice instead of mac. green beans , at 10 shorties on a plate for $6 is a rip off and i should have sent those back. one of our diners ordered a side of mushrooms which was more than adequate for the $6.00 charge. inconsistent and small portions besides less than friendly vegetarian attitude.

best steak in rochester. i've been coming to black & blue every six months for four years now with my family for "steak night." i've had a lot of steak at a lot of restaurants and i believe that this is the best in rochester. every server there is extremely knowledgeable about various cuts ofmeatand will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have or just describe what your options are. having tried all of the steak on the menu and almost every side, i strongly recommend the wet-aged new york strip special if they're offering it when you're there, or the sirloin if they're not, but nothing you order will be bad. it is expensive, but the atmosphere is nice and makes a good dinner for a special night out.

black indeed. my husband and i thought hard about where we wanted to go to celebrate our 20th anniversary and we settled on going to black & blue for the first time. when we got there, we were impressed with the decor. the atmosphere was loud and curiously lacking of music but lively.

we loved the menu -- so many good things to appeal to both of us. after we ordered, our server bought us small glasses of sparkling wine to celebrate our anniversary -- a nice touch.

the salads (his caesar, mine a green salad)were larger than we'd expect in a fine dining place, but generally nice. i liked the cornbread croutons on mine.

the red meat, which they are known for, is what disappointed us. our server had said that with their 1700-degree oven and signature rub, the exterior would be caramelized, but we could order it without it. we reasoned that a "signature" rub at a steak place would be good. it wasn't. to our taste, themeatwasn't caramelized -- it was burnt. the inside of our meats were cooked properly but the burnt taste overwhelmed the flavor of themeatand the rub (which supposedly had rosemary on it).the meats come with a sauce, served on the side. i chose bearnaise - i can't say i got a good taste of it because that, too, was overwhelmed by the char on the meat. i had grilled broccolini with mine -- again, the charred grilled flavor just added to the overall burnt experience. i also ordered garlic mashed potatoes (my husband asked for blue cheese mashed potatoes which came with another dish, and they accommodated his request). both of us found the flavors to be very mild -- it was hard for me discern garlic and hard for him to discern blue cheese. and the texture was dry rather than creamy.

i had 1/2 pound of crab with mine -- which was half of a crab leg. the crab leg did not arrive with the rest of my meal, which was a disappointment. when it did arrive, it was pre-cracked, but all by itself on a plate -- no butter, fork for getting themeatout, or cracker. a few minutes later, a server arrived with the cracker. i managed to get themeatout (using my napkin to protect my hand from the heat of the shell). it was succulent and delicious. it's the one thing that could get me to return.

we did not order dessert (we walked to the coldstone creamery a few doors down). they gave us a couple of chocolate truffles at the end, which were good.

for well over $100 for the meal, i expected better. i probably won't return.

carcinogenic steak! yikes. this is a very classy looking place. i was unaware of the 1700 degree oven used to char the steak hinted at in their name "black and blue". however, for years i have heard that charredmeatmay lead to cancer, pancreatic cancer specifically. google "charredmeatcancer". there's lots of evidence that there's something to it. i would not subject myself to this risk again. prices were on the high side as well.

addedum. oh, and it's not in corn hill, but in pittsford.


-----11 sep, 2008-----

mixed, but on the whole a positive experience. some all-too-rare but welcome, nice touches (like warm bread rolls, warm plates and sizzling hot steak-skillet presentation) in this self-consciously chic place. located in an upscale strip mall, the interior is certainly not as one would expect...in a good way...from a strip mall restaurant. good wine list at acceptable prices. the ribeye was done as requested and, with the garlic mashed potatoes, worth the visit. stay away from the cornbread croutons which are far too sweet and have the wrong texture for a salad. though the salad greens themselves were good, the salad dressing could not really make up its mind what it wanted to be. a note of caution would be too go easy on the steak sauces...themeatis better (and better cooked) without them.