Black Market Liquor Bar

@chefantonia has made an incredible restaurant experience with this place! My wife and I are currently on a west coast road trip for our honeymoon and my wife’s one demand was that we come to one of Antonia’s restaurants since she loves her! Our server was Amber who was extremely attentive, sweet and worked hard to make our time here amazing. The food and drinks were incredible and we definitely tried several things because we couldn’t decide! 1. Dill chips with a malt vinegar aioli was amazing 2. Korean wings were amazing and had such a good cucumber kimchi 3. Ricotta Gnudi with brown butter…..omg best thing we ever ate! 4. Cavatelli was super tasty and rich 5. Skirt Steak was delicious and tender 6. Lobster roll was good! Not my thing but my wife loved it 😊 7. Chocolate crème brûlée was so good and couldn’t stop eating it 8. Churros with caramel sauce were perfect and filling. We also loved the atmosphere, good music and healthy chatter of other guests really gave this place a lively feel 💚💚 I appreciate this team making my wife’s experience go beyond her expectations! I had an amazing time as well 😍

TLDR: Good food. Okay service. I'll start with the good 😊 My husband and I have come here quite a bit throughout the years and have attended a handful of the special events they've put together. They had a rum event where they paired dishes with a variety of rum tastings. It was a great date night and nights like that will keep us coming back. I also remember a delicious to-go Valentine's box during covid that was so thoughtful and delicious. We have enjoyed tasting every dish we've been able to try. A couple of our favorites have been the smoked trout on ciabatta and the ricotta gnudi. The smoked trout is craveable. We like it as a starter or if we're still feeling hungry after a few other dishes. It's not too heavy and the balance between the flavors and textures is really nice. The ricotta gnudi however, is sooo rich and satisfying after a few bites, making it a very decadent and shareable plate. It's probably too much for only two people but we still eat all five pieces and only feel a little guilty after. I give 5 out of 5 stars for the food here. With that being said, we recently went to try Antonia's winning dishes from ToC. We ordered both dishes and felt like they were probably better when Antonia made them but they were still worth ordering. The sausage didn't have a great texture and both dishes needed salt but overall, they weren't bad and I'm happy we tried them. Where I think they fall a little short is in customer service and possibly staffing. We have had a couple of good interactions but on the norm, it seems like they are understaffed in areas. This is the reason I'm giving 4 stars vs 5. Well, that and because we'll often book a reservation online but when we show up, we have unfortunately been seated at the worst tables. It's usually the smallest table they have and in a very noisy location. Maybe we have had bad luck. Maybe it's because we're two small people without a dog, so they cram us into the smallest spot they have? This last visit, we were lead to an indoor table that was sandwiched between two large groups. On one side, our table was about an inch away from someone's back. On the other side, there was a group of about 12 girls having a bachelorette party and scream laughing. We just knew it would be hard to have a conversation there, so we asked about seating outside. They accommodated us by seating us at maybe the next worst table haha. It was just outside the front door but we knew it would be 100% better than where we were and we appreciate them moving us. I guess the point to that story is, be vocal on where you want to sit. Also, your chances of getting a good table seems to increase if you bring your dog, which is unfortunate but it is what it is. As far as parking goes, it's a little hard to find a spot but they offer valet. The area around the restaurant is super cute if you want to walk around a bit before or after your meal. I recommend checking out Color Me Mine just down the street for a nice date night with crafts.

Absolutely fabulous dining experience— food, service and ambience. Recommend having a reservation. We (3) tried multiple dishes: Lamb Chops, Hamachi, Scallops, Skirt steak, Shrimp, Meatballs and Flan. Each of them resulted in sensory explosion in mouth and then in the brain.😊 Lamb chops were one of the best— perfectly cooked (medium rare as we had asked). Had nice char outside, inside meat was tender, and meat was surprisingly at even temperature inside when eating. Skirt steak was cooked so perfectly. One of the difficult cut to cook for tenderness. They took some time to serve it, but the wait was well worth it. Scallops were really tender and were much larger in size than usually you get in good restaurants. The sauce with a bit spicy oil was a nice touch. For the shrimp, we were initially perplexed, because couldn’t see the shrimp.😁 But when we took a mouthful from the dish the shrimp was there. The Jalapeño slivers gave a surprise heat in the ceviche like sauce and texture. Hamachi dish would have been a star item in any other good restaurant, but it took a backseat for us with other candidates above. It got an extra ⭐️ for presentaion that included a sprinkle of black sesame seeds. Meatballs, even though a generic dish, held its own. Meatballs were one of the best we had— it tasted good even after reheating 2 days later. Yes, we had to box a meatball, 😊 to try their Flan. Overall, we’re not disappointed at all, based on what we expected from one of the Top Chef cooking show competitors.

Black Market hosted a pop-up for Fuil Wines on a Sunday. We knew we lliked Black Market's dinner fare but didn't know what to expect on a Sunday afternoon. We were all pleasantly surprised with amazing snack size dishes. The best part was the chefs made sure the foods paired well with the Fuil wines being poured. It was a match made in Wino heaven. We are looking forward to the next monthly pop up.