Bye Bye Blackbird: Brutal Review From Globe's Gill

Yikes. Seems Alexandra Gill's brief hiatus into cheery praise-packed restaurant reviews is well and truly over. To quote Elton John, the bitch is back - and she's packing a freshly-sharpened Sabatier knife - all the better to carve up the Donnelly's Blackbird. Gill sets out her stall immediately: "the Blackbird bistro is horrible. My first meal there was easily one of the worst dining experiences I've had in nearly 10 years of reviewing restaurants."

And then the evisceration begins: service is "generally clueless", an oyster shucker turns her off with "long, greasy hair dangling in the horseradish" and the steak frites was "inedible." Octopus apparently comes in two ways: "tough as nails in an appetizer muddled with gummy squid-ink polenta and tart olive relish, or ground with veal in a Hamburger Helper-style Bolognese with rubbery tagliatelle." Even the cocktails "suffer from imbalance." Ouch, ouch, ouch.
· Blackbird Public House & Oyster Bar [Official Site]
· All Blackbird Coverage [EVAN]
· All Previous Week in Review [EVAN]