Blackstone's Pub and Grill

For those of you who haven't been through Flint, Michigan recently, watch out! There are some folks here trying to revive it. The auto industry has left this area for the most part. When they left years ago, a lot of other businesses followed suit. Drive through downtown today and you'll see construction of lofts, old buildings getting a new face, and new restaurants opening their doors. One of those is Blackstone's Pub and Grill. An Irish pub with a loaded menu.
They have an outdoor patio that faces the street, which is where we started our dining on a Saturday afternoon. We were seated right away, and given menu's with waters following shortly after. The menu has lots of options - warning - most items had a name, which meant you had to read the description of each, and that took some time since we were first timers. Checking out the menu on-line before hand might help. Our waiter was quick at first but took some time getting back to us once we put the menus down.
I ordered a turkey vegetable soup for a starter. It was so good our son wanted to have as much of it as he could get.
Both of us ordered sandwiches. I ordered "Ridg's Way" a turkey sandwich, with irish bacon, avocado, swiss. My wife ordered "The Fisher" a beer battered, fish sandwich. Both with fries. Our son (2-years old) picked the mac and cheese.
The fish sandwich was very greasy, and bland. Not too sure about the "beer battered" claim. Even the tarter sauce didn't provide the spark it should have. The turkey sandwich on the other hand was very good! The mac and cheese was creamy and but bland. Bland for a kid's menu isn't always a bad thing. Most kids don't like foods that are heavy on herbs or spices. The main problem on this dish was that the noodles, a bow tie style, were about 2 inches long, by 1 inch wide. This would've been fine for our 10 year old, but for the younger one it means extra cutting and/or cleaning work for us parents. My wife thought the fries were good and perfectly seasoned. I though the fries were ok at best, needing salt and pepper after the first taste.
One of my favorite drinks is a "Poor Man's Black Velvet". It's half Guiness, half hard cider. It's like a Black and Tan, only tastier! As any good Irish pub should have, Guiness was on tap. But I was sad to not see a hard cider on tap also.
Other People's Tips: One friend went there for a midweek lunch. She said she had really bad service, and they were given the wrong plates and had to switch with each other. But still called it nice.
Our Tip: The atmosphere was great, and looks to be an inviting place. Even though some of our meal choices weren't winners, we both agreed that we would be willing to try it again. I'm a sucker for Shepherds Pie. Perhaps a visit for dinner will be our next trip here.