BLACKBIRD KITCHEN | BOZEMAN, MONTANA

Blackbird restaurant sign in Bozeman Montana.

BEST RESTAURANT IN BOZEMAN! MAYBE THE WORLD

The best restaurant in Bozeman is Blackbird Kitchen. I love their locally-sourced food, their friendly service, and I love the ambience of the restaurant, especially the bar, where you can have dinner and drinks while you watch the chefs cook everyone’s meals.

The M-Trail in Bozeman is a wonderful pre-meal hike. Check it out here for more details on the M TRAIL HIKE >

Blackbird Kitchen uses fresh, local ingredients.

Blackbird Kitchen is one of my favorite restaurants. Tonight I had Leg of Lamb with laurel aged rice, pardina lentils, tzatziki, lemon, caper, and pistachio. Probably one of the best dinner meals I have ever had. Our table also shared a few starters, including the burrata (tonight it was served with tomato, basil, balsamic, and crostini), the oven seared broccolini (with garlic, smoke chili romesco, marcona almond) and roasted baby carrots (with cilantro, mint, chili, spiced yogurt, and pine nuts). Each dish has a wide offering of many different tastes that go together in ways I can’t believe. So awesome.

The M on the M-Trail in Bozeman Montana.

The M-Trail in Bozeman is a wonderful pre-meal hike. Check it out here for more details on the M TRAIL HIKE >

Wood-fired Oven for Pizza and everything else.

Blackbird uses a wood fired oven that is inside the restaurant. Very cool. It’s fun to sit at the bar to watch the prep cooks prepare meals for the oven, especially the pizzas.

Most people love Blackbird for their special pizza. They serve about a dozen different pizzas and you can also add certain ingredients to anything they serve. Here are three of my favorites:

Bianca with catselvetrano olives, grana padano, crescenza, basil, garlic, calabrian chili.

Speck with tomato, smoked prosciutto, mozzarella, chili pepper, basil.

Funghi with shitaki mushroom, grana padano, thyme, blue cheese, garlic, chili pepper.

Dog on the hiking trail in Bozeman sitting by a bench

Bench on the M-Trail overlooking Bozeman.

Enjoy New food!

Blackbird is always surprising. I’m never afraid to try anything on the menu. They have a lot of interesting ingredients, sometimes I’ve never tried them before, so it’s great to experiment. When I read the menu, I have to ask questions about the ingredients. So far, I’ve learned about speck, burrata, crescenza, and fiore sardo. To be honest, if I don’t know what it is, I almost always order it because I want an adventure, and something new is always interesting.

Good to make reservations. Choose seating at the Bar!

I always make reservations a few days in advance because they have a pretty steady walk-in crowd. It’s easy to do. You can make reservations in about two minutes. Their website links to the Yelp reservations page. I always like to have dinner at Blackbird at around 8:00 PM or 8:30 PM when it’s busy. I also like to sit at the bar. The crowd is fun. When you sit at the bar, you can talk with other people, which is great because there are a lot of people from out of town and a lot of interesting Bozemanites.

Awesome, friendly service.

The staff who work at Blackbird are awesome. Many of them have worked there a long time. People like Stephanie, Ted, Julia, and Sage are the coolest. They are always more than friendly and they care about the food and the restaurant. Sometimes I see them out at various Bozeman food spots, buying supplies for Blackbird, like bread from Wild Crumb, or wine from Vino. Some of them also work for various local farms and such, and you’ll see them at the Tuesday Farmer’s Market at Bogert Park or the Saturday Farmer’s Market at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds. The point is that if you go to Blackbird, you are connecting to an entire network of cool people, great food, and local food producers. They really care about their community in every way.

Blackbird Kitchen cares about local products.

On their menu, it lists some of the local suppliers, which I love. Their menu says: “We use local & organic meats & produce. Farmer friends: willow spring ranch, amaltheia dairy, c-5 organics, three hearts farm, red fox farm, Gallatin valley botanical, star pudding farm, alpine organics, terra greens, strike farm, Yellowstone grass-fed beef, and many more.”

Here are some final thoughts.

I love Blackbird. When I ask other people in town about Blackbird Kitchen, that’s what they say. I love Blackbird. The food is perfect but it’s not just about food, it’s about the overall feeling. I feel cool when I go to Blackbird. I feel heathy. I have fun. I try new things. I explore food. I’m a part of my community. And I want to go back. Over and over and over again. Next time I go I’m going to try the Chanterelle pizza and bottle of red wine from Italy, perhaps the Cab Sav from Insoglio) to go with it. Maybe I will take someone with me. Or maybe I’ll just go alone. I know I’ll be happy no matter what.