Short version: this is an excellent restaurant. Black Board Bistro made an incredible dinner for my wife Beth Musso and me for our anniversary. The wine list was good, and what I had paired well with the food. From appetizers to dessert, we were not...disappointed. If you want fine dining, Black Board Bistro fist right in with the best restaurants in NW Montana.
Longer version: My wife and I spent the day in Libby for our anniversary, which was the first time we really spent any time in the area. We live in kalispell, so it's less than 90 minutes to Libby. But we always go to Glacier or Missoula or wherever. Never Libby. We decided to change that.
Anyways, looking for good places to eat, we hit Cabinet Mountain Brewing for lunch, which was really nice. But for dinner, we wanted a great meal. I'd heard good things from acquaintances and online reviews, but I was sceptical that the reviews online were accurate. Could have just been locals overpraising the place or tourists who were very hungry. I mean, you really don't figure you'll find a top-quality restaurant in a small Montana town in the middle of nowhere
My skepticism was totally unfounded. The first thing we got was some house-made bread. It was very good bread. I know, bread, right? But it's one of those simple things that can be a telltale sign of a good or bad restaurant. If they don't bother making their own or it's bad bread, that's a red flag for me.
In any case, we started with steamed clams, and they were excellent. Just the right chew, perfect broth. The gruyere mushrooms were really good as well.
I had a vouvray with the clams and mushrooms, which was a good choice. Nice wine with generous pours by the glass. My wife is pregnant and could not drink, so I stuck to the glass pour wines.
Moving on to the main courses, I had the filet mignon with morels, and that was perhaps the best steak I have had in Montana to date. Perfectly cooked to order, nice char, generous helping of local morels. The veggies with it were excellent as well. And it paired well with the merlot they ha by the glass. My wife had the chef's seafood special, which had crab, prawns, udon noodles and veggies. She is not a crab lover by a wide margin, but thought she'd give it a try. She still definitely doesn't like crab (though that's not the restaurant's fault), but the rest of her meal she says was amazing.
Dessert was also excellent. I had vanilla panna cotta with fruit, my wife had a chocolate toffee cake. Both were excellent. We had to stop eating the main courses because if we finished them, we'd have been stuffed. While I would not call the portions "huge", they were very filling. Service was great throughout the meal, and the atmosphere was really nice.
In all, Black Board Bistro is an excellent restaurant. My wife and I intend to spend more time in Libby this summer hiking, and we will absolutely be going back to this restaurant. If you are looking for a fine dining option that you'd find in bigger cities (or like in Whitefish, MT), go here. It's absolutely worth a visit.More
