In my reviews I try not to drop any clues about where I live, but I will be honest with you here and now and say that it isn’t Manzanita. I can say, though, that when I recently visited, Manzanita’s charming and sophisticated downtown shops and restaurants and its unparalleled ocean location won me over.

After eating at Blackbird, I can also say with certainty that it’s a trip I’ll be making much more often in the future. There is a lot of food to review, so I’ll jump right into it.

Though the menu is rather small, absolutely each dish on the menu sounded incredible, so I began with some Netarts oysters with finger lime “caviar” while I thought about selecting an entrée. Finger limes are exactly what they sound like: They are a kind of Australian lime that are rather small and thin, like fingers. Inside each are tiny, juicy “globes,” which can be green or pink, and when chewed each tiny globe explodes in your mouth with tart, tangy flavor. Indeed, spooned onto our oysters, it did look very much like caviar. I love raw oysters, and the oysters themselves were perfect and needed no extras to make them sing, but the finger lime caviar was a fun, unexpected element; it didn’t add a lot to the dish, but it didn’t subtract anything, either.

A favorite of the evening arrived in the form of a smoked duck breast salad with aged blue cheese, balsamic-soaked cherries, and greens. If you are a regular reader of this column you know that I believe duck, when prepared well in any fashion, is one of the finest dishes known to man, and this was no exception. The smoked duck was sliced in small, thin strips, almost resembling bacon, and its sweet, smoky flavor and incredibly tender texture was the ideal pairing to the tart cherries and piquant blue cheese.

And now, I want to speak to you very seriously about something: bone marrow. Prepare yourself now for an homage that rivals Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” sonnet. While the overall popularity of bone marrow is rather limited here in the U.S., it is, to me, a gourmet delicacy, and it is gaining popularity again among food enthusiasts. Many other world cuisines embrace bone marrow, and it appears prominently in lots of well-known dishes: Italian ossobuco, Vietnamese pho, and French pot-au-feu. Though the fat percentage of bone marrow is very high (about 96 percent), it has tons of health benefits, including building immunity, healing wounds, aiding in digestion, and even fighting cancer. Eating bone marrow is certainly not a new idea; it’s recorded as one of Henry VIII’s favorite dishes.

As you can guess by now, the next item I sampled was roasted bone marrow with grain mustard, pickled onions, and toast. I appreciated the rustic presentation of this dish, as there’s really no better way to go at the marrow than with bones cut long-ways, so the marrow inside is fully accessible. You are going to feel quite primal when you eat it. I would describe marrow as being buttery and savory, and paired with simple but singular elements like pickled onions and grain mustard, it was utterly fantastic. I have not seen marrow offered elsewhere on the coast, but something tells me it is poised to make a culinary return.

While we are on the subject of meat, I was not quite as taken with steak frites, an 8-ounce flat iron steak served over fries and jus. I requested that the steak be medium rare, and while I can’t say it came rare instead (meaning that the center would still be cold), it was extremely bloody and not quite seared to my satisfaction, and the fries beneath the steak soaked up the juices. In retrospect, I should have just ordered it cooked to medium. I will say that the overall flavor of the steak was spectacular, and it was extraordinarily tender.

Seared Brussels sprouts finished the meal, and though their preparation and presentation was simple, they were buttery, delicious, and needed nothing else.

Really, my only complaint with the restaurant is that it is very small, it is very popular (reservations are highly recommended), and the food seems to come out slowly. I paid the restaurant two visits, and on the first visit, I was treated rather rudely by the hostess and waited a long time. My second visit was much more positive, and our server quite charming, but the food still takes a while. I am willing to wait for food that is exceptional, and since I had no other plans and was enjoying the evening, it didn’t bother me.