Bleu Restaurant & Lounge

First let me say that I really, really wanted to like this restaurant and bar. Mainly because it is right across the street from the forum. But I am done trying to like it! We have eaten here several times before leaving a review. And I can now say the food is not consistent. Service is slow and weak… even on nights when the restaurant is almost empty! Plates should NEVER leave the line with dried up over warmed fingerling potatoes. Burgers are bland and usually over cooked. Over priced sub-​par food. Save your money… there are way too many better restaurants downtown and on Beale Street. Sorry Bleu but I’m thru!

I’m staying at the Westin and have had great meals & service at this place! Breakfast and dinners have been excellent!

Well, where do I start… I am on Unilocal to visit places especially food places and my intent is to have a positive experience and leave positive feedback! Nonetheless, I find myself at supposedly fine dining establishments with sub par service. I find that unacceptable when I spend a good penny for the entrees. Soooooo…
It is Downtown Dining Week 2015, where 3 course meals are 20.15. My friend and I chose Bleu to attend first. The menu was to die for and we chose a early slot so we could get in and get out. We arrived around 545p and it was quite empty. We were seated and given menus. Our other friend was already seated, so we looked at the menu and ordered drinks and apps first. They had a special and we got a round of those, The waiter was a nice fella, very attentive. Brought our drinks which was a bourbon sour, sooooo good!!! Our apps were, cinnamon dusted fries, fried ravioli, and lobster cakes. Pretty good!
20 min later we are wondering why we haven’t order entrees, our waiter hasn’t came to check on us that’s why!!! He has went from sugar to ?&%$ just that fast! Finally he comes back, remind you only 3 more parties have arrived now, 1 has received entrees and the other have ordered their entrees. We are beyond confused at this point. What made him think we were not ready to order better yet come check on us? Anyway he finally comes back and we order Shrimp and grits and pork chops and another round of drinks, Another 2o mins later our food arrives and its is cold!!! Why is our food cold and we are literally one of the first parties to arrive and there is hardly no one else in the place at this point??? We sent 2 of the entrees back, 6 min later they are brought back COLD!!! At this point we are beyond livid and are just ready to go.
Got the dessert, cinnamon ice cream with bourbon cake, which was heaven. At this point, our server was still non existent, Managers were around but were not attentive to us. They addressed every other table but ours. To make a long story short, we will not return!
ps. I know, I know, I should have summed it up 2 paragraphs ago!!!

I visited Bleu because of Downtown Dining Week and the appealing menu for the special dining week. Reservations were required for this restaurant but an RSVP was simple to secure and my party was seated in a nice booth. When we arrived, the service was good. Our waiter was attentive; promptly took our appetizer and drink orders once we settled in. The head chef even came around and asked us how things were going so far. Off to a great start!
The restaurant began to fill up about 30 minutes after we arrived and the number of times our waiter checked on us began to sharply dwindle. We were finally asked about our entrée choices and the wait continued. While waiting on our entrees, we heard at least 3 dished drop or break in the open kitchen. When our entrees finally arrived, the plates were cold and the food less than luck warm. We flagged our waiter down so ²⁄₃ of my party could make him aware of the situation. The waiter was very gracious and apologized, swearing the chef would take care of it. Plates #2 weren’t really any better, unfortunately. We had been at the restaurant for almost an hour and a half at this point so we just decided to eat our food as is. Dessert was the highlight/​silver lining– a cinnamon ice cream and bourbon bundt cake with pecans on top.
Our wait service had slowed down almost to a halt at this point so we had a bit of a wait for our checks. It took about 2 hours for our whole dining experience. Overall, the service wasn’t as good as it could have been and the food was okay– it might have been great if it was served at the proper temperature. I doubt that I’ll be back but I hope this was just an off day for the restaurant.

Oh, @downtownbleu! *insert heart emoji here since Unilocal won’t let me*
The best chicken soup I have had in Memphis… or ever, really. AND it can cure a mean hangover, but you didn’t hear that from me.
I recently popped by to check out their new lunch menu (served 11 – 4 every day), and was blown away. Course after course of pure deliciousness… all in the heart of downtown with a delightfully upscale atmosphere (and you know I prefer and appreciate the finer things in life).
Another perk? The valet. My stilettos are a minimum of 5 inches tall (at all times) and walking can be difficult… plus I get exasperated after 20 minutes of going up up up in those parking garages — I get dizzy, y’all!
But back to the food. Chef Ana Gonzalez has done a tremendous job with the new menu. The crab cake is worth a trip alone… same with the Veggie Wrap, guacamole, paninis… OK, you get the idea. You can’t go wrong here.
My boss stays at the Westin every time she comes to town… and now I know where we’re having dinner the next time she comes to Memphis! She won’t even have to leave the hotel (and I won’t have to struggle with parking… or battle that Memphis humidity that makes me hair 10 times too big).

First, lets talk about location. Its spectacular. The patio overlooks the Fedex Forum and is absolutely beautiful. I just love all the blue spotlights. Definitely gives off a classy ambiance to people passing by on the street :).
Now the food. Y’all. You guyysssssss. Chef Ana Gonzalez is an absolute doll, and WONDERFUL chef. She was raised by a family of chefs/​farmers, and takes so much pride in the preparation and overall display of her food. She wants everything fresh, and even gets some of her food from Shelby farms! She uses minimal amounts of oils and really wants to ensure we get healthier/​more local alternatives :). She’s just so caring, and that really shows when she talks about how she plans each meal.
Her new lunch menu is delectable. I was so full, yet I couldn’t stop eating it!
My favorite would have to be the crab cake and chorizo manchego wonton. So good. So dang good. Next would have to be the blackened mahi sandwich. But then again it was all so good. I just can’t do it justice with words.
Plan a lunch date here, you will NOT be disappointed :))!

I love this Hotel so decided to try the food. An afternoon snack was the thing. When I saw grilled Shrimp on a Polenta Cake I was expecting an actual polenta patty… as in the description. What I got was 2 Grilled Shrimp covered in BBQ sauce on a blob of Creamy Polenta. No Sauce was mentioned in the menu. The flavor of the undisclosed Sauce was so strong it overtook the delicate flavpr of the Shrimp. I sent it back. The new order arrived with a requested Lemon Aoli and slightly over cooked shrimp. Meh.
Here’s the issue… If you have an ingredient that is a prevalent flavor PLEASE STATE IT IN THE MENU! I do not like returning food. Also… if the menu states, «Polenta Cake»…please serve a Polenta Cake… NOT a blob of flavorless creamy polenta.
After this I was afraid to spend the bigger money on a dinner. I won’t be back to Bleu.

Had a good margarita martini with peach purée (recreation of pomegranate margarita) courtesy of Molo.
Great conversation, food & service! I love my visits here to the Westin Beale street and highly recommend you stop in too!

If you want to charge me $ 38 for a plate of scallops, it better be delicious. And if you want to be upscale, don’t blast the Cupid Shuffle for hours, so loud that I can’t hear the person next to me, even in the back of the restaurant. This place is a sports bar masquerading as a restaurant. The service is slow, even though the restaurant is barely half full. We haven’t ordered and our reservation was 45 minutes ago. Most of the people who are here are getting ready to leave — we appear to be the only new table here at the moment. Would not recommend.

The atmosphere and vibe were super, our service was Awesome and the food was tasty… And I mean you only get a taste. My delish $ 14 lobster roll was very tasty and satisfying for about 5 minutes. It was to small even for an appetizer, but it was a main dish. I’m not a real beer drinker, give me some Jack Daniels all day, everyday, but the Blue Moon hype did not do it for me. I liked the orange but the beer was too warm. However I will be back! It’s was pretty cool!

Good food, good service. The manager sat us and took our appetizer order. We brought our own bottle of champagne and they charge only a $ 10 cork fee. Our food was delicious. We had the lamb chops and filet (see pics).

I visited Bleu during Downtown Dining Week 2014.
Considering the price, the food is very poor. My meal looked pretty on the plate, but the taste was subpar. There was very little flavor and I was very disappointed.
The service was also lacking. The waitress was almost no where to be found during the dinner. We were given the wrong dessert option, and informed the waitress of the mistake. She did nothing about it and just said, «The kitchen must have made a mistake.»
I was very unimpressed and will NOT be spending anymore money at Bleu.

We went before a concert, so this could easily be the reason the service was so bad the first time, but the SECOND time we went, the air was out… This was in July… No, no, no… Food was super blah. Not a fan.

I ate here before graduation across the street. The bartender was nice so was the hostess. Food was good, I didn’t give a full 5 stars as I only had their calamari and caprese salad. They were both good, although I wish the calamari came with some dip sauce.

Drinks, ambiance, service, AND CONVENIENCE from FedEx Forum = 4 stars.
Food execution and flavors of dishes = 2 stars (Appetizer Sampler — 4 seafood dishes).

This place has had a reputation as not being good but capitalizing on their location across from the forum since it opened. However, I heard from a friend that they had a new menu and it was very good so when downtown dining week rolled around I figured this to be the perfect time to give them a try before committing to a $ 100 for two night out. Bleu failed miserably and I will not go back.
First off the interior is more generic chain than pricey hotspot. Also, the service was terrible and awkward. We had two different waitresses come over, introduce themselves and tell us the drink specials; when we told the 2^nd one someone had already been by her response was «we’ll that was wrong and we’re starting over» — how rude to talk like that to a customer as if we had someone made the wrong person come over. Our real server — the 2^nd told us she didn’t usually work nights and therefore didn’t know about the wine list — she had to leave twice to answer of questions. So we order our wine and food and both arrive pretty quickly. The entrees came right after our appetizers, busy night so I’m willing to let this go but I don’t expect to be rushed at a fine dining establishment. We get our food and were all a few bites in and a different waiter come with desserts asking who has what, unacceptable! My friend tells him we’re still eating and he looks down, sees our full plates and then goes away. A few minutes later our waitress comes back and asks if we’re ready for desserts — one of my friends had finished but another and myself still have ½ the food on our plates! So again my friend has to point out that there are people eating their meal at the table. My friend decides she’s done (we’ll get to that in a minute) but I tell the waitress I’m not finished, which seems to piss her off. So I finish and the desserts come back, my two friends got a lemon cake and I got bananas foster and despite the fact that I remind her I have the bananas the waitress tries to give that to my friend, who can’t stand bananas. It was pretty obvious these are the same desserts brought right after our food came because they are cold and my ice cream is completely melted. The waitress then asks how we want our check — no asking if we want more drinks. I should also note that none of our water glasses were refilled at any point. The entire time we felt like we were being pushed out and a burden for being there.
So now the food. The deal with downtown dining week is its a three course meal for $ 20.13. The idea is to showcase how good downtown restaurants our to get people to come downtown more often. For the first course we all had the seafood beignets and all enjoyed them. For entrees I had the downtown chicken and my friends has the mahi mahi — all of the options offered are not regular menu offerings. All entrees sounded great from their description and listed several flavors and sauces, my chicken did not come with a sauce and my friends fish did not come with the mango salsa as described, they also said they couldn’t taste any of the flavors listed on the menu. We all agreed out food was very bland. The desserts were very meh.
Dispute our waitresses best attempt to push us out we stayed at the table after we got our checks to visit since we were so rushed in our eating (we had our checks 35 minutes after sitting down). At no point did the waitress come back to our table despite the fact we all had empty wine and water glasses. She didn’t even come get our signed checks and was obviously avoiding us. I totally would have gotten more wine or a cocktail if she has bothered to come over. There was another group of girls who was seated at the same time as us and they were not being rushed like we were so our service was not a reflection of it being a busy night, it was just rude and awful.
I don’t care if this doesn’t represent a «typical» night for bleu or the waitress usually works days, I will NEVER return. Participation in downtown dining week is completely optional yet clearly Bleu does not like it. Dinner at The Peabody is easily over $ 100 /​person while afternoon tea is $ 27, but the tea customer still gets the level of service and food quality one would expect. Bleu is a joke and clearly designed for people with more money then sense, if they knew what good food and service was then it would always be reflected regardless of the time of day or specials being run.

I love the Shrimp & grits here.
I’ve been here three times. Once for dinner and twice for lunch. The first experience was dinner and the meal was forgettable at best. the second time I went, I tried the Shrimp & Grits. .. YES MA’AM! The shrimp is not the Thai-​farmed crap served by so many commercial kitchens. it is firm and sweet. the grits are yummy, the sauce is right AND they put a few spoons of greens on top (collards, I believe).
I cannot be held responsible for any other dishes here. But the S+G are wonderful. they bread they bring out before the meal is also tasty.
Also note, you may have to valet your car or park in a garage as the street parking is ultra-​limited.

Unimpressed.
We came here for dinner when we got in, and I kind of got the impression that its trying too hard — the portions weren’t great, the food wasn’t cooked well — but the prices were a reaaaaaaaaaaach.
For example: my pork I ordered rare — it was still dry, but had a big line of fat going right through the middle. How is that possible? My friend ordered a salad, and specified «no meat» but still had anchovyies in it — sure you can argue that they’re anchovies and technically not a beef or chicken, but still.
We had breakfast there the following morning, and even though there were literally 4 people in the entire restaurant — they took FOREVER — and we had stuff to do! We had room service breakfast the last morning… and I spent the rest of my hell trip delayed home with a horrendous, horrendous stomach ache.
get it together fools

Bleu is the «flagship» (OK, it’s the only) restaurant inside the Westin. Since I had gotten a breakfast package, I was told I would get a $ 40 credit for breakfast each morning. This came in handy when you were drinking until 3 in the morning and then wake up 4 hours later whoknowswhy starving. Having to look far for food was not on the agenda.
So we didn’t. Food was only an elevator ride away! And it was nice too, the place was not busy at all. The décor of this place is swanky– they use their woods and glass well here. Another thing I noticed were the Viking appliances– including the wine coolers! Long story short– they didn’t shortchange themselves on the décor here– it’s solid!
Being greeted (both mornings) by upbeat and jovial staff, I felt like I was at home, hungover and all. I got coffee, juice, and water. I do not think they have a buffet– but a simple, but effective menu. There were only 4 – 6 (maybe 8, hell, sorry for the bad memory!) entrees to choose from, but they all had promise. The theming of the menu had to do with superfoods, and charging you up for the day. Personally, I just need a 1,000MG kickstart of caffeine.
The first day, I got the ham, egg, hash brown, and biscuit (I think I posted a pic). You had the choice of patty, link, or bacon. You already know I got the bacon! When it arrived, I was impressed with the plating– you really don’t see that often in breakfast. The food was seasoned perfectly. For $ 12 inside of a hotel, I thought it was an alright price (note how I was comparing it to HOTEL value…).
The next day, I ordered the turkey, cheese, avocado and tomato omelet served on arugula. I shit you not, that could have been the healthiest item I have ever ordered in my life. It wasn’t terrible either. In fact, the pepper dressing the chef put on the arugula was outstanding. It woke me up! So 2 days in a row, they hit hard with service, and quality.
I just wish they did have a few more items to offer– but it was great to know the items they do offer, they knock out of the park. I am still waiting on them to credit my breakfast! Arggh!
I will definitely have to eat here more often when I get off work– hidden place to relax and enjoy breakfast!

This restaurant is located inside of the Westin on Beale Street and offers up some tasty bites but their limited hours (especially for hotel guests) can be inconvenient…
As I mentioned in my review for the Westin, Bleu was closed for an 8:30 dinner on the night I arrived which is pretty odd for a hotel restaurant? Besides that, I enjoyed 2 lunches here that included a Vegetarian Sandwich ($ 10) that included
grilled tomatoes, eggplant, red onion, arugula, and balsamic glaze served on wheat bread (also with goat cheese but I passed since I am vegan). It was delicious and healthy especially because I opted for a side of the veggies each day. Some notable other menu items on the lunch menu included a «Build Your Own» Pasta and Sandwich option. The dinner menu boasted some veg-​friendly fare too that included tofu but I never had a chance to try it out.
The staff were always friendly and efficient but I did notice that there we only maybe 2 other dining parties there both times I visited during prime time lunch hours.
Unilocal365#11