I have to echo the negative reviews. We were encouraged by the seasonal menu, but our hopes were quickly dashed. Early on a Friday night, they were out of one of the not-so-many entrees on their menu. How does this happen?! It’s a Friday night, for god’s sake. The chicken cordon bleu was overcooked and artless, and I’m guessing the potatoes had been prepared many hours (perhaps days?) earlier, then plopped down next to an unappetizing blob of spinach puree. The French onion soup featured a strange broth that seemed like something (bad) from a can. They had Leffe on tap (yeah!) but it was flat and stale (blech!). Yes, considerably overpriced for the value. The service was friendly, the one bright spot. We will not be back.

After a first disappointing experience (lukewarm food that took forever to arrive, waitress didn’t know how to open a bottle of wine…) we decided to give Blue Bistro another shot but with less challenging food. We sat at the bar and had more “bar food” than upscale dining. The french onion soup was good except for the hunk of plastic in it. The bartender was great and actually comped our meal. Huge points for customer service.

But the kitchen seems like a big problem. Over 30 minutes after my soup got 86′d, our food finally arrived. Hamburger came barely warm (probably sitting since the kitchen didn’t tell bartender the order was up) and with edible flowers on it. All the pretty garnish in the world isn’t going to hide a lukewarm mediocre burger. My salad with sliced steak should have been a no brainer except that the steak was raw in the middle. I can deal with pretty rare beef but this was blue and cold. So basically I got a small salad for dinner. Free! But I guess you get what you pay for.

At one point we overheard the waitstaff talking about what things needed to be done. One remarked “Oh, and can you polish all of the brass on the Titanic?” So, not expecting this sinking ship to be in the neighborhood for long.