The Blue Buffalo

our biggest turnout yet - fourteen!!! (two rookies) came out to witness drama at the Blue Buffalo last night. what should have been a positive for the Blue Buffalo was a negative as the sarah mclaughlin concert was happening at Shea's whose Pearl Street doors are directly across the street from the Blue Buffalo's doors. you would think that the restaurant would look forward to the increased traffic of a Shea's special event but sadly Blue Buffalo was unaware and didn't plan accordingly so there was a significant wait to be seated and served despite having a reservation for our 14. in fact, numerous people left after standing at the hostess stand being unattended for quite a long time. we had to wait over a 1/2 hour at the bar to be seated because, i'm guessing, they took apart our table to accommodate other diners. on top of that, it seemed that everyone was working their first day and for one girl, her last. bluesy music sporadically played in the background = a song played, silence, 5 minutes later another song played, silence . . . you get the picture. regardless, there's a bunch of people who will probably not give the Blue Buffalo a second chance. eat there soon if this food review appeals to you because they won't last long with how they're being run.

with that being said, the table started with a bunch of appetizers. i ordered the deep-fried pickles with honey mustard dipping sauce - interesting and good. the pork egg roll was worth sampling. their corn chowder was good (after it had to be reheated), their crab cakes were very good and bar-b-q shrimp over biscuits was not so good - a lot of sauce was too sweet drenching the shrimp and biscuits. they also have beef brisket over nacho chips - awkward. I was told the quesadilla was good.
i also ordered their chicken and andouille sausage gumbo. it was confusing as the dish wasn't sure it wanted to be a soup or a solid but it was tasty.

For entrées, i had their cajun macaroni and cheese (as opposed to their southwestern mac & cheese). Both were very good.
i was tempted to order their fried chicken and chicken fried steak but fortunately only sampled their chicken steak which was served over bar-b-q collard greens. this dish reminded me of the russian restaurant that i skewered last year. the chicken steak was flavorless, tough and chewy. i heard their brisket entree was chewy as well. the jambalaya was very good though.
amanda made short work of her fried chicken slowly turning the heavily breaded pieces into something that would better be served in a pulled chicken sandwich but I enjoyed my taste of it.

the highlight of the night (or lowlight) was when another table complained to the waitress that they no longer wanted their food as they waited for over a half hour for it. that made her cry and she apparently walked out on an already short staffed restaurant. that is too bad since it truly was not her fault but the poor planning of the restaurant management - hang in there honey - as U2 sang "don't let the bastards get you down"

by the way, I swear they turned the heat off during our dinner.

anyway, I was undaunted and ordered dessert for the table - pecan pie ala mode - excellent, and bread pudding - just ok.

notwithstanding how the place was run, the food was hit or miss so i'll give the Blue Buffalo a 'C.' if i considered the other factors it would get an 'f.' fyi - another table loved their food so take it for what it's worth.