Mary's Bleue Moon Cafe — Restaurant in Sidney

There’s a story to be told: ZERO

We were with friends, visiting in the area, and called at 4:53pm, to enquire whether reservations were required. “Not after 5pm,” was the answer.

Arrived at 5.17 pm., and were seated outdoors, at the 2nd or 3rd last table.

We soon received glasses of water, the waited . . . and waited . . . approx. an hour before we were asked for our order. We ordered some Monday 1/2 price special hot wings, crab cakes, an apple cider, and a beer; at the same time we ordered our main courses, with a potential take-out at the end. We expressly requested separate checks.

It took a very LONG time to receive our appies; the beer was warm, and waters had been refilled a time or two.

We dug in, mentioning that we still had a 2+ hr drive to get home.

Again, we WAITED . . . WAITED . . . WAITED - our server completely ignoring us for MUCH TOO LONG.

We asked another server, “Would you be able to check on the ETA for our meals?” She interpreted that to mean we were asking for our checks!!

Finally, our server was chatting it up with a table not far from ours. It was approaching 2+ hrs. “When do you think we’ll get our meals? . . . We still have 2+ hrs drive to get home, and the sun is setting.”

Her response floored us all, “There is a short order cook and a chef in the kitchen. It takes a while - I ordered your appies first. Then, when I see that you are done, I go back to place your entrees.”

We asked whether it could be sped up a little. We had already witnessed several guests who had arrived after we did, and were already departed. We still had not seen our main course. We asked her to raise the issue with the manager. “Absolutely, I’ll do that!”

She left. (She did not raise it with anyone).

We WAITED . . . and WAITED . . . and WAITED some more.

Meanwhile my wife was beginning to shiver, as the evening sun lost it’s heat capacity. We considered walking out . . . to head home . . . given that our meals weren’t coming.

Less than 50% of patrons were left - all had arrived recently.

We finally were able to enquire if the server, again, feeling like we had been recognized as non-locals, and were simply not going to get our meals!

She promise they would be coming.

I left the café, to collect a blanket and extra jacket for my wife.

On the way back, I met two couples who had arrived approx 20 minutes after we had. They were returning to their cars. I asked whether they had been served in a reasonable amount of time. “Oh! It was busy in there. It took longer than usual!” they offered.

“Don’t know what that means,” I said, “not from around here. Was just wondering. I’m heading back with a blanket for my wife. We are still waiting for our meals.”

Sat back down at the table. My wife was already getting a headache, due to lack of required timely intake of nutrition, shivering from the chill of the evening.

Nearly 3 HRS after arrival, we were served our meals. Comments included “good cakes, but not the best I’ve tasted”, “pretty good clam chowder,” and “a tiny bit gristly, but OK liver.”

Waiting for our checks, I needed to use the restroom. I saw someone who appeared to be “in charge”. Senior staffer.

I decided to register our problem with her. She responded immediately, as someone who was about to take action. She asked me to point out the table. I described the problem. She responded as a person of action - “We don’t have a manager on-site, but I’m going to call the owner.” I expressed my appreciation, and walked back out.

When the server brought them to the table, it was ONE check! She explained that they had discounted our bill, and had not charged for the beer and cider.

We asked her to split the bill.

When she returned there was NO DISCOUNT of any kind, other than the missing drinks: 3 crab cakes, a scallop & penne meal that had almost no scallops, and additional shrimp, 10 lemon pepper & 10 honey garlic wings, liver and onions meal, cost us $68!!!

Sorry for the scroll. I don’t review frequently. This experience required a mention.

WE WILL...

The Great Culinary Disappointment: Nine Decades of Disaster

They say history is a witness to time, that experience comes with age, and that tradition is synonymous with quality. None of these statements apply to this restaurant.

Founded in 1939, this establishment has somehow managed to survive for nine decades, an achievement I can only attribute to sheer inertia rather than culinary excellence. I was lured in by a radio ad. It sounded charming, nostalgic, a place steeped in history that promised a delightful experience. The only nostalgia I felt was for the time and money I lost.

I arrived with the enthusiasm of a curious diner. At 3:10 p.m., I sat down. By 4:00 p.m., my meal was still a myth. If their goal was for my glucose to drop and for me to die on their table they almost accomplished it.

When my food finally arrived, it was an insult to every principle of gastronomy. "Soup of the day," they claimed. I would call it "tragedy in a bowl." Allegedly mushroom soup, it had neither the aroma nor the flavor of actual mushrooms. It lacked everthing including the basics salt, pepper, and, most disturbingly, any trace of dignity. It was a soulless paste, a poor excuse for nourishment. And to top it all off, among the mushrooms, I found a lump of raw flour. Were they trying to stretch the recipe? Was this some sort of failed experiment? I don’t know. All I know is that it was inedible.

The sandwich I ordered did nothing to redeem the experience. It was sad. I can say with full confidence that my ten-year-old daughter makes far superior sandwiches.

Then came the pinnacle of culinary absurdity: the so-called "steak sandwich" my companion ordered. A piece of meat thrown onto one slice of bread. Where was the other slice? Was it stolen? Did it evaporate? Did it ever exist? A mystery for the ages.

The only remotely half decent part of this meal was the mashed potatoes. They weren’t extraordinary, but after the culinary horror we had endured, they felt like a small mercy.

And the final insult? The bill. I paid almost 60 dollars for this disaster of a meal. Sixty dollars for food that was, at best, mediocre. A price tag like that demands something worthy of being called a meal not whatever this was.

What was supposed to be a fun and unique experience turned into an irredeemable waste of time. My stomach protested, my soul mourned, and my watch reminded me of the hour I would never get back.

How has this restaurant remained open since 1939? Maybe out of habit, maybe out of sheer force of history. But if this is what they serve, I can’t understand why it hasn’t been turned into a museum instead of a functioning eatery.

Final Verdict: Nine decades of disappointment, served on a cold plate. I do not...

Look I want to leave an honest unbiased review. This is my third time of coming here, but my previous two times I’ve only ever dined in and got chicken wings with friends, and the service and atmosphere were top notch.

This weekend I was staying at the Brentwood bay resort with my partner and I recommended that we get dinner here to bring back to the resort. My first take-away experience so maybe this affects the review I’m about to leave, or maybe the kitchen staff had an off day, I’m not sure.

The nicest way to put it and I don’t want to sound racist is that the foods we tried were typical ‘Canadian white people’ food with no flavour. Again I don’t mean to sound racist but there was no flavour in all the items. We got the steak dinner, penne Cajun chicken pasta and deluxe chicken burger and I don’t know which one is worse.

I’ll start from the better one, the penne Cajun chicken pasta. This cannot be classified as Cajun unless you don’t have a taste bud. It feels like plastic chicken that was dumped into hot water to cook and the salt and pepper poured on it. I’ve been to cheap restaurants and even they grill and char their chicken with Cajun spices and all purpose seasoning. You can’t just add salt and pepper to chicken Cajun chicken, that’s deceiving. I went to the restaurant here to ask them for pepper and salt to add to it.

The burger was a 2/10 at best. I’m being honest when I say even the white spot burger from the ferry is better than this. The bacon did give the burger some flavour but that’s all it had, I promise you. The chicken was BAD!!! the fries got soggy before we could eat them but that’s not their fault, I’ve had their fries before with wings and they are ok.

The steak, omg, again NO SEASONING! The mashed potatoes were okay, normal stuff. The onions rings soggy, again not their fault. The veggies though could at least have been roasted, who brought about cooking veggies in water and calling it a day?

Look, I’m sure I’ll still have a good experience here with other types of food that typically don’t require seasoning, I like the atmosphere, it’s always almost filled up and the servers and service are really good.

The cook on the particular day might just need to be let go, or taught how to season food. Unless you are only trying to cater to a certain populace of the population, there needs to be...