Blue Flame — Restaurant in Daytona Beach

Blue Flame is a bar, not a restaurant. We have been there several times as hotel guests and watched as the service has continuously declined since our first visit. This time we sat for close to twenty minutes in the comfy seating area, in plain view of the five bar-staff, being steadfastly ignored whilst the (highly salaried?) service personnel chatted mostly amongst themselves and with the three customers seated at the bar. Eventually we were offered menus and subsequently ignored again for about a quarter of an hour whilst the bar-staff entertained themselves with the pit-bull convention developing between the bar and the Sir Malcolm restaurant (more on that, later). At last we were graced with some quite pleasant service and then over-charged as a final insult. Once the overage was rectified, we were informed how lucky we were to have received out-of-date pricing (clearly printed on the menu). Our original intent was cocktails followed by dinner but the adjacent Sir Malcolm restaurant was a no-go because at least seven (one in particular) of the lighting fixtures were blinking and flashing to the point where a seizure may well have been induced. The following morning, we hit the road without breakfast due to the same torturous lighting conditions as the previous evening. My primary question is: how can a competent GM allow such behavior and dilapidation to occur in the first place? This is a beautiful hotel but something is very wrong with the management and...

I was REALLY excited to try this place. The inside is beautiful and has all the makings of a beautiful restaurant. It unfortunately did not live up to the hype for me. We came in later with a large party on a Tuesday night. There was maybe two other tables in the restaurant at the time. The service was slow as molasses. The server was very nice, but definitely didn’t seem to have much experience in waiting tables. They me charged 17$ for a basic bottom shelf dirty martini when their craft cocktails were no more than $12-15, so that was incredibly disappointing. On top of the fact we had to remind them 4 times for our drinks. The filet which was maybe 5-6oz was disappointingly bland. Salt didn’t even help too much. My husband got the swordfish which he described as tough, the risotto is sat on was delicious though. Pork lollipops for appetizer were quite tasty. Overall.. pretty disappointing, I really wanted to like this spot. It’s fairly new and they could just be getting their bearings so hopefully they...

The hotel is a pretty good style hit for Daytona. Is it ready for this? Probably not. Is it convenient and a nice touch for those that like nicer things than the Hampton inn? Yes. Is it the Waldorf? Not quite. Kind of a mix between the W hotel, the Omni and a trendy side of the Aria hotel. Kayla at the Blue Flame Bar was one of the best features of the hotel. She is the perfect mix of natural beauty with the sweetness of the girl next door. She is truly a happy person at work and actually engages with the customers. I watched her (not stalker style on how she engages with other people and she genuinely is good at her job). I have trained staff of Fortune 500 companies on customer service and the natural ability of this woman to build rapport and genuinely relate to their customers is unreal. Kudos to you for finding her. The challenge is keeping her now that you know. Good luck. She’s a catch. Great job on the hotel and atmosphere you have created! Daytona needed it. (I was a local over...