The Blue Plate - West — Restaurant in Dothan

The Blue Plate was an enjoyable stop for us. The decor was county and one might say a total over-use of the color red, but, it works! It was exceptionally neat and tidy. Very clean. There is a huge dining area which would lend itself to being rather noisy at busy times. Luckily, it was quiet this evening.

The servers were attentive, perhaps, too much so. A pet peeve of mine is being repeatedly interrupted to inquire if everything was already or did I need anything.

A good server, by watching their diners, should be able to tell when they need something or are ready to order. I actually read every word on a menu. Today, we were asked 9 times if we were ready to order. Everytime we both had our heads in our menus (this is not isolated to this establishment).

The menu consisted of a nice variety of southern comfort foods. Most were deep fried or griddle fried. That's the south! Plenty of sides to pick from. I liked that and there was creamed corn on the menu.

I ordered country fried steak with mac & cheese and creamed corn. Supposedly, foods were homemade. As a professional chef, I feel that term was applied rather loosely. Yet, the food was very satisfying despite being void of any seasonings. Salt and pepper would have gone a long way. The diner had a large number of seniors eating. I expect the lack of seasoning was an attempt to caterer to preceived special dietary needs and food trends.

The mac & cheese (a fav) was very good. Nice and gooey with plenty of cheesiness. It had a pleasant, identifiable cheddar taste. I loved the corkscrew pasta used; so fun to eat!

The creamed corn was made with large kernel corn and a milk product but had no actual cream in it. Yet, was real yummy. My country fried steak was seriously over cooked. The edges were dark, dry, and crispy. The prolonged deep frying dried the breading so much it fell off the meat and was rendered tasteless. I was disappointed in its preparation and did not eat it. The white gravy, a roux, is traditionally, peppery. This gravy was pepper free. Yet, its smooth consistency was spot on.

My friend had the sauted shrimp, traditional and blackened preparations. He had the creamed corn and green beans. He commented that even though there was no cream in the corn that it was most tasty and he enjoyed it muchly. It is a childhood favorite of his.

My friend cleaned his plate but wasn't interested in dessert. He said he was full and had eaten enough. I found the portions to be comparatively (to other eateries) small. The sides were all presented in 2 oz bowls like cole slaw usually comes in. The bowls weren't over filled. For me, 2 oz of mac & cheese and corn is way too little of a serving. I was still hungry at the end of the meal. I think I should point out that I am vegetable oriented. I eat little meat. Of course, the sides were inadequate quantities for me. Although, I feel anyone with a healthy appetite might feel likewise.

Despite the few shortcomings with our experience, we both had extremely good meals, served by people who appeared to like their jobs and their customers. I highly reccommend The Blue Plate. We will definitely be eating there again and again.

EAT HERE -- IT'S...

I had high expectations for this restaurant but for me it failed miserably in all areas. The restaurant's atmosphere was very bland and boring but had the food been good the decor would not have mattered. Unfortunately the food was worse than the restaurant's lack of style. The closest I can come to describing the taste of the food is " opened can, dumped in pan, heated and served!" The seasoning was non-existent. Maybe thinking of hospital food or school lunches can give you an idea of what I am trying to convey here. I have had MRE'S that had more flavor. There were three of us and only one like a part of what was served and that was the mashed potatoes. The service was slow but polite. Considering the prices of the meals I definitely felt cheated. I certainly have no intention of returning nor does the rest of my party. I try hard not to be too critical of restaurants because anyone can have good days and bad days. Staff fails to show, accidents in the kitchen, and on the list goes. However, nothing can excuse poor tasting food. The only thing I can think of is they are using bad recipes or no recipes. Just a open and serve business model. I will admit the restaurant was half full so they do have a following mainly elderly on the day we were there. Some people like very plain food I guess. There is no accounting for taste as the saying goes but for me and mine if we are going out to eat and spending our hard earned money I want something I can't get at home or something that a ten year old can cook! The restaurant is also a little hard to find because it sits behind other businesses. Zaxby's sits in front of the Blue Plate. Too bad we drove pass the first and ended at the...

We went after gymnastics I had eaten at the other location before and it was awesome. This time however we paid and left to go to McDonald's. Took a long time to cook our order. We were served my middle daughter ordered pork chops with gravy. She put gravy on porkchops tasted and told me it didn't taste right. I tried it and it tasted like Alfredo sauce. I told the server who seemed scared to tell kitchen. We were waiting on a recook at this point. I finally got my salad and it was frozen. Lettuce was clear and soggy. All I ordered was Mac and cheese fries and the salad. So this left me just the fries and Mac. We'll the Mac was tasteless I couldn't stomach it. So I ate my fries. I asked my younger daughter how her salmon was she said just okay but dry. Management came to the table had an excuse for it all. Said salad was not old so I showed it to him said you need to check your cooler temps then. I mean if temp logs were done then it should have been spotted. Then I was told it was gravy not Alfredo however, that the gravy was bad and they threw it out. Now at this point I told him to take off my salad and Mac. I got the $4 taken off we paid the bill and tipped our server and left food at table. I can tell this manager must have been new to Management. Either way table presence needs work. And staff should not be afraid to have a recook speaks volumes to how they are treated. I do welcome upper management to reach out for further clarification. As for now we will stick to other places. I should say I never do this and we...