Blue Sushi Sake Grill — Restaurant in Franklin

I'm just here to second my besties review, since I also have a voice, and I should use it for good, like she has. The food at Blue and the atmosphere are on point, but the service was not and beyond that, the unawareness of the staff and their efforts made to excessively apologize eventually became borderline annoying. Maybe you haven't read Lauren's review yet, so here's the run down of events, in my own words:

It's 2:30pm on a Saturday, the restaurant is 1/8th full at best. We were pleasantly greeted promptly by the host and we requested a table outside. Told it would be a 5 minute wait unless we wanted to sit inside. We turned to discuss (both very hungry, and thirsty, we'll dive into that more soon). Both the host and server left immediately to set up a table outside even though we didn't have a chance to answer the question. No big deal, outside is nice!

Waited 4 or 5 minutes, brought outside and seated. Cool. So far so good! Here's where it goes downhill.. Waiting 10-15 minutes for a server, without water. Fine. I'm thirsty though! It's June in Tennessee, it's hot! I'm only human. Water is my lifeblood! Servers, hosts and managers were all nearby but seemingly completely unaware of us sitting, waiting. Weird!

Lauren gets up to ask the host nearby if we can get some water from the bar. Lol, it's insane how nice and patient we were this entire time! She apologizes and says they'll be right with us, or something like that.

Okay, so, our server is here. And we're ready, so we just go for it and order. Two waters, a drink, a miso soup, a cucumber salad and two maki rolls. Quickly, Lauren gets her miso soup. Still no water. She proceeds to eat an entire bowl of soup.

I can't remember exactly when the water came but it was definitely after the soup. Lauren's drink may or may not have arrived before the water in question, leaving me empty handed. When it arrived doesn't really matter, but it was at least 20-25 minutes after we were seated.

This entire time, the server was extremely apologetic and made it seem like at least part of our meal would me comped. At this point we're really excited and we order some charred edamame (which was the bomb).

Then, a female manager came out to apologize and inform Lauren that the roll she ordered could be cross contaminated (with nuts, she's allergic). She orders a different recommended vegan roll (Green Goddess) and we move on. Both being super polite and thankful the entire time. Also, I told her that I had asked for a cucumber salad and wasn't quite sure if it was ordered, since Lauren got her soup.

Pretty immediately, another, higher up male manager comes over and apologizes profusely. He offers us a voucher for $20. The next time we visit! We have to give them a name and a phone number. And he rips off part of a ticket. It's super weird. We kind of put up a little fight, like - we can only use it next time? Yes. Whatever, that's cool! Thanks! We may come back.

Now our server comes over with my roll and tells us the rest of the food will be out soon. Awesome! Can't wait! Props that she brought me tamari before this. I'm waiting to start, I want my salad, and to eat with my friend. All of the rest food comes out fairly shortly. Finally, we made it to the entire purpose of our journey here! We really enjoyed our meal and were happy, vastly entertained by the circumstances.

All in all, there were likely upwards of 30 apologies from at least 3 different people. Most of our meal was spent interacting with them. And none of our meal was comped, though it's presumed that we'd care enough to come back to use the voucher. It kinda sucks that Blue can't take accountability in the moment, only in the future. I personally don't see a future with them if this is the vibe. You may get a second chance, all things considered, but probably not a third. Which is dumb cause we were really excited to have you here!

If there is a next time, I hope...

Blue Sushi.. you Blew me away with an incredible experience, impeccable service, and an immaculate meal. Having been to Blue once before, we knew we liked the food and what to expect - but you really have outdone yourself with the quality of your staff at this location.

As a GM in my own life, I can fully differentiate passable service with superior service, always expecting the latter but often don’t get that; your Franklin team is golden and absolutely delivered.

Every member of the team we encountered had great energy, was friendly and warm, and you could tell they were all happy to be in their environment. While I want to shout out your entire team, I have to single out Ryan - your AGM, and Tatum who was taking care of us.

Tatum was everything you’d want a server to be. Was attentive when needed, gave us space when needed - but her presence was never too far removed, was friendly, made great conversation, and created a great atmosphere for us to be in.

Ryan happened to be behind the bar and overheard me talking to my friend about what we should order - he asked if he could make some recommendations for us and we decided to let him pick his four favorites and that is what we would order. Wow, was he spot on with what he selected for us. We ended up loving the Cherry Bomb and Godzilla Bomb so much that we ordered another plate of each.

Not only did Ryan basically curate our dinner, but when our plates came out he circled back to make sure that we actually enjoyed what he recommended. It was clear that he genuinely wanted us to love what was in front of us and took the time to ensure that we did. He briefly chatted with us, which is how we learned he was your AGM, and it felt like we were visiting with a friend - so personable and genuine.

While I’m sure Ryan doesn’t have the time to curate meals for your entire restaurant, knowing that he is your AGM and he took the time to demonstrate and role model the behaviors that he did for the rest of the team to witness and emulate should give anyone reading this the confidence that you’ll have a great time at Blue.

I can’t wait for my next visit to Blue and am excited to see how your team impresses me next...

Waited 20 min for water and so I asked the hostess if I could get some at the bar. I was chill about it. The restaurant staff was extremely apologetic. Several people came and apologized and they told us that everything would be taken care of. Slay. We love accountability. We ordered and waited maybe 10 more min for water which was weird but things happen and I’m sure everyone was just doing their best. I got some soup while I waited for my beverage which made me laugh. Like I don’t mind waiting for water but idk why it came even after appetizer's. I appreciated all the apologies for it taking so long to get our water, but I would have preferred to just have our water more quickly. Like idk why people kept coming to apologize without any beverages. We got our drinks maybe 30 min in to being at the restaurant. I wasn’t thrilled by the experience but I figured it would be fine since we were told our order would be taken care of. It turns out, being “taken care of” means that we were given a $20 voucher that we are only allowed to use if we come back. That’s really presumptuous for a restaurant that we were trying for the very first time. I feel like they should manage their expectations and learn not to expect a long term relationship from Blue Sushi McEwen virgins.But to be fair, I should of managed my expectations about what being taken care of meant. This whole experience reminds me a lot of dating. It also costs like $30 a person to eat there, so a $20 kickback for 2 people is totally mid. Overall, not giving what it needs to give but the food is really good, and so is the atmosphere? I guess. It was just such a weird time but on the bright side I’ve cried of laughter so many times this afternoon because the whole thing felt like an SNL skit. And I love that for me. We will probably use the voucher at the Broadway location just because it’s much less chaotic there, but I feel kind of bad about it because the voucher said they hope we give them another chance in the future....