Blue Sushi Sake Grill — Restaurant in Lincoln

I did not want to post a review. I have been waiting for a call from a GM for over a week and was hoping I could share my experience with management. It was awful.... I took my daughter here for her birthday as a treat on a Wednesday night. We were sat outside and ignored for 20 minutes, among 4 other tables.. A host asked if we'd been served yet, we had not. He got our server over directly. We finally got food ordered and waited. And waited. And waited. 45 minutes on a Wednesday for 3 rolls and still waiting without a server checking in on us. As we waited a couple came in and acted like they owned the place. They grabbed spray bottles and began wiping off their own table to sit behind us with their dog, who was well behaved. I assumed they were regulars or something. The amount of attention lavished on this couple by the ENTIRE staff was embarrassing. Everyone came to fawn on this couple when we were ignored for the last hour. We got our food, finally, and then the couple that sat themselves got their entrees 10 minutes after they got there. Meanwhile the staff is still grossly ignoring not only us but the other tables. It was clear they weren't regulars but off-duty staff members. I had a feeling and asked our server if they happened to be owners or something. She said, "no, just bartenders that came in on their day off". I was so disappointed to hear that. Off-duty employees are a priority and they get food expedited. I have never been made to feel so unwelcome in a restaurant. My daughter begged me not to say anything because it was her birthday. I did not say anything, I paid our tab and got out of there. I did call back and spoke to a shift lead who just happened to be my server. I explained how horrible our experience was and explained what it looked like from a customer's perspective. The sad part is that she agreed to all of my complaints. She admitted what happened was unprofessional and shouldn't have happened. She was embarrassed by her staff's behavior, including hers. I was assured a call from a GM either that night or the following day. It's been over a week. I shared my experience with people at work and they were surprised to hear about it. I will not give them one more penny and I would ask if off-duty staffers are in the house before being sat. If they are, enjoy being ignored. A very expensive way to be mistreated. There are a lot of other places to get...

Follow Up: After posting this review, I received a wonderful follow up from the restaurant seeking more information about what happened with my experience. They were very receptive to my feedback and open about their plans to address my concerns. I very much appreciate this!

I have always been a big fan of Blue - usually my go-to place for sushi in Lincoln. If I were rating solely on food, I would give five stars without second thought. But the last several times I've eaten at Blue, the service has been dreadful. A lot of times, I'll pop in to Blue for a quick lunch on my own. Not wanting to take up a table that other patrons could use, I typically sit at the bar. The bar service is terrible. I ate at Blue today, sitting at the bar, and it may have been my worst experience yet. Upon sitting down, I was ignored for several minutes by the bartender. When she finally did come to "greet" me, she seemed put out that I wanted to order food. After reviewing the menu for a few minutes, I waited another five minutes for the bartender to acknowledge me and take my order. And when I say acknowledge, she continued slicing drink garnishes and seemed completely disinterested in my order. She then mumbled an inaudible question and seemed annoyed when I asked her to repeat it. My salad arrived rather quickly, delivered by someone from the kitchen. I had no utensils and sat another five minutes before I could capture someone's attention. It wasn't the bartender, but another employee that was rushing by me. The bartender was spending her time doing things behind the bar, but never acknowledged I needed anything. My first of two rolls arrived rather quickly, but the second one came about ten minutes later, both delivered by someone other than the bartender who took my order. Not once did she come check on me. After taking my order, the next time I saw her was when she brought the check. It was at this time, I asked for a refill on my drink, since it had been sitting there empty for ten minutes. Once again, she seemed annoyed that I would ask for anything.

Today's experience is not unlike many others I've had sitting at the bar at Blue. It's so disappointing since this is usually one of my favorite places to go. I love the food, but if I'm going to get terrible service and treated as if I'm a burden on the staff, there are several other sushi places I enjoy in Lincoln that...

Walking into Blue Sushi and Grill was like walking into a yoga studio, calm, nice music, fresh air, and I could already smell the delicious fresh ingredients straight from the kitchen. I was greeted by the hostess and seated right away in the front left corner of the restaurant. Each table was nicely plated with condiments filled and everything from the plates to the chopsticks were laid out perfectly.

As I was seated a waitress was right with me, brought out ice cold water with cucumber slices and immediately asked if I would like anything else to drink. While looking over their menu I was incredibly impressed by the amount of not only sushi options but appetizers, salads, and dessert options as well. It took a while to decide but I decided to order a plate of the Mango Crab Rangoon to start and for my entree I ordered the Crunchy Red Roll.

Then just 4 minutes later my appetizer was served. The crab rangoon was delicious, the mango sauce gave an excellent amount of flavor, sweet, with some spice to it as well, the cream cheese had incredible flavor, also sweet but with a savory bite, and the crab, very settled but just the right amount for a crab rangoon.

Just 9 minutes after placing my sushi order my fantastic waitress served it to my table. The crunchy red sushi roll, had 8 pieces total and had amazing flavor. This roll had shrimp tempura, crab and tampico mix, avocado, serrano, beet tempura crisps, and eel sauce. This roll has so many elements but all the flavors and ingredients combine so nicely together. The crisps gave great texture to the roll and the seafood element was delicious, so fresh, the eel sauce tasted very similar to soy sauce, sweeter and tangy. Both the avocado and serrano were fantastic, the serrano adding heat and the avocado tasting so fresh and was an excellent element to this sushi roll, overall can say one of the best sushi rolls I have gotten to try.

My waitress was so sweet and continued to check up on me throughout my entire stay, making sure that I had all that I needed and was doing alright. As I started to finish my dish, I ordered 3 espresso mochi for dessert, the best way to end my experience at blue. An amazing dessert, with a marshmallow like texture on the outside and ice cream in the middle. Fantastic staff, fantastic food,...