Tori Blue — Restaurant in Lynchburg

I have to give a 1 rating as it wouldn’t allow a negative number , however the decor was pretty so a 1 will suffice. Reading the reviews and seeing posts on facebook we were really excited and looking forward to dinner here but was extremely disappointed. The first clue should have been when we walked in on a Saturday night at 6pm and there were only 4 or so tables and 2 people at the bar. It was dead and we had tried to get reservations at five other fine dining restaurants and everything was booked well in advance so we thought we had lucked out by getting a reservation here. Now I know why. We had plans for a special dinner to celebrate our anniversary and my son’s birthday. My son had called personally to the restaurant to make the reservations and said this was special night, etc , just thinking they would make it a more personal experience , not looking for special treatment, it is just nice to have that personal touch like other places have done. I made reservations in Oct and did it on open table and mentioned the special occasion in the notes and when we arrived at the crowns ember they immediately welcomed you in and greeted the person we were celebrating and made them feel appreciated. From the moment we walked in our experience was less than desirable. After about five minutes of waiting our hostess who was also our waitress and bartender as well seated us. I believe her name was Kristine . We ordered drinks and two appetizers, the candied bacon , which was not cooked very well and the fried green tomatoes which were very thick and hard and a little cold, also not cooked very well. We asked about bread for the table and our waitress asked how many we wanted? I wasn’t sure how to answer that but we said enough for table to have one each would be nice. She mentioned this bread again when she took our order for entrees and said “they didn’t bring your bread” . Not sure who they would be as she was the only person we had saw. There was one other male waiter but he didn’t serve us. It wouldn’t matter anyway because she never brought it until our main entree came out and she brought 4 and there were 5 of us. When our food came out about 45 minutes later, once you remove the flowery presentation, it was not appeasing. I had ordered the filet medium, and it was charred and overly well done. It did not resemble filet in the slightest, was thin and flat and scorched, wish I had taken photos . The other people in our party had ordered other cuts and theirs were not correct either. I was just going to eat it and just let it be but nothing really tasted good. Didn’t try the asparagus, had one bite of the so called filet and two bites of the mashed potatoes. None of it was edible so we just told the waitress that we would like the bill and would pay for drinks and appetizers but she could send the rest back. She immediately was defensive and made some snarky comments and was giving side eye and mumbling under her breath as she walked away. The presumably “manager” not sure as they didn’t introduce themselves came out as well as the chef. The chef was nice about it and apologized and I didn’t want to be disrespectful to him but that we didn’t think there was anything he could do to remedy it, that we couldn’t eat it. I was prepared to pay for what we had eaten and also tip our waitress even though the service was extremely poor, but after waiting for our bill another 30 minutes while she tended bar, she brought our first refills and we said we would just like our bill as we didn’t need drinks, we had sent our food back! She said I don’t care if you drink them or not and she said fine I will bring your bill. We said the chef said that he would remove all charges and that infuriated her even more. She yelled and mumbled her way back to the kitchen. This was the oddest and most peculiar behavior and not to mention rude that I have ever experienced at any restaurant. We immediately left at went to La Carreta on wards road and had hands down better service...

There shouldn’t be a single bad review for this place—certainly nothing below four stars. If there is, it’s likely from someone whose idea of fine dining is Cookout or Golden Corral.

This is one of the best restaurants in Lynchburg, if not the best. Coming from a large city, I can say with confidence that it ranks among the finest. I’ve been to William & Henry and Shoemakers, and the chef here creates some of the best cuisine—flavorful, beautifully presented, and executed with a skill set that is rare in Central Virginia, let alone in many larger cities. Highly recommended.

To The One Star Review Crowd: 👇

As for those leaving one-star reviews:

Their idea of a culinary journey has to do with an endless buffet and bottomless soda. Leave the ranch dressing at home and open your mind! You know if they're giving a one star because they're missing salt and pepper maybe they should just stick to drive throughs.

To those giving one stars stick to your ketchup packets and frozen sausages.

If your idea of a good time is drowning your steak in ranch dressing then you're officially banned from the grown up table. Stick to the chicken nuggets!

Fine dining isn't a three cheese pizza buffet with ranch dressing on the side --step up or stay out of the tasting menu section. It's like saying the book is terrible because you didn't like the font!

Disingenuous, dishonest, and clearly unfamiliar with fine dining. I’ve seen people here on there review asking for salt and pepper like they’re at Bob Evans or Cracker Barrel. Leaving a whole one-star review instead of a reasonable three or four? It’s the equivalent of ordering from Pizza Hut, eating nine out of ten slices, and then complaining it was too cold.

Just look at some of the one star reviews. One recently gave it 3/5 for Food, 1/5 for Service, 3/5 for Atmosphere. But did he give it three stars? Of course not. He gave it a One Star. At a minimum he can't do math, but the reality is they're just dishonest. In fact if you sort by newest you'll see one from a guy named Gary, who gave Taco Bell and Sam's Gas, Food Lion and Dollar Tree -- five stars. Go figure. That's what we're dealing with here! The guy who thinks synthetic cheese wrapped in a cigar-shaped flower tortilla with a packet of so called "salsa" constitutes five stars! I wouldn't trust this guy for a referral of which Goodwill to drop my clothes off at.

For these one-star maniacs, it's like explaining the concept of color to the color blind. It's like the food is exquisite the atmosphere divine, and these one star clowns would be in there asking for ranch dressing!

I feel bad for any business owner dealing with these types of reviews. Google should really reconsider its system and allow users to vote down unfair negative reviews. If you take those one-star ratings seriously, I can only assume you think fine dining is at Popeyes.

This restaurant deserves every bit of praise. I know plenty of people who love it but don’t take the time to write reviews. As an outsider coming into Lynchburg, I get the sense that half the folks here think Chick-fil-A or Waffle House is fine dining. Give me a break.

Yeah I'm on a rampage, but when you see this, these people need to be called out. If they had a business, and people did this to them, I would be equally upset. Review should be honest and fair. You can't say the food was great but the service was bad so the whole thing is a one star.

Keep up the great...

Tori Blue? More like Tori Blows.

My family visited this sorry excuse for a fine dining restaurant on 12/14/24 to celebrate my brother’s birthday and parents’ anniversary. From the moment we walked in it was a miserable experience. The hostess, who was also our waitress, the bartender, and probably cook, hotel receptionist, and janitorial staff, could not locate our reservation, nor did she ask if we were celebrating a special occasion as is customary with finer establishments. Our waitress was incredibly inattentive to our table despite repeated requests for refills and bread. We tried two different appetizers and both were unappetizing. The real cherry on top is this restaurant charging almost $60 for “the best steak in town,” when it should be criminal to serve steaks this bad. Everyone in my party asked to send the steaks back to the kitchen because they were not edible, either because they were raw or burnt like a camel’s hoof. Our waitress was very hostile when we complained about the steaks, and she tried saying that no customer had ever returned steaks. The lie detector determined that was a lie. The supposed Michelin star chef came to our table and also tried explaining that Tori Blue uses the best quality cuts for its steaks. The lie detector also determined that was a lie. We explained that we did not want to continue dining and that we wanted to pay our bill for the appetizers. Another apparent manager came to our table for damage control but was also hostile. We said that our waitress was not tending to our table because she was busy bartending and hostessing, to which the manager replied that it was her choice to assume more responsibilities. No fine dining restaurant should even allow its staff to work in different areas without cause. Plus, there was only four tables including ours during our visit on a Saturday night. When our waitress finally returned to our table to bring the bill, she brought refills and said she “didn’t care whether we drink them or not.” She was very disrespectful to my parents and almost spilled a drink on my wife. The manager told us that the restaurant would take care of our bill, but our waitress brought a bill to our table and nearly knocked me over. She then yelled at my mother and wife, and then ran off to the kitchen while shouting other comments. I have never left a restaurant review, but I felt it was mandatory when your experience was this bad. I have never felt so disrespected during a dining experience—and all without reason. When you charge exorbitant prices and hold yourself out as being a premier fine dining restaurant, you implicitly place yourself in the upper echelon with other fine dining places. However, Tori Blue does not compare with other local gems like William and Henry, Fleming Mountain Grill, or even Skyline. As a matter of fact, Tori Blue does not compete with Golden Corral, Wendy’s, or even 7/11. Tori Blue will never see my face or penny again, and I will make it my mission to dissuade everybody I know from visiting this...