Blue Collar — Restaurant in Miami

This review is another entry in my tour of the places in Florida Guy Fieri has eaten at with his show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I have a Yelp collection if you want to follow along with my adventures. The show first aired in 2006 and it is on its 44th season of Guy's road trips across America where he highlights some of America's most underrated and delicious local eats.

Blue Collar has been on DDD numerous times. It appeared on the first season, episode 56, All Stacked Up featuring super stacked sandwiches from Miami to Memphis an episode 77, Wings 'n' Things where Guy tried drumsticks and duck. Later on they were on season 19, episode 8, Cross Country Comfort Food when Guy sampled the spicy oxtail. Blue Collar was also featured on season 2, episode 5 of Guilty Pleasures Holy Moly Burgers! and Check Please.

Blue Collar is located in the MiMo neighborhood of Miami, a one mile stretch of mid century modern architecture in Miami that is along Biscayne Boulevard from 54th to 77th streets. Today you will find boutiques, restaurants, and Art Deco motels like The Biscayne which is the home of Blue Collar. Chef and owner Daniel Serfer came to Florida from New York and was inspired to create a casual restaurant serving comfort food with fine dining ingredients that people would want to frequent. Blue Collar opened on January 13, 2011 and has won the Burger Beast Burgie Awards for Best French Fries and twice for Best Restaurant in Miami.

My girlfriend and I talked about coming here for so long. Miami Spice finally provided the catalyst to come. Miami Spice is a discount restaurant program Miami restaurants can participate in that offers three-course meals at top tier restaurants for $30/$35 for lunch/brunch and $45/$60 for dinner. Unfortunately we showed up a little early for the 5:30 dinner service but we entertained ourselves in the area and we were one of the first to arrive back when they reopened. I love that they have free parking long the hotel wall for Blue Collar. Free parking in Miami is like finding a unicorn. I didn't know the restaurant was so small, only 8 tables inside, although they have additional seating under a covered patio out front. The walls are decorated with vintage lunch boxes. I feel lucky we were seated inside without reservations and definitely recommend them. It is such a deal to eat here with the Miami Spice discount. For $45 you get any appetizer from the menu, any main course, any dessert, and wine or beer. You can't beat that deal.

As soon as we sat down the chef sent us complimentary latkes with applesauce. The crisp, hot potato cakes were heavenly but that applesauce took it to a whole new level. Just based on that first taste we knew we were going to have a fantastic dinner. For my meal I ordered the macaroni and cheese, ribs from the daily special, and the chocolate cake for dessert. The creamy macaroni and cheese was wonderful and the fall off the bones ribs were melt in the mouth delicious. The fudgy, moist cake would satisfy any chocoholic and was the perfect sweet ending. My friend donated her glass of wine to me which was exactly what I needed after a stressful night of being awake when the power cut off at 1AM. By the second glass and some amazing food, the stress finally started to drift away. I stuck to the meat but Blue Collar is actually very vegetarian friendly with their four vegetable meal plates. Some people even think the vegetables are the star of the show.

A lot of the Miami Spice restaurant menus restrict you to certain dishes. I really appreciated how Blue Collar allows you to choose anything on the menu. The Miami Spice deal was so much food that I had enough to bring home for an incredible lunch the next day. I have always enjoyed all of the DDD restaurants I have tried but Blue Collar knocked it out of the park. Especially coupled with Miami Spice, this is a deal not...

TLDR version - lunch-bucket, diner-style atmosphere in funky neighborhood; very well executed, creative dishes. Unique focus on multiple vegetable dishes. Seemed slightly over-priced, but definitely would return. Reduced from 5 to 4 stars (can't do 1/2 stars) only because of potential parking security issue.

ATMOSPHERE Blue Collar is a no-frills, postage stamp of a restaurant on busy Biscayne Blvd in NE Miami, Upper East Side. Adjacent streets are an eclectic mix of thriving businesses, vacant buildings, and well-established residential neighborhoods. I read the recent reviews by patrons who unfortunately had their cars vandalized in the nearby parking area. We did not experience that and never felt unsafe during our Sunday evening dinner, but the designated parking is not visible from the restaurant (a budget motel sits in-between), and doesn't have assigned security. Owners should address this if possible. Outdoor patio was tightly spaced, and you're right on Biscayne Blvd, so there is the background road noise, but we never felt overwhelmed by either the cars or other diners.

SERVICE Arrived just prior to 6pm opening time to schedule a 7pm reservation. Glad we did, because 15-20 people were already waiting outside for the doors to open (a good omen). We were able to reserve an outside-patio table for four, and when we arrived at 7p, the host quickly prepared our table for seating. He even moved another group from our table who had not reserved so we could sit. That was much appreciated. Members of our party have food allergies/dietary restrictions, and BC staff were very accommodating, helping them to select suitable menu options. Restaurant was very crowded for the 90 minutes we were there, and the staff is not large, so service was understandably a bit slow; but we never felt ignored, and our servers were very helpful and attentive.

FOOD The best part of a very good experience. Nobody was disappointed in their choices. Highlights included: *Awesome veggie options - over a dozen creatively-prepared vegetable dishes, plus a 4-Veggie entree. We researched a lot of restaurants, and this was the only one with such attention to vegetable dishes. *Cuban Sandwich Spring Rolls - decadent, deep-fried w/ serrano ham, manchego cheese and pickles. Small portion but delicious with mustard-mayo dip. *Sauteed Kale - simply amazing mix of bitter, salt, heat and almost-fermented-flavor warm kale goodness. *Crispy Red Snapper - fresh and flavorful *Salads - Fresh ingredients with excellent dressings *Dessert - Bread pudding with a Cayenne kick! A buttery, succulent finish to a great meal. Deserves it's...

HORRIBLE. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Here’s why: Came here on a Friday night around 7:40 with my wife. Had reservations for 8 so had to wait a bit. I’ve always heard good things about this place so was excited. Infatuation said it was one of the best burgers in Miami and just overall lauded. But our experience was anything but. We ordered: jalapeño cornbread, Chanukah latkes, dry aged cheeseburger, and their daily pasta special which was a porcini mushroom ravioli in a cream sauce with a side of crispy artichoke.

Jalepeno cornbread: genuinely really good. Balanced flavors. Loved the sweet salty spicy of this dish.

Crispy artichoke: fried artichoke in a lemon aioli. It’s fried and topped with aioli. You can’t mess this up. It was good.

Dry aged cheeseburger: so many reviews praising this dish. Ordered it medium well. It came well done and burnt. It was inedible. Probably the worst burger ever had.

Pasta special: porcini mushroom ravioli in a cream sauce. It was mediocre. There was a tangy flavor to this that I wouldn’t have expected from a ravioli dish. Would not order this.

Chanukah latkes: I wish I could give a review on this. Except they never brought it out. So who knows. I would assume that if it were reflective of the rest of the meal. Then it would be mediocre. The theme really of this restaurant.

Now the real reason for the poor rating: abysmal customer service and a long wait for horrible food that just can’t be justified. It took them 20 minutes to bring out the appetizer and then 1 hour 20 minutes to bring out a burger and ravioli. In the process the waitress apologized several times and indicated the food would be promptly out but it wasn’t prompt. She indicated the manager comped the artichoke and cornbread and while at the moment that seemed nice, it took another 45 minutes for the main meal to come out. In the process the four tables around us that were seated AFTER us had all their meals come out, consumed, and had already left the restaurant.

I would never come back to this restaurant nor would I ever recommend this place to anyone. The fact that people call this “one of the best burgers of Miami” is laughable. The food is subpar and the experienced ruined an otherwise...