BLUE MEZZE BAR (ZOI) — Restaurant in New York

I dislike saying anything bad about a restaurant, especially during difficult times – but our experience at Blue Mezze was HORRIBLE. The service from start to finish was pathetic. Having lived in Manhattan for over ten years – there are our usual amazing spots and then there is the joy of experiencing new places – especially for special occasions. Wanting to try a new place, we chose Blue Mezze. We thought with 750+ mostly favorable reviews, a 4.7+ rating and delicious sounding menu – Blue Mezze would be a wonderful evening.

We were extremely disappointed – the ambience was woeful. The seats were arranged in such a way that it made the place look overcrowded – and we were there on a Monday. The service was lousy – it took the waiter some time to get to us when there was hardly anyone in the restaurant. He took our order – and then we got served cold, soggy, and poorly presented mayo truffle fries. If you cannot get your fries right, might as well shut shop. We also ordered the Tuna Tartare – which was below par – the quality was OK, but it looked like the chef put it together in a hurry.

For our mains – we ordered the chicken shish kebab and the grilled branzino. We specifically asked if they come filleted – and they said ‘yes’ – filleted – without bones. They first brought us a dish we didn’t order, which we sent back. Then, the waiter put in our correct order. This meant – the fish order went in late and to make sure it came out in time – they rushed the branzino preparation. The fish came out – but it had no flavor and it was not deboned as mentioned. We are happy we did not order drinks or dessert at Blue Mezze. The lamentable service wanted us to walk out – but we stayed just out of courtesy. Overall a terrible...

We came here for a dinner of 4 and I was surprisingly disappointed considering the high reviews this restaurant has recieved. We're locals and were looking forward to another great restaurant but Blue Mezze didn't live up to the expectations.

Food: The best item we had was the watermelon salad. It was refreshing and the tomatoes were a nice touch. The falafel felt dry and under seasoned. In our mezze we got the Muhammara, Hummus, and Tzatziki. They were okay, nothing too memorable about them. The pita bread that came with it was delicious. Freshly made and well seasoned. The only main entree they had that was vegetarian was the truffle pasta. It was okay.

Service: Service was rude and abrupt and impatient. I understand that they are busy but less than 5 minutes after we were seated they kept trying to rush us to order and once we ordered we didn't see our server until it was time to order our main entrees. It was so hard to get our water filled or even catch someone to order more food/drinks.

Ambiance: It's got a great vibe. I love the decor and definitely feels like a fancy restaurant. They also have a live DJ which I think is really cool.

Price: Given the service and quality of the food, this whole meal felt very over priced. Despite it's great ambiance, it is not worth the price. The food portions for the pasta was not big at all, it could barely fill one person and was costing more than $20.

Insta:...

Having my boyfriend living on E 84th St, we frequent many places on the 2nd Ave including Blue Mezze Bar. We went there to sit by the bar and I attended brunch once - it was always great attentive service. Well, it was definitely not the case this time. Being as naive as I am, I have decided to have my birthday brunch yesterday on May 11 inviting 11 people. I hyped everyone about how great this place is. We were sat at that cool section for bigger parties at the back and I guess that is why we were never noticed. Our waitress was new, took orders with her ipad from us irregularly and mentioned in our faces that there is another large party so we have to be patient- it took probably 40 min to get all drink orders, so we had to go directly to bartender instead of waiting for her. It took my friend who doesn't drink over 1 hr to get her black coffee. Well, our food has arrived incomplete and 2 hrs late - reservation was for 1pm and food was on our table at 3pm when we had to go to other scheduled event at 3.30pm. We were missing our brunch proteins like smoked salmon, orders of potatoes, waitress placed orders for eggs requested sunny side up as scrambled. It was such a horrendous experience all 11 guests in the party have decided to not to come back, my birthday was technically ruined - at the end we had to go through the list of items not received but charged and got a verbal apology...