Blue Plate Cafe-Downtown

Breakfast done right. Best biscuits ever, fluffy pancakes that are thick yet super light, cute Southern kitchen décor and a friendly staff. Huge portions, every bite a delight.

Just passing thru. Food and service was great. Very nice family atmosphere. Felt like home.

Being a Sunday morning, I expected a bit of a wait. This was a little ridiculous. Entered the restaurant at 10:30am. Seated at 11:20. Served at 12:20. The food was fabulous. I just wish I could say it was worth the wait.

The food here was decent but the service was a little off. They were busy and severely understaffed. Again, while the food was good it wasnt worth the wait in my opinion. This type of country food is available all over the south.

Wait staff needs to clean up their act (hygiene). I didn’t eat my food… I never do that. The waitress didn’t ask why I didn’t touch my food and I didn’t press the issue… wasted $ 15.
Long wait for those that could stomach it…

We arrived about an hour before closing. Cashier was the friendliest person working. They weren’t rude just to the point. The food was nothing to write home about, but it was very filling for the price. We had breakfast and will go back again to try the lunch menu.

Huge, huge, huge servings of Southern breakfast.
Fluffy biscuits that while most likely aren’t homemade are high enough quality you don’t mind.
Every table is blessed with a friendly bear full of honey… no begging your waitress for a drop of golden goodness.
If you can win the death match for a parking spot this place is worth it. Even if you don’t you’ll be served plenty of food to fuel the walk back to your car.

We were there on a slow day (cuz the food trucks were across the street) but I felt rushed. The server did introduce herself and make herself available. But it was not a relaxed meal. Having said that, as a hungry tourist, the food did come out quickly!
We got basic breakfast. Waffles, pancakes, eggs. All tasted good. Nothing too exciting or WOW! About it. Just breakfast.
I wouldn’t not go here. But it’s not my first choice either

Ahhhhhmazing!!!
Went there on a Saturday morning around 11. We were sat immediately. Their menus are printed like newspapers, which is kind of cool. Water and hot coffee came right away.
I was only in Memphis for the weekend, so we said «go big, or go home» and ordered up a small feast!
Fried green tomatoes: excellent flavor. You get a bunch of them in a basket. The batter is quite light, with a nice crunch.
Fried chicken (our server’s recommendation when I asked about the fried chicken vs. chicken fried steak). So tasty! Crunchy outside and juicy inside. I don’t always eat the skin on fried chicken, but there was no way I was leaving that behind! My two sides: fried okra and mashed potatoes w/​gravy. Both were a good idea. The mashed potatoes were pretty standard and went really well with the fried chicken.
Strawberry cream waffle: fantastic! Crispy outside, soft and fluffy inside. The way a waffle should be. Piled high with fresh strawberries and fresh whipped cream.
I would absolutely recommend this little neighborhood gem!

5 star for the service. And 5 star for the food.
–Very Kind Service.
–Great tasting food and location.
8 $ for Two Eggs, 2 Wheat toast (can be substituted for grits or bisquit and gravy) and 3 pancakes + all the tea you want.
Will be back for breakfast.

Just ok. Service not so good on Sunday morning. Got our food wrong. Good biscuits. That was the best thing.

I have such mixed reviews about this place. Really I feel like it’s a 2.5 kind of place.
Setting/​Space:
Open airy feel. One of the stronger qualities of this place. Bright natural light. A place I would like to sit and sip coffee and work one afternoon.
Service:
Generally ok. Nothing specifically wrong but also not memorable.
Food/​drink:
I ordered the blueberry waffle. Well it’s not a blueberry waffle. It’s a waffle with blueberry mush served next to it for you to pour on it. Believe it or not there’s a huge taste difference between this and a real blueberry waffle. Also, the coffee was insanely weak. Like a half of cup was diluted with water.
Value:
$ 6 for one waffle is kind of a lot. No sides. Not really expensive but also not as cheap as the quality might make one think.
Overall… I’m more likely to pass unless I’m in a jam and need a place to tuck into for awhile.

Cute little café with down home cooking. Nothing too extraordinary but after living in the Pacific Northwest for the past 2 years, it was great to get some real southern food in my tummy!
I ordered the pancake meal and the hubs ordered an omelet. I appreciated that they warm up the pancake syrup before bringing it to your table! (I’m a sucker for those tiny touches) The portions were enormous and we both ate every single bite. The staff were quick and courteous. A great little stop for breakfast if you’re in the area!

Haven’t been here in over a year but we had to come back. I member terrific food and huge quantities no joking.
We took an Über ride over and she hadn’t heard of the place! Well let me tell u. Endless coffee and good, had a hard time deciding on what to eat! First I said (in my miiind) a Waffle with fresh strawberries and banana. Then eggs n meat noooo Eggs Bene Florintine! Oh my the poached eggs were perfect and I was expecting sautéed spinich but it was chopped in a sauce. So I tasted. Yep yep that’s do pig. We both got two very fluffy fresh biscuits n gravy. Didn’t need em but ate em. Then our breaky came. Boy had ham n chz omlet with pancakes. Also good. But we really shouldn’t have eaten that extra biscuit… Ya Know??? So full but satisfied.
The waitress had just come in so a little slow on the extras like Tabasco and sugar free syrup but she came around. Still waking up prob. All in all a good experience. So come all and be hungry cause u will be served!

Tried out Blue Café this morning after hearing good things from a friend and I’m glad we did!
Being a Tuesday morning, it wasn’t very busy and we were greeted and seated right away. The woman who seated us was also our server, so our drink order was taken as soon as we reached our table.
The menu was full of delicious and tempting options, like chocolate chip pancakes and dessert-​like waffles. I elected for a western omelette, which included biscuits, gravy AND pancakes! All for under $ 9! Crazy amount of food. My boyfriend tried the French toast with bacon. Everything was fantastic, my omelette especially!
Our server, Katrina, was great. Very friendly and never let our coffee get below half a cup. Anyone who has had service issues here in the past should go back and ask for Katrina.
Our bill was around $ 22, very reasonable for two large breakfasts with coffee. We will definitely be back!

Yay breakfast! I love trying breakfast places in new cities.
We tried Blue Plate during our brief trip to Memphis this past spring. Super cute! It’s in a nice, quiet park of downtown and we took some fun pictures in the park across the street.
We took the bus from our hotel, and it dropped us off right in front. It took us a second to find our way into the restaurant, because it’s not quite obvious which door is the correct one. Or maybe it is and we were just tired.
Instead of my typical combo plate, I splurged and got chocolate chip pancakes. But they weren’t just ANY old chocolate chip pancakes. It tasted like pretty high-​quality Swiss chocolate, so that was impressive. I sat underneath a portrait of a cat. I mean, it was a near-​perfect experience.
Waitresses were friendly (a little gruff), restaurant was clean, prices were good.
We proooobably won’t find ourselves in Memphis again, but if we do, we’ll come back to Blue Plate!

I’ve been to their popular Poplar location and I enjoyed that location. This place was recommended for breakfast by our downtown hotel, but this place doesn’t resemble their other location in service at all. Skip the Blue Plate and go elsewhere when downtown.
The atmosphere is nothing special, it’s on the bottom floor of an office building and kind of feels like it. Other reviews mention server issues and we had those as well. Our server completely forgot to put in our order and she figured it out only after I asked about our long wait (when the restaurant wasn’t that busy).
She never apologized, and didn’t make any move to make amends by comping one of the breakfasts, or even free coffee for our troubles. She was AWOL the minute food was put down and it took forever to get the check, too. Bah, skip it.

The food was great. I got a cheese omelet with hash browns on the side. You can’t really mess up an omelet and I would be impressed if you could. The coffee was alrite and the biscuits and gravy were a nice surprise for this Chicagoan.
My only gripe was our server. Jamie. She was the rudest person I have ever come in contact with in the service industry. I felt like I was bothering her when I placed my order after sitting for 15 minutes. She got REAL mad when I asked for a refill. Also, we had to physically take our food to the register so that we could get a box to go. She met us up there and didn’t even seem bothered that we had to do that since she ignored us almost the entire time we were there.
Anyway, the food is super good, the atmosphere is very welcoming, and if Jamie would not have been so rude, this place would get more love from me.

This is just an A-​OK breakfast place on a Sunday morning. The café is really cute and has a newspaper-​like menu that was really creative.
We ordered the chicken fried steak and a bacon omelet. I think they may have been busy because there were quite a few big groups ahead of us, but the food took a while to arrive.
I think the food ended being just alright, a solid 3 star breakfast joint. Both the dishes were alright. Although the hash browns looked like just some potato chunks, it was pretty good, but again not exceptional. The prices were reasonable and the portions were pretty large. I had my leftovers for breakfast the next day!

So, why didn’t anyone tell me about Blue Plate?!
I just love this place. I love breakfast (which is weird really because it is the meal I skip 99% of the time). Maybe that is why I love breakfast, it is the 1% of wonderful vacation/​downtime this meal represents.
Service was slow, perfect. Breakfast is huge, perfect. Only been here for breakfast and it is just perfect. I’m a weirdo and don’t like pancakes, but I do like them as the giant side dish here.
On a dead end street, there is a good amount of street parking in the surrounding area which is free on weekends.
Biscuits n gravy n love! I will be back.