Something's fishy at Out of the Blue

[ron_newman]

Leslie won't be going back to Out of the Blue after her experience there last Saturday:

We had a little tiff at the Out of the Blue restaurant in Davis Square this evening. They refused to accept an order of 3 appetizers and 3 entrees from our party of 4 people, and insisted that everyone must order an entree. We pointed out that the cost of 2 appetizers more than equaled the cost of 1 entree, but they said that didn't matter to them.

Comments

[lidiya6.livejournal.com]

Wow, I have never been there, and now, I will make sure I never do!

[ron_newman]

The story saddens me, as I've enjoyed many pleasant meals at their previous location on Highland Avenue. The restaurant's website has an e-mail address at the bottom, so I've sent them a link to Leslie's blog entry and suggested that they respond.

[nonnihil.livejournal.com]

Yuck!

I've definitely had appetizer-and-salad as a meal there in the past with no trouble -- indeed, it's a very tasty meal. It's a shame if they're not going to allow that in the future.

[oakenspear.livejournal.com]

ron, sorry to hear that! on a completely different note, by chance, might you be my former coworker at FDS on federal street in boston??

[ron_newman]

Nope. Never worked on Federal Street and never heard of FDS. It's still possible you know me from somewhere else, though...

[oakenspear.livejournal.com]

yeah . . . there was a brother and sister team there named ron and leslie newman, so given the locale and names I thought I'd give it a shot. (or maybe I'm just jealous of anyone who's lucky enough to live in boston.)

[autumnsshadow.livejournal.com]

huh...i just passed there the other day and wondered what they might be like - i'd be curious to see what they have to say about something like this.

[two-stabs.livejournal.com]

Was it some troglodyte waiter, or management?

[kjc.livejournal.com]

Folks, it's pretty hard to make a living running a restaurant. I'm not surprised they have that rule - I've been in quite a few places who have that sort of requirement.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We've enjoyed a couple of excellent meals in their Highland St. space. I'm hoping to enjoy more in their new space.

Obligatory disclosure: The couple who own the restaurant are our neighbors, although we didn't meet them until going to the restaurant and talking about our neighborhood.

[nalz.livejournal.com]

Their right to have the rule, sure. But they'll never have my business again as a result of that. Consequences suck.

Nope

[azores.livejournal.com]

Uh-uh. It IS hard to make a restaurant succeed but you don't have to stoop to this level to do it, and restaurant economics is certainly no excuse for it. If it was, you'd run into it as a rule. Go to your top 20 favorite restaurants and ask for that service and you will get it, guaranteed.

[spicysurprise.livejournal.com]

unfortunately I had a bad experience with them the first time I went concerning using a gift certificate and charging the balance of the check on a credit card. The food was tasty but I've never gone back because of it. :(

Cheap Shot at Out of the Blue

[steliakos.livejournal.com]

Leslie,s numbers just don't add up.If this party wanted to order 3 appetizers and 3 entrees it would be no problem because the cost would be more than 4 entrees.So this is a cheap shot at Out of the Blue.For lunch and during the week for dinner you can order any way you like but on friday and saturday nights when is a wait you should all order an entree.The rising cost of buying fish,(30-100% )energy,(50%)rent(30%),overhead(100%) and been
forced to move the restaurant to the new location makes it very difficult to
have a profitable business if everyone shares a meals.we have been accommodating people at a personal level for 6 years and plan to continue to do so.The reason we give big portions is so you get your monies worth and not to share meals.Most restaurants have policies regarding splitting entrees.Either it is not allowed or there is a fee
As for Leslie and her friend Legal Seafood (her friend knows what i'm talking about)is an option
Thank You! Steve Liakos owner of The Out Of The Blue
Thank You! Steve Liakos owner of The out of The blue

Large portions

[twe.livejournal.com]

The reason we give big portions is so you get your monies worth and not to share meals.

While I've never been to your restaurant, I wanted to comment on this. I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth when I am served more food than I can finish. Either I wind up throwing a lot of food away and feeling wasteful, or eating too much and feeling sick. (Sometimes I do take the leftovers home for lunch the next day, but not everything is still tasty after it's sat in the fridge overnight.) It definitely affects how often I go out to eat.

Re: Cheap Shot at Out of the Blue

[stvn1.livejournal.com]

I was one of the patrons in this incident. I clearly remember our order, for we spent some time discussing it. We wanted three entrees, two appetizers, and a soup (which Leslie is counting as an appetizer). Leslie and Alex wanted to share an entree, Alex also wanted the soup, and we were all going to share the appetizers. If by the owner saying "the numbers don't add up" the owner means it doesn't make sense for them to have denied us this order, that's what we felt, which is why we felt so frustrated by them. But we were clearly and emphatically told that everyone had to order an entree. And the table server pointed out to me where on the cover of the menu it is written "No sharing of entrees." My experience with high class restaurants is that they often have a minimum charge per person, which leaves any sharing up to the customers.

Out of the Blue

[priatno.livejournal.com]

Man, am I surprised by the extreme responses to this posting..."This story saddens me???" "I have never been there, and now, I will make sure I never do!!" C'mon people.

First of all, Out of the Blue is a GREAT restaurant. Be thankful that they are in Davis Square and not on Newbury Street charging $45 a plate. I haven't been to Legal's in years because of these guys. Best seafood around--they really understand how to prepare it.

Secondly, take a look at Davis Square--Out of the Blue, Bhujo Cafe, Divas, Rosebud's, Diesel Cafe, Christos...all great places. All independent restaurants that you love to go to. Many of them family owned and run. Anybody remember what Harvard Square used to look like? Is that what you want to happen in Davis Square? Anyone know what it is like to run a business? Anyone know what it is like to run a restaurant business? Support your local businesses. Do you think that they have policies like this because they want to be bad guys? Buy the extra entree and take it home with you. I would gladly do that to try to help them out so that they continue be able to make their business work in Davis Square. Instead of giving them a hard time, you should be telling your friends what a great place this is.

Re: Out of the Blue

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

Point well taken, but isn't one of the things that is nice about a local joint is that they're independent and accomodating? Especially for regulars? And buy an extra entree?

I once had a similar bad experience at Gargoyles when a member of my party tried to order an appetizer off the bar menu while we were in the back dining room. That's against the rules because the bar menu is, well, not cheap but certainly much cheaper than the regular dinner menu. Problem is, all the dinner menu apps included a particular ingredient that this person was allergic to. Now, we had already ordered an expensive bottle of wine and were in the process of ordering all our entrees off the dinner menu so the restaurant wasn't going to lose money on us, but the waiter put his foot down and said 'dems da rules. We paid for our wine and left. But I've been back many times since because a) the food is too good to give up; b) the bartender is the best in town; and c) one shouldn't judge a restaurant on one bad waiter. Now, if the owner had backed the waiter up ... ah, what am I saying, we'd still go back. Just like I still go to Soundbites even though those guys are insane.

Into the Blue

[davisblogger.livejournal.com]

Folks, don't judge a restaurant on one anecdote! This story doesn't seem to add up. We just had dinner at the new Out of the Blue and one of our party had two appetizers due to dietary restrictions. The wait staff kept checking in to see if he had enough to eat! (Food was awesome and portions more than adequate.) BTW, WE also tried to be sensitive to the need to order enough for this person, because there are only so many seatings on a Saturday night for a restaurant to make its money. The owners, it turns out, live in the neighborhood and are trying to raise a small family from this business. So, unless you like going to mega-chains like Legal, give OOTBlue a second try.

Re: Into the Blue

[mattlistener.livejournal.com]

"Doesn't seem to add up" is such a strange criticism of the original post. It's not like not adding up is some fishy hole in its logic, it is the overt, sole point of the post.

And yet apparently the comment before mine is from another restaurant patron, who not only had a good no-entree experience at OOB, but (identically to steliakos) thinks the original post doesn't "add up".

I've also never heard of a restaurant patron being proudly mindful not to order too little food from a restaurant on a Saturday.

My puzzlement about these things felt satisfied when I observed that lj account davisblogger was created 2006-03-25 11:14:47.