I cannot believe that I have been to Blue Plate Cafe about three times this year, and I have yet to write about it. I finally realized this when meeting my dad and sister for breakfast while they were in town this past week.
Blue Plate Cafe is one of my favorite places to grab breakfast. The food is consistently some of the best down-home, Southern comfort goodness in Memphis. You immediately realize this when first sitting down at your table. The menus are newspapers. The history of the restaurant is on the front, along with some motivational material. On the inside is their complete menu.
I always have a hard time deciding what to get when I eat here. The omelets are great. I have an obsession with pancakes, and they have a lot of choices. Butter pecan waffles? Okay, maybe. Guaranteed though, we always order biscuits and gravy to start.
The biscuits at Blue Plate Cafe are soft, buttery, and perfect. They always come out hot and fresh. Most times, I don’t like to smother them in gravy because they are so good by themselves. However, sometimes you just need that good, heart-clogging warmth of southern gravy. With or without the gravy, the biscuits cannot be missed.
This particular time I came in, I chose to order the Eggs Florentine, which is “spinach and poached egg on an english muffin covered in rich mornay sauce” with a side of fruit.
The Eggs Benedict was just as good as anything else I have ever eaten at Blue Plate. The English muffin was toasted just perfectly, with the right combination of spinach, tomato, poached egg, and sauce. My only wish is that Blue Plate offered fresh, cooked spinach instead of creamed spinach. I think you would be able to taste the flavor of spinach better, and it would make the whole entree taste fresher.
I also love Blue Plate’s fruit cup, because it is more than just your ho-hum cantelope and honey dew melon. In addition, they add strawberries and bananas. I am also pretty sure it changes depending on the season.
The service at Blue Plate is pretty humorous if you are observant. From my experiences, all of the older servers who are waiting tables because they are industry professionals, are always happy, friendly, polite, and glad to be there. However the younger servers, who are in their teens or early twenties, always seem to be having a bad day.
Our server (I do not know her name. She never told us.) was one of the latter. She looked about 18, and she acted as though I was ruining her day. I watched her interact outside of our table, and she was mildly happy and laughing with her co-workers. However, every time she walked up to a table, including ours, a giant scowl came over her face. It seemed as though all of her customers were making her angry. She was attentive and got us everything we needed, which was great, but she just did it with a terrible attitude.
Though you cannot help who you get as a server, I would suggest crossing your fingers and hoping for one of the ladies who has been waiting tables there for a while.
Overall, my experience at Blue Plate Cafe was great. The food was amazing and comforting, as usual. Ignoring our server, we had a great time. Blue Plate is usually my go to spot for a Southern breakfast, so I am sure I will be back soon.
Blue Plate Cafe does not have a website or social media presence, but you can find more reviews at Yelp, Urbanspoon, Road Food, or Trip Advisor. You can also find out how they ranked in I Love Memphis’ Breakfast Brackets.
