Dining from 5:30p - 6:45p
Health Rating: 100/97
Average Cost per person: $33.00 (including appetizers and alcoholic drinks)
Health Rating: 100/97
Average Cost per person: $33.00 (including appetizers and alcoholic drinks)
Overall EATS Tour Rating
Food: B+Atmosphere: A
Service: B
Meals ordered
Taylor Little
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Dish: Australian Beef Tenderloin
Food: C+
Atmosphere: A
Service: B
Review: I had eaten at Maison Bleu in the old location (now Girasoles) once before with an ex-girlfriend for a romantic dinner which seems to be a big part of their business. Unfortunately I made what was apparently an extreme faux pas right off the bat— the waiter came to open our wine (this was when it was BYOB) and it was a screw off cap. He made a snide remark and put away his corkscew and unscrewed the cap before turning on his heels and dashing away - never to be seen again. I didn't go to the trouble to tell him that screw on caps provide the best seal for bottled wines and are increasingly considered the best closure for wine due to cork taint. It's nice to know you can get some of that world-renowned French superiority complex in little old Watkinsville. I mention this because it sums up to a degree this experience at MB. The snooty attitude & atmosphere just isn't backed up by the quality of the food, especially for such a king's ransom.
I did not order an appetizer because I didn't want to bump up my tab by another ten bucks. I initially ordered the filet mignon but it wasn't available so I ordered the Australian filet mignon instead. Call me crazy but when I pay $26 for a piece of steak in a sleepy Georgia burg I expect it to be cooked as requested and larger than a truffle. Au contraire! Granted, mignon means small but this was pushing it. Also, since MB presents itself as a French restaurant I would expect them to know that in France filet mignon generally refers to a cut of pork not beef but maybe putting the word Australian in front of it changes that. Speaking of Australia I don't eat at Outback much but I'm reconsidering that decision after eating this vache morte.
The atmosphere is nice, good attention to detail if maybe a little overdone in terms of chandeliers, heavy drapes, etc. I did like the painted cloud ceiling on the second floor but it all seemed a little too Rococo for this small town boy. They could take down some of the decorations and fix it as it seems Baroque. Get it... fix it, Baroque. Somebody get me Voltaire on the phone - he knows the score.
Service was subpar, the waitress was robotic in both presentation and attitude. She lacked... je ne sais quoi. Perhaps her haughty indifference was all part of the French "experience" so you would feel as you were on Avenue des Champs-Elysées as opposed to a generic strip center in downtown Watkinsville. For me, Maison Bleu is hors concours for my future dining choices.
Virna Mendoza
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Dish: Caesar Salad and Crepe du Jour
Food: A-
Atmosphere: A
Service: B-
Review: I started my meal off with a Caesar salad which might now be my new favorite! I am a big fan of the Caesar and rarely pass it up when it is on the menu. The dressing seemed to be freshly made and the salad was even topped off with an anchovy. The dressing had just enough saltiness, just the way I like it and was served with homemade garlic croutons. It was also a healthy portion.
For my meal I chose the Crepe du Jour, one of their appetizers but the description said that it was a portion enough for sharing so I felt that would be a good size for my entree. The crepe was filled with lump crab meat, duck prosciutto and a Swiss-like cheese, unfortunately I cannot recall the actual name of the cheese. It was delightful. The combination of the sweetness of the crab and the saltiness of the duck and cheese went really well together.
What I really enjoyed about the restaurant was the atmosphere...it was well decorated to fit their theme. The decor made the place feel warm despite the two story ceiling in part of the restaurant. When you do look up to the 2nd floor there was a grand chandelier hanging with a blue sky painted on the ceiling and onto the "window walls." It all made you want to come back. This was my first time for dinner. I have been there before for lunch and Sunday brunch.
Trent Allen
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Dish: Marinated Quail and Double Cut Lamb Chop
Food: A
Atmosphere: A
Service: B+
Review: I was late and on the phone when I arrived as usual, but I had been to this place before. I breezed in and didn't really let the atmosphere or anything else hit me, but after last week's visit to the restaurant just down the street (Girasoles - ironically located where Maison Bleu was formerly located), I really appreciated what they have going on at this place. They're trying to have a nice restaurant in downtown Watkinsville - home of no liquor by the drink - and IT'S WORKING. This is a nice place by any Athens standard.
The atmosphere is very nice with the only downside being it is SO new - giving it that nice, modern, but almost Disneyland perfect feel. But hey, just because it's all new, let's not hold that against them. The newness makes for a very clean restaurant, but no worn in feel. But they have created a warm atmosphere, French of course, very high ceilings, upstairs balcony seating, chandeliers, big red drapes, hints of gaudy French decor and posters (though popular at T.J. Maxx too) with the only mystery the bucolic, pastoral feel of the interior exterior blue wall with window baskets up the stairs (you'll see what I mean). There was a very good sized and well dressed crowd for a Tuesday night indicative of the spreading reputation of this restaurant.
Details are well done, heavy silverware, napkins, waiters and waitresses appearance. If there was just a little more action and the sense that this restaurant hummed like a well oiled machine, it would really seem like it was on the next level. It has a little too relaxed feel to it, but one that certainly fits sleepy downtown Watkinsville. After all, you come here because it's NOT downtown, right?
Rhonda and I ordered quickly and I didn't spend much time looking over the menu, but it seemed varied with lots of - but not too many - choices. I wanted to go as different as possible with my selection so I ordered one of the specials - the marinated quail and double cut lamb chop over black-eyed pea rice pilaf and something (see Virna for official name). I asked about some sort of salad and apparently they didn't have anything of the side salad sort. I wanted something green and raw, but I almost respect them for keeping their salads sanctified and uncompromised when South Georgia comes in and asks for a side salad like I'm at Western Sizzlin' (you got Thousand Island?) I should have spent $8 and had a GOOD salad with my entree.
The food came out perfectly, the flat, irregular boneless quail discs on a skewer crossed by the chop typically presented as a chunk of lamb at the end of a long narrow rib bone. The meats were over the black-eyed pea pilaf which gave it a nice southern touch, and accompanied by the vegetable du jour green beans (French style, not southern for sure). I have to be complimentary because the dish was well prepared, the quail tender and flavorful, and the chop perfectly succulent and slightly rare. The meats went well together with the slight gamey taste of the quail complimenting the different almost gamey hallmark aftertaste (compared to beef and pork) of the lamb. This particular entree - and I suspect the entire menu - was not spicy and had a subtle, somewhat understated flavor, but that is how I think of French cuisine so it seemed quite perfect.
My two beers were nice and cold too. I'm quite American in the sense that I like my European beers served very cold.
We (Rhonda and I) ordered Creme Brulee for dessert and it wasn't spectacular - served cold and the crust was a little thin and underwhelming. Edible and good but not top notch. I had a bite of Matt's Lava Cake and it was a little two warm and dry and spongy. The dessert menu was rather extensive though, and something very good is surely to be had among the offerings.
The waitress was young, but nice, and knowledgeable, although slightly preoccupied with some sort of paper work at the bar. We had to ask twice for the dessert menu. With good conversation, any shortcoming of this waitress would be unnoticed.
Overall, I'm pulling for this place. They succeed in offering a nice restaurant worthy of romantic or special occasion dining and justifying the higher end (in Athens terms) price. It's a welcome alternative to downtown's stinky, summer garbage, vomit and beer sidewalks and rowdy crowds even though it's a little Disneyland for me. The entree I picked turned out terrific, but it's probably the kind of place that if you pick the right entree you'll be fantastically pleased, but if you don't then you think it's an overpriced pretender of a restaurant. Worth finding what you like here. A very good and somewhat refined alternative for downtown Athens. Go on a weekend night and see how delightful it feels to not be downtown. Almost makes you feel like a grownup.
Matt Keedy
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Dish: Grilled Honey Balsamic Chicken
Food: B
Atmosphere: A
Service: B+
Review: I feel as thought I should start by saying that I was hoping in the back of my head that I would have a bad experience. Not really because I have anything against the restaurant, but merely because I am an amateur food critic and how many opportunities would I get to title my review "Le Maison BLEW". Yet, In spite of my own funny quirks, I had a great experience at LMB.
LMB is a very tastefully decorated and well appointed restaurant. It is very open and has a very good design based on the space they have to work with. It is, though, very expensive. I think it is the ambiance of wealth that led us to be the first and only customers for more than an hour (we arrived at 5:30 and the restaurant started filling around 6:30). Being the only patrons, you would assume that we would have the best service available and the best table as well. Instead, we were seated at the end of the bar area, near the kitchen entrance, and next to the stairs to the upper dining area. I was impressed initially with the service we were getting once seated. Our beer came immediately, they checked back often to answer any menu questions, and were accommodating when Trent and Rhonda arrived.
If there is a list of important customer service needs, I think the replacement of a utensil that has fallen onto the floor with a clean one would be very high on that list. I was shocked to see a server at the end of the bar stare at the floor and then at me blankly when I knocked one of my two forks off the table. He went as far to bend over slightly and look at the ground to see the fork, but never moved an inch from his post. I smiled and set the fork aside and used my remaining one. If this were Applebee's or Chili's or any other mass-service restaurant, I would have brushed it off as being the norm for the level of restaurant I was patroning. At LMB and for $30+ a person, I expected to be brought a new fork without even asking....especially seeing as a server witnessed the entire event.
The food at LMB was really good overall. I found the garlic potatoes very tasty and creamy, but appropriately firm in consistence. The chicken was very tender, but bland without tough seasoned skin. If you do not like chicken skin, do not order this unless you like bland chicken. The beans were also good, slightly rubbery, but good none the less. For dessert I had Molten Chocolate Cake (at least I think that was the name. They do not post their desert menu online). I have had this form of desert many times in the past and this did not fully disappoint. The cake was warm enough to burn my tongue, so please let it cool a bit before eating. I've asked a restaurant in Atlanta once how it was made and they described it as a cupcake style with a hollow center that is filled with hot melted chocolate via cooking syringe. The LMB cake was clearly a piece of hard chocolate that is placed in the hollow top of the cake and then the entire cake is heated. Just something different I suppose. But it did make the entire cake molten hot instead of just the center.
