BLUE Greek on Granite

Food is tasteless. Small portions. Over priced. Unfriendly server. First and last time.
I wish there is an option for no star

This place is improving. We had a fine meal but one comment. It needs more seafood!

Great risotto, very good Greek salads, best ever moussaka (per my friend Ann J). Hardly any crowd but this is one of the better restaurants in Ashland — and that’s in 21 years of going to Ashland twice yearly!

How does this restaurant still exist?
Went on a Friday evening at 6 pm — we were the ONLY guests for the next hour and a half…
I ordered the gyros — I’ve had better from street vendors and the Alaska State Fair. My friend had the moussaka — it was crusty-​tough on top (cheese over hardened) and the potatoes were goopy glue underneath. We each had a greek coffee and shared the small portion of baklava for dessert — and without any wine (but including tip), our meals each cost $ 27. Whaaaaaa’?
We had tickets to OSF that night, and when we asked our waitress if we could keep our cars in the lot, were informed that the owner might in fact tow them — but she wasn’t sure. In fact — he gets mad when the lot is full but his restaurant isn’t… hmmmmm… In the end, she let us stay parked there after we gave her our license plate numbers…
This is the third time I’ve tried here, and will not be back.

Greek food is by far my favorite food and this place nailed it! The server is great and the atmosphere is to die for. I have no idea why this place has gotten bad reviews. I know it’s off the main road so it’s hard to find but the service, food, and atmosphere was amazing. Trust me!!! I’m Greek at heart.

We enjoyed dinner the décor is fresh and casual. They grill their flatbread and it is delicious. The lamb gyro my husband ordered was great, cooked nicely and well seasoned. The veggie risotto was okay, it needed salt and parmesan because it really lacked flavor. The falafel appetizer offers bite sized pieces and is served with tahini. If you want taziki it is an additional charge. Overall they have good food that’s a little overpriced.

We just had a great lite dinner. The veg-​appetizer plate was truly authentic and very tasty. Would definitely recommend ! For me having smaller portions isn’t an issue, but I can see for others it may be. I find it rare to have a meal that the chefs really know their cuisine, all their spices and flavors just pop. In a world of fusion it’s really special to enjoy the truly authentic Greek without having to travel to Greece or NYC.

We just finished dinner at The Blue Greek Restaurant on Granite Street In Ashland, Oregon. This was the most disappointing, expensive meal we have had in years. We ordered a Greek salad for $ 8, which doesn’t sound unreasonable, but it was tiny. It covered the bottom half of a regular soup bowl. We also had the white bean vegetarian soup, also $ 8 and it too was a very small portion. The soup was salty, but otherwise tasteless. I had the chicken souvlaki — about 3 ounces of chicken swimming in so much oil, that I had to send it back. It was terrible. Even the pita bread that came with the souvlaki was bathed in grease. My husband ordered a lamb shank for $ 21 — the special. It was a very small portion covered in oil, fat and grease. Don’t bother going there. There are many fine restaurants in Ashland. This is not one of them.

We had reservations here for Valentine’s Day. When we showed up, it was closed. Thanks a lot for ruining our date! We’ll never go back again.

Before I dive into a bit of a rant, here is the disclaimer:
— We went to Blue in late November, which is ‘off-​season’ and business is generally slower. It sounded like it was the first night where the serving and kitchen staff was reduced to 1 a piece, which didn’t lend itself to being particularly successful. End Disclaimer.
Okay, with that out of the way, here is a summary of our dining at Blue.
— We walk in and were welcomed and told to sit anywhere we’d like. There were perhaps 2 – 3 other tables with customers at various stages of dining.
— We wait about 10 minutes for the waiter to stop by, and he asks what we’d like to order. First — a menu, please, thank you.
— After a little more wait we get menus, and before we have a chance to order drinks, the waiter is off again. Hmm, ok.
— We finally get to place an order, and the waiter is starting to look a bit frazzled. There aren’t that many tables, so I am not sure why, but whatever. We place our order.
— It takes forever to get our drinks. I was really needing a beer at this point.
— I notice that some of the other customers are awkwardly looking at their watches and wondering about their meal progress, or possibly their bills.
— Finally the drinks arrive. Food still nowhere in sight.
— Time passes.
— A person who seems to be the owner walks in. She fraternizes with one of the tables, and seems to be outgoing and friendly. Doesn’t seem to be helping much, though.
— More time passes. Crickets start chirping.
— Finally, the food arrives. The food is quite good, although one of our entrees is lukewarm, which isn’t great. We’d want to like this little place, but we seem to be trying awfully hard.
— As we dine on somewhat lukewarm food, the owner stops by to say hello and offers a free beer on the house, just being friendly. We thank her. This is quite nice. The free offered beer never actually arrives, however.
— Takes time to get a water refill. Beer is empty. Waiter busy with other diners.
— We’re pretty much ready to leave, as clearly they are not equipped to deal with the small number of diners they have. We ask for the bill. Twice. it doesn’t come. My family is tired of waiting so heads outside while I wait for the bill.
— I notice the waiter at the cash register in the back, so I finally get up and walk over to ask if he has our bill yet. I’ve never had to do that, ever. He looks flustered and tells me that they have a new menu and none of the items are listed in their computer billing system. Yikes. He types some things in manually, and I eventually get a bill. it’s roughly correct, but at this point, I’m not going to dispute anything. I’m just hoping to get out before I have to start thinking about where to go for breakfast.
Ok, rant over. I will try this place again, but I sincerely hope they get things sorted out. I’ll adjust my review based on the next experience. Hopefully I can convince my wife to give it another shot, but we’ll see.

Don’t bother. Stopped by for lunch and dinner service several weeks apart. Service was slow, and food was so-​so. Wish it was better, as there is no other greek anywhere else in town.

During our recent annual trip to Ashland, we saw 7 Plays in 4 days. That left only one evening without a Show and a single opportunity to enjoy a leisurely dinner. Good Greek cuisine is a surprisingly a little hard to come by in the SF Bay Area and at times I’ve dreamed of just hopping on a plane and spending the weekend in and around Chicago’s Greek Town. Gayle and I have wanted to try out Blue Greek since it opened in 2010, and this year was our chance.
We made 7:30 reservations, but really didn’t have to, as the Theatre crowd was just leaving when we arrived, and there were plenty of available tables that opened up. We chose the Main Dining Room over the patio as the later was pretty much empty and the former felt a little more lived in, comfortable, and of course Greek Blue and White.
In some ways, our Dinner at Blue Greek as a 3 Star experience. When we arrived, it took awhile to be recognized and greeted. They were out of a specific evening special that Gayle wanted and all out of Retsina. And although Gayle loves lamb, she found that her 2^nd choice of Lamb Shank (braised w/​orzo pasta & grilled fennel) to be a little too rich.
On the other hand, my Pastitso (baked layered levels of ziti pasta, 20% lamb & 80% beef ground spiced meat, topped w/​béchamel sauce and with sautéed spinach sprinkled w/​lemon) was plentiful and fabulous. Both of our dishes went well with the Greek Rose that we chose. And once we were seated, we the service was prompt and professional.
Which brings us to Nikolas our Waiter for the evening. He’s a local guy from a Medford Greek family and as it turns out, had a small part in the «Merry Wives of Windsor Iowa» production at the Elizabethan Theatre. He was friendly, engaging, insightful, witty, and very kind as we trashed his play before we discovered his true identity. We’ll chalk up this experience to needing to be a little more careful in expressing opinions to strangers, and how Ashland and the OSF continues to surprise in the ways they make themselves accessible to the average citizen.
So in the end, Gayle and I really enjoyed our Blue Greek experience, learned a lot, and left full, happy, and wishing to return. We’ll also be looking for Nikolas again on the OSF (or other) stage someday soon.

Wonderful service, good servings, fresh spiced. We enjoyed the Gyro Platter and Chicken Souvlaki. Topped off with a generous baklava swamped in cinnamon sauce — drool city!

Three stars that could be easily upgraded I’m sure. Would like to be able to rate it when there were other patrons to see if the service or food quality differed.
We were the only diners, so our service was outstanding. I’m new to Greek food, but did enjoy everything we tried. Started with the Trio of Dips and pita bread. All the dips were very good and the pita bread was tasty. We both opted for the Gyros Platter which was also very good. Plenty big enough that we both ended up taking half of it home. We also enjoyed a very good glass of Greek red wine with our meal. Our waitress was also kind enough to give us a tasting of Retsina, that we both enjoyed very much.

Wow.
The service was not great. The decorum of the servers was very casual and some were unprofessional.
We came in before the dinner rush and were the only patrons for the majority of our time.
The food was cold and bitter and over-​priced. The potatoes were cold, bland, and under-​cooked. The lemon soup (??) was bitter. The steak was not high-​quality. The portions weren’t large. We were uncomfortable. It was just one of the worst dining experiences we’ve had in Ashland, and my friend & I couldn’t wait to leave.

We enjoyed Blue for our last dinner in Ashland this past weekend. Coming from Queens, NY, I am very particular about my Greek food and this place lived up to my high expectations!
We were seated in the outside garden which was perfect on a warm night. We were served by a very knowledgeable waiter and the owner. Both were informative and fun and put up with our group of 6’s loud dining experience.
I had the seafood risotto which had a welcomed touch of truffle oil but was very very rich. I should have shared it with someone.

Finding this restaurant was pure serendipity. Had we not been heading for Brother’s yesterday for breakfast and had there been parking on our Church Street, where we regularly park, we wouldn’t have driven down Granite and discovered – wonder of wonders – a parking lot we had not known was there. We parked there and as we were walking down Granite two local guys passed each other and one asked the other whether he was having lunch at the Blue Greek. That made us look to the left, where we noticed Il Giardino, an Italian restaurant that had been there for decades, had been replaced by the Blue Greek. We decided to have dinner there last night.
We made 6:30 dinner reservations. We decided to sit inside, although the patio painted in blue and white was beautiful. We were seated in a table toward the back. A thick blue door led to the bathrooms and storage. The restaurant was crowded and loud w/​conversation but the sound of bouzoukia music could be faintly heard overhead. A full bar was on the back wall, its face covered w/​mosaic-​like tile. I was pleased to see skordalia on the menu. We ordered some and a plate of dolmades. Nina ordered a chicken souflaki and I ordered lamb shank. We ordered iced tea to drink.
The skordalia was excellent, smooth and well balanced, served w/​a full basket of herbed pita. The dolmades came three to a plate. They were flavorful and a good size. Nina’s chicken came out as lamb but she decided to keep it. It was accompanied by chard which had been cooked w/​lemon, orzo and tzadziki. My lamb shank came atop orzo w/​a bit of grilled fennel on top. It was topped w/​a brown gravy that was unexpected and I’d ask for it to be on the side next time, as it was a bit salty and I’m not big on gravy generally. Nina’s lamb was a bit chewy but mine was fall-​off-​the-​bone tender. My iced tea was refilled. I checked w/​the waitress whether I could leave my car in the lot while we were at the play or if I should move it and she said it was fine to leave it there.
This is a very appealing restaurant. It looked and felt as if we were in Greece. When we return to Ashland in October w/​the guys we’re going to bring them here.

Blue’s a bright, noisy, clean, family-​owned-​feeling restaurant offering garlic, retsina, eggplant, and ouzo. Lamb, chicken, and other meats for the flesh eaters, too. In short, a wonderful place for well made, not fussy, fairly standard but flavorful Greek food.
I especially liked that although the menu items were familiar, each tasted slightly different from routine deli fare. It made me suspect that Blue’s chef has a vision of what they want their dolmas to taste like, what is the consistency of a good moussaka, what should go on a pita bread appetizer, etc.
The garlicky yogurt was hot and wonderful. The grape leaves on the dolmas were a bit tough, but their intense lemon flavor saved them from being annoying. My vegetarian moussaka was mildly well spiced, savory, and populated with tender eggplant, but it was more of a stew and not like moussakas I have had before. All in all, the offerings were both tasty and interesting.
The staff was busy and attentive. The waiter, table attendants, and mother-​figure manager who checked in on us were personable, pleasant, and also efficient.
This is not fine dining. Rather, Blue is an unpretentious place you can come back to frequently to enjoy a hit of authentic ethnic food.

It takes a lot for me to give the full five stars. Blue Greek was recommended by our inn host at our B&B. All we could say after dinner was «Oh My Word!». The food was incredible. Service outstanding.
We asked our server for a recommendation on a couple of different items and he did not hesitate to say get this one. We appreciate it when a server will not try and say, well, everything is good…
Highly highly recommend this place!

The food is passable, but the service needs a serious tech rehearsal and dress rehearsal. After 3 weeks, the waitresses are mixing the drinks (badly), can’t pronounce the soup (ahv-​goh-​lem-​uh-​noh), and they’re still futzing with the controls on the music, lights, and a/​c.
They have potential, but desperately need a manager with an eye to detail! We need good restaurants, and I left them with a laundry list of improvements, with my email. No word yet; it’s been 2 weeks. Bets on how long they last?