Blu BBQ

[CCOKC]

Last week Markies Deli on Robinson across from the Memorial reopened as Blu BBQ. I ate there on Friday afternoon. Since I am a vegetarian, I had a baked potato, a salad and fried okra. I am sorry I can't review the meat first hand but my husband seemed to enjoy his sliced brisket sandwich. There are so many restaurants in Midtown and Auto Alley but this is the only BBQ restaurant remotely close. The management also informed us that they will be open until 9 pm every evening and later on Thunder game nights.

[betts]

I did not particularly like the food at Markies, so perhaps this will be an improvement.

[RadicalModerate]

New Niche, New Name:
Veganaganza!: All sprouts/etc. all the time! With the aroma of smoked meat pulsing through the air conditioning.

[Martin]

i didn't realize markie's had closed... they weren't my favorite, but i kinda liked them. will have to try this barbecue place out. -M

[BBatesokc]

I used to office upstairs from Markie's when they first opened years ago. I ate there fairly often for breakfast and lunch. The food was always fine to good - it was just not anything I craved once I moved out of the building. Surprised I hadn't realized they'd closed as I jog past there quite often.

[BBatesokc]

Ate at Blu's BBQ today for lunch with 5 others.

In a word..... "Terrible"

Got there with my usual lunch group at about 12:20pm. The place is as one would expect if you had ever patronized the former establishment (Markie's Deli). The place is spacious, clean and nicer in appearance than your average BBQ joint (except Iron Star, which many don't classify as a BBQ joint anyway). That however, should have been our first clue that something was amiss.

The place was actually about 1/4 full and maybe a dozen people in line when we walked in.

Right away we were suspicious when we looked into the open air cooking/prep area. Only 2 guys 'coooking' the orders, not even a hint of BBQ in the air and not even a faux smoker anywhere to be seen.

The menu was robust with lots of choices of meats, burgers sides and such. Most lunches seemed to be in the $7-$9 range.

Our fears were confirmed when after 15 minutes no food had arrived. 10 minutes later and two orders showed up - it was another 20-25 minutes before the next 3 orders arrived (two containing the wrong meat and/or side). The 6th order literally NEVER arrived.

I ordered the bologna sandwich with a side of sliced brisket and baked beans. The bologna, as it appears was the case with all their meats, was some sort of pre-cooked Sam's Club variety that was either reheated to death or microwaved. The Bologna, while in abundance on the sandwich, had zero flavor and was room temperature at best. The buns were straight out of a grocery store bag (bargain isle). The sliced brisket was literally so bad you couldn't even eat it. I've never had brisket this tough and this void of flavor. You had to have a knife to cut it and it chewed like jerky. The baked beans were obviously some sort of pre-made reheated slop. A $9 lunch I couldn't eat.

Everyone at our table had a similar encounter. The ribs were TINY, tough, slim on meat and big on bland.

The hot link was a one-alarm at best and the BBQ sauces most likely were some generic 5 gallon no name brand poured into squeeze bottles.

One in our group had to leave before their order could arrive, the order that was forgotten was offered as a 'togo,' a side of okra that was forgotten was delivered in a togo sack and nobody at our table ate even half their meal.

We also noticed several people at other tables complaining about wait times (place was only 1/4 full), wrong orders, toughness of the meat, etc.

There is no way they prepare any of this meat in-house. I give them 2-6 months tops.

Avoid at all cost unless you like throwing money away on food high school kids wouldn't even eat in their cafeteria.

[kevinpate]

Appreciate the head's up. Now I am happy I dinna go ahead and bite on the Groupon offer earlier today.

[Roger S]

Hmmmm... I gave them a try on Monday and my experience wasn't as bad as Brian's sounded.

I don't want to go into to much detail because I'll be blogging my visit soon but I will agree with Brian on the brisket. I had mine chopped and chopped brisket should never be that dry. I don't even want to know what the sliced might have been like.

I couldn't see their smokers but I would bet money they are using some kind of an electric commercial smoker.

[BBatesokc]

Couple of pics I took from today.....





Food actually looked fine on the plate (except the extra rib side a friend ordered - $2 for one TINY meatless rib that was tough as nails).

No idea if the use electric smokers. But I can say with confidence they don't smoke the meat at that location. The meat is either precooked by a supplier or by themselves and then reheated to death on site.

Its a shame, because they did most everything else right..... nice location, nice atmosphere, friendly enough staff, large selection, prices are okay (tiny bit high IMO - but not if the food was GREAT) and presentation was good. But none of that overcomes God awful food.

[Steve]

Not hearing much other buzz about this place....

[kevinpate]

Good Q is something folks will go out of their way to enjoy. It's definitely not a location rules the day meal.

There are several Q offerings in the metro that are better than being merely acceptable. Because of that, if someone is going to enter the market segment, they need to have a solid product and a strong hook to get folks to try it over their favorite place. So far, this place sounds like it has neither.

[Steve]

It is definitely an odd spot...

[Hawk405359]

This doesn't really sound like a place that I should make the drive out to.

[GaryOKC6]

I had lunch ther on Friday. I had the St. Louis Ribs. They were great. The price was really reasonable tooo.

[BBatesokc]

Still say they won't be there this time next year.

[Hawk405359]

Reading BBQ Eater's blog about his visit, I'm getting serious flashbacks to what happened with BBates' review with Divine Swine.

[Roger S]

Reading BBQ Eater's blog about his visit, I'm getting serious flashbacks to what happened with BBates' review with Divine Swine.

That guy that went after people on Urbanspoon and then started making comments on my blog (which I really didn't think was all that harsh) has probably done more damage to them than the poor quality brisket they served me.

I would love to see them make a go of it. I'm a huge fan of the mom & pop joints. Their non-Q menu might be able to carry them along with plenty of foot traffic at lunch time but right now their Q makes them just another run of the mill Q raunt.

[Roger S]

Now there is a woman named Kathy leaving comments on Urbanspoon who first stated to be a customer seated next to what may have been Brian's group and now claiming to be an owner and accusing me of slander for commenting on the lack of parking in the area.

It's getting kind of sad. Mediocre food can be fixed. Bad PR from overzealous friends and family is hard to overcome.

[BBatesokc]

Yeah, definitely shades of 'Divine Swine' - micro management that wears their feelings on their sleeve and don't when to just let their product speak for itself. Problem is, Blu's product is screaming "The Worst BBQ in OKC!" Kathy is probably a very close connection to the owners and is interjecting herself. Literally within hours of the Urban Spoon acct being set up they had scores of glowing reviews.... Totally smelled of the owners trying to fool their customers. Big difference though between Blu's and Divine is that Divine actually had some menu items that were really good.

I'm shocked they haven't posted here yet.

[BBatesokc]

OK BBQ Eater Anonymous - wish you'd put a link to your blog in your signature or on your profile. Every time I go looking for it I gotta do alot of searching.

[Roger S]

OK BBQ Eater Anonymous - wish you'd put a link to your blog in your signature or on your profile. Every time I go looking for it I gotta do alot of searching.

I haven't actually found where I can set my signature. I have added it as my home page on my profile. If anyone could walk me to where I set the signature I'll add it there too.

What I really find funny about this Kathy person is that she called my comment on limited parking to be slanderous. She didn't even note that I compared their chopped brisket to hickory chips.... well ok, I said hickory chips were probably better.... Does that mean she is agreeing that the brisket they served me was poor quality?

I was kind of shocked by how you said your bologna was served. Mine actually had some color and the most smoke flavor of the three meats I ate that day. Tells me there are some major consistency issues right now and if you read through any of my previous blogs you'll see me comment several times that no one should be able to screw up smoked bologna.

[BBatesokc]

My lunch bunch like to seek out lesser known establishments and we are going to try and work our way through some of the one's on your blog.

As for my reviews, I simply call it like I see it. I've even reversed reviews when owners took note of issues and made real strides to change things.

Some places I really didn't like on the first visit but soon grew to really like are Big Truck (though, the last few visits have left me slightly disappointed), Mutt's (same owners as Big Truck), Waffle Champion, Cheddars, and a few others.

[Hawk405359]

I didn't even see the Urban spoon stuff. Yeah, US is pretty bad about people signing up with multiple accounts just to prop up their own restaurants ratings. When their reviews just show up to criticize "haters" who give bad reviews, or directly to contradict other users, it's a bad sign.

I've got a lot of BBQ places to try already, so I don't see this one jumpin to the top of the list.

[Roger S]

My lunch bunch like to seek out lesser known establishments and we are going to try and work our way through some of the one's on your blog.

Should make for a good time. I know I've had a lot of fun with what I am doing.

As for my reviews, I simply call it like I see it. I've even reversed reviews when owners took note of issues and made real strides to change things.

I try to remain as objective as possible without being to condemning but when I eat something that is bad I'm going to call it what it is.

I have also handed out praise at places I really didn't like the food that much but enjoyed the experience (Big Smokey).

I also have the disclaimers all over my blog that my opinion is mine alone and that people should go try it for themselves. I could very well be a complete BBQ idiot.

[Roger S]

I've noticed a lot of the Urbanspoon comments made by who I believe was the same person commenting on my blog have disappeared now. That was a very smart PR move by someone.