Butternut & Blue Bistro & Bakery

The food was bad and the service was worse. First of all, the staff was in the back chatting and too busy to seat customers. Then, the omelettes arrived cold — apparently because the staff were still chatting…

We enjoy suporting local business so this is a hard review to write. We are local to the area and had seen this place before during an outing and always thought we’d try it. So on a Sunday, while in the area, we dropped by assuming it would be packed. It was not. We may now know why.
The service was OK. It was a little confusing that they only served breakfast on Sunday as we were given a menu with all other options. We had a few Denver omlettes and biscuits and gravy. The omlettes were advertised as having the potatoes inside the omlette. Like some noted, it took quite awhile for the food to come. Not the longest out there but noticable given the light crowd and it being breakfast.
The food arrived and two things immediately jumped out. First, the toast was not even toasted, more dried out than anything but nothing even close to browned. It was not buttered and we had to ask the waiter for some butter. Who would want toast with butter? The omlettes were large, browned on the outside and way overcooked. Of course, that meant dry eggs. As I ate mine I looked over at my wife’s omlette and saw a cube of ham. I hadn’t seen one in mine and thought for a few minutes that maybe mine was missing ingredients. That prompted me to open up the entire omlette and I found what several other reviews have noted. Very skimpy ingredients. There were about five cubes of ham and an equal number of potatoe cubes and the rest of the ingredients in a similar amount. I ate the omlette from the inside out, leaving what would be about 2 – 3 scrambled eggs on the plate.
The bottom line for me is this. Breakfast, especially advertised as Sunday brunch, is a very fair indication of what a restaurant is made of. In this case, it would appear there are some intentional problems (skimpy ingredients) and some careless problems (poor food preparation). Both mean we won’t be back. It’s sad because as a small local business we’d enjoy seeing them do well.

Waaaaay too overpriced for what is offered. I had corned beef hash for brunch and after enough time to plan out a week’s worth of meals (30 minutes), out came a half filled plate with over-​cooked eggs and a minuscule portion of corned beef hash. It was a brunch special, so not on the menu. Completely floored that this tiny special came to $ 13 before drinks or tax. In all, after factoring the slow service and disappointing food portions, I can safely say I won’t be back.

Tried them 3 times and each time service has been inadequate. Wait staff has been inattentive or lacked knowledge of the menu, or both. Really wanted to like this place because I live close-​by and try to support small, local businesses, but I just can give them another chance. The food wasn’t particularly good either.

Good service, excellent food and THE BEST coffee I’ve had in a long time. Will be back!

What a quaint little bistro in a new and growing area. I come down from Stafford to enjoy the food and coffee and diverse environment from counter top table, comfy chairs for coffee and tables for yummy edibles. I loved my French toast. It was tasty and memorable. I’ve met a friend for coffee a few times, a birthday breakfast and tomorrow my husband and I are going for omelets. Nancy is a terrific chef her food and desserts are yummy. It is a nice place with a homey feel with space to have a relaxing cup of coffee with a friend, the counter top seating for doing some «work» and nice tables for a meal. It is a must to place to stop! The missing star is for the wobbly table we fixed with a sugar packet. Fun memory though lol.

Loved this place. Ambiance is great, the people are great, our food was really good. My husband cleaned his plate. We went for lunch, not many people there around 2:30. Loved the homemade bread on the adult grilled cheese. Minus the swiss added the havarti cheese. Fantastic sandwich, my husband got the sreak and cheese. We will definitely be back very soon. Was very interested to see the beautiful cakes that were also made there and yummy desserts.

I’ve tried 3 times to eat in this restaurant even on a Friday night and it has been closed. I don’t get it. I will not even try now. I heard it was so good too.

Its a nice brunch place. We lover the fried chicken and waffle here and the coffee. It nice and affordable and better than going to chains.

Went there for breakfast. Coffee was very good, unfortunately the rest of the breakfast wasn’t. Eggs were undercooked. Home fries cold and dry, toast had no taste. Now we know why we were the only people in there.

Mediocre. Black bean burger blah, chicken wrap blah. Mediocre service, our waitress never checked back or gave refills, mostly was chatting with other staff. Staff mostly standing around and chatting with each other. Will skip this place next time.

This place is right in the middle of the new development by the Courthouse. It is new and very clean looking inside. I imagine that most of their business is during the week; it was pretty empty when we went on a Sunday afternoon. A little pricier than I was expecting, and a bit of a wait for no one being there, but we both really liked their grilled cheese sandwich. I would come back to try their breakfast menu. This is a pretty decent option in an area without much else around.
3 – 3.5 stars

Decent food nice people but consistently slow service after 3 visits. Would be nice if they were open for dinner during the week. We’ll be back because there are so few places to eat near our house and hopefully they’ll get faster on the service.

Staff needs training and to be empowered. Came in for breakfast and wifi. Wifi didn’t work.
At first staff tried to shrug it off. We put our order on hold. After we shared that it was the main reason we came in, the server asked the manager to look into it. They were afraid to reboot the modem/​router so we had to leave. We paid for the coffee and went elsewhere.

I have been bugging my wife to try out Butternut and Blue for a while. We tried going one night while our daughter was a Girl Scouts but they didn’t open for dinner service, so we decided to come during the day. I love supporting local places and was really hoping to find a go to place, but what we found was a place that needs work to survive in this industry.
We ended dining in on Mother’s Day, figured it would be a great experience for my wife. When we arrived, we were told there would be a little wait, (no problem), we waited. The hostess/​bus girl/​runner really had no rhyme or reason about how or where to seat people. When it was our turn, she just sat us at the table that was near we were standing, a table that was dirty and needed wiping down. There were a lot of other empty tables in the place, but she sat us at the dirty table.
Serve was friendly and happy. She greeted table and took drink orders. She seemed to be a veteran server, so she did a great job, no problems.
My wife and I ordered French toast, mine stuffed and my wife regular. I have had French toast many place and we kind of knew what to expect, several thick pieces of toast, coated and battered. What we got was Toast, no French, just toast. My wife actually thought it was toast, it was honestly embarrassing and she didn’t eat her food and I looked like the bad guy because I picked the place. My «French Toast» was a little different, looked like toast with cream cheese in the middle.
My daughter ordered pancakes and they actually look good and were the size of the plate.
At the end of the day not a great experience. I know this place is relevantly new, but to succeed in this business you have to be consistent and have great service across the board. I know it was mother’s day, but the place really wasn’t that busy, so that can’t be used as a excuses, especially for the food.
I gave it 2-​stars because the server was good and the pancakes were normal, but nothing special.

5 stars! This place fits the definition of a bistro! Delicious, unique, fresh ingredients and combinations. Staff is very friendly and service is excellent. They offer a wide variety of seasonal baked goods (including a gluten free section). This is definitely one of the best restaurants in the Fredericksburg area (including downtown)! Their breakfast menu looks delicious! Vegetarian offerings as well. Prices are very reasonable.

Very good food. Fresh baked goods and locally owned and operated. Always something cooking. Chef Nancy and the crew are truly delightful. Be skeptical of any negative comments here! T’ain’t so.

the décor was nice and the server was friendly and quick to take our order.
I ordered the pulled pork plate with slaw and fries. The pork was like mush, similar to baby food. The fries had been cooked in oil that had been reused a lot. The slaw was okay.
For dessert I looked into the bakery case. The choices were slim. I chose a salted caramel brownie. It was heavy and dense and not appealing, not quite as hard as a rock.
My dining partner ordered a sandwich which she liked. Her chocolate pie for dessert was about the smallest sliver of pie we have seen and she said they could at least have added a dollop of whipped cream.
To claim the word «chef» in a title would seem to denote a higher level of food than what we were served. I must say that I had hoped to find that special place for lunch. This is clearly not going to be IT for me.

Our family frequents this place on the weekends for the brunch specials, and it’s always busy. The full daytime menu is a creative mix of classics (biscuits and gravy) and fresh favorites (fried green tomato BLT). Bacon is crispy, pancakes are huge, fries are perfect, specials are fun (red velvet waffles), and staff is always friendly (even when slightly overwhelmed by being understaffed). Try anything from the bakery made with Nancy’s pie crust and you’ll be delighted.
One recommendation I’d make to the management would be to hire more servers so Greg can catch his breath on Sundays. Oh, two tiny other ones… maybe switch orange juice brands, and leave the butter at room temp so it’s spreadable. Thanks and keep up the good work!

Lunch at the Butternut and Blue today. Our party of 4 arrived after 1o’clock …we missed breakfast and brunch options. Onwards to the lunch menu. We ordered Frickles for an appetizer… fried pickle spears with a dipping sauce. My daughter says they lacked seasoning. My son ordered the Reuben. he said it had plenty of meat and kraut but lacked sauce. My best friend ordered a signature chef salad. She said it was pretty good. I ordered the black bean burger with a side salad. I didn’t enjoy it but I also need to add I ordered it with no bread. Overall… I want to try the breakfast menu. I like the location. I like the cleanliness of this place and the relaxing atmosphere. Staff are very friendly and efficient.