Posted by Michael Stern on September 07, 2002
Listen up, waffle-hounds! If you are perpetually on the lookout for slim, small-tread waffles (as opposed to the thick Belgium plumpies), put the Blue Plate Café of Memphis on your itinerary. They make plate-size round ones, crisp and golden brown, with plenty of little holes to hold gobs of butter and syrup. While it is possible to order one filled with pecans or topped with apple compote, blueberries, or other fruits, we like ours plain and hot from the griddle … with a huge slab of salty country ham on a separate plate.
In this cheery café that was once a private home, the menu goes way beyond waffles. Breakfast (served any time) includes pancakes, omelets with great hash browns or grits on the side, and flavorful knobby-top biscuits served with silky cream gravy dotted with bits of sausage.
Lunch is good ol’ meat-and-threes, with such entrees as pot roast, baked pork chops, chicken and dumplings, and fried shrimp (that last one is every Friday). The vegetable roster is about twenty items long, including real mashed potatoes, turnip greens, creamed corn, mac ‘n’ cheese, etc., etc. If you want something simpler than meat-and-three, there are salads, soups, and sandwiches, including a fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. Apparently, that one is health food: it is served on whole wheat bread.
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
8 out of 8 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?
Reviewers "Must Eats" List
waffles
($4.00)
biscuits
($2.00)
peanut butter and banana sandwich
($4.00)
"The butter is melting, the syrup is pooling in the waffle's holes. This is a vision of good breakfast!"
Michael Stern
"On the road from Memphis to Germantown, the Blue Plate Cafe is a breakfast-lover's destination. But don't ignore the meat-and-three lunches."
Michael Stern
"Service is fast at the Blue Plate Cafe, but it is a pleasant place to spend a long time eating a meal."
Michael Stern
"Blue Plate cafe biscuits are excellent, even better when split in half and blanketed with savory sausage gravy."
Michael Stern
"A slab of country ham, sizzled on the griddle, makes an ideal companion to almost any breakfast. When we ordered it, the waitress warned us that it was very salty. It sure is, and that's part of what makes it so good to eat."
Michael Stern
