Blue & White Restaurant

1355 US Highway 61 N, Tunica, MS - (662) 363-1371

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Posted By Michael Stern on 7/17/2009 10:07:00 AM

Tunica has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Now a gambler’s destination for all its casinos, it is loaded with cheap buffets, fast food, and franchises. But out on Highway 61, the old Blue & White Restaurant is operating pretty much the same way it’s been doing things since opening day in 1937. The gas pumps out front are gone, so it is now only a restaurant, not a full-service travelers’ stop; but if you are looking for good, Southern food at reasonable prices in a definitively non-casino atmosphere, this is the place to go.

We were lucky enough to visit on the cusp of breakfast and lunch hour. “You have ten more minutes to order breakfast,” our waitress warned. “Then the lunch buffet will open.” Naturally, we did both. For breakfast we had a classic country ham plate, the vigorous, well-aged slab of pig accompanied by eggs, biscuits, chunky sausage cream gravy, coffee-flavored red-eye gravy, and a bowl of stout, buttery grits. What a great morning meal!

When the buffet opened up, we helped ourselves to chicken and dumplings, which was superb: powerfully chickeny, loaded with meat, and laced with free-form mouthfuls of tender flavor-infused dough. On the side, we spooned up black-eyed peas, creamed corn, escalloped potatoes and some of the most amazing turnip greens we’ve every eaten. These greens were oily, salty, luscious, and rich, almost more like the pork that was used to flavor them than the green vegetable they appear to be. On the side of this good meal came a sweet-dough yeast muffin and a crisp corn stick: both oven-hot and delicious.

We paid extra for an order of that weird Delta specialty, fried dill pickles. Blue & White’s are ultra-thin slices with a veil of crust, nearly weightless, served with ranch dressing as a dip. Light as they are, the pickles have a resounding brine flavor that induces mighty thirst. If you are a beer drinker, you will have instant cravings.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

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"In the foreground is chicken and dumplings. Behind it are turnip greens, creamed corn, and great northern beans."
Michael Stern

"Here is a Southern breakfast! Ham is the star; the constellation of things around it includes biscuits, sausage gravy, grits (glorious grits!), an egg at the back of the plate and a bowl of red-eye gravy in the rear."
Michael Stern

"Coconut cream front and center: excellent. Back left, chocolate cream; right, pecan."
susan leibovich

"The pink creole sauce used to cover the catfish includes bacon, shrimp, and smoked sausage. You can get your catfish grilled, blackened, or like here, fried. The sides of fried green tomatoes and greens were also excellent!"
Cliff Strutz

"The fried dill pickle is said to have been invented nearby at the Hollywood Cafe in Robinsonville. It has since become a favorite Delta munchie. Blue & White's are extraordinarily delicate, virtually weightless, and oh-so-easy to eat."
Michael Stern

"The Blue and White has been a waystation along the highway since 1937. There used to be gas pumps out front. Now it is strictly an eat-place."
Michael Stern