Blue Mountain

I went in looking for a sports bar with a date and we thought we would get a quick drink before a movie. They charge $5/ea. for the bar area upstairs and the restaurant area is comparable to an upscale steak house.  Not what yelp said... Might have been nice if we had more time to sit and eat. Still had a beer and the queso dip and it was good.

I've been to Blue Mountain twice while traveling for business in OC.  I will start with the good.  On each occassion, the food was the best I have had in Orange City (limited alternatives), the ambience is very nice, and the staff is very friendly.  That said, driving in to Le Mars to eat at Archie's Waeside and finishing at the Blue Bunny ice cream shop is definitely a better bet from a food quality perspective.  While the food is very good at Blue Mountain, it is not great, which is expected at this price point.  I have eaten the brisket (very dry -- I do not recommend), ribs (get the Kansas City -- the Memphis are too dry, and I'm from Memphis), and the duck breast upstairs in the semi-private dining area (not bad at all).  The service is the achilles heel of Blue Mountain.  It is terrible.  Every time I've been it has been extremely slow, clumsy and poorly timed.  I have 10 years of restaurant experience and I would blame it on poor staff training and a low standard set by management.  On my last visit I was with a party of 11 ($700 tab) and we waited 30 minutes after being seated before receiving a single drink we ordered.  This is not an exaggeration.  After receiving the food (an hour and a half after being seated), our server did not return until we were done eating.  We were out of wine and out of water.  I literally saw the server 5 times through the course of the entire dinner.  Horrible.  Dear Blue Mountain management -- Please invest in training your staff and hold them accountable.  Otherwise your doors will be closed very soon.

Worst dinner in years!!  Have been loyal and happy customer from original opening up to their fire, the reopening under new kitchen staff is a disaster.  Had a party of 10 downstairs, and 7 of them complained about over smoked, over cooked food.  Chicken tasted like it was in smoker for 3 weeks and then soaked in liquid smoke, all the brining was gone leaving a dry tasteless product: sent back and replacement was no better.  Pork chop was so tough, my wife gave up trying to even cut it!  Ribs were an embarrassment, dry, and no sauces were even served with them.
The old chef was excellent, food was great;  now nobody cares in kitchen;  in pointing this all out to ownership, was told that " they don't spend time tasting downstairs food!!)
All this and they still charged me for a dinner I couldn't eat!