Restaurant Review: The Blue Mesa Grill in Addison, Texas

This is a review of the Blue Mesa Grill is located at 5100 Belt Line Rd # 500, Addison, Texas 75240. This bar and restaurant serves Southwestern cuisine and a stunning variety of Tequilas to wash it down with. The Blue Mesa Grill is a good choice for happy hour, especially for groups. However, it is the brunch, which is served on both Saturday and Sunday, that will keep you coming back to the Blue Mesa Grill again and again. The Blue Mesa Grill is frequently voted the best brunch in Dallas. It is also a good place to dine al fresco on the patio.

Blue Mesa Grill: Decor and Layout

The Blue Mesa Grill has a sort of modern, sort of Southwestern decor. It's nice, if not particularly flashy. The tile floor is ultra-shiny, and looks like it's wet even when it's not. It's not particularly slippery, but it looks like it ought to be, and if someone spilled a drink on it you probably wouldn't notice until it was too late.

The dining areas at the Blue Mesa Grill are a series of interconnected rooms, and it appears that any one of them can be curtained off for private parties.

The bar is to the left as you enter, and aside from some standard bar tables and a long counter to stand at, there are a three u-shaped niches made up of square ottomans with a low coffee table in the middle, and an elevated booth in the corner.

The Blue Mesa Grill permits smoking in the bar. They must have a very good ventilation system, though, because you don't smell it at all. Smoking is also allowed on the patios.

The Blue Mesa Grill has a couple of outdoor patio areas with ceiling fans that are nice if it's not too hot, and just off the bar area there is their new Tequila Patio. They have live music out there on Thursday nights at 8:00 pm, and a "Reverse Happy Hour" from 10:00 pm to midnight Tuesday through Saturday. Why the Blue Mesa Grill decided to call it a Reverse Happy Hour, I do not know; I was expecting to see a bunch of bedraggled and lonely folks crying in their booze.

Tequila!

Instead, I saw a group of happy and well groomed people enjoying the Blue Mesa Grill's bottle service: you can order an entire bottle of tequila, served with all the trimmings. The Blue Mesa Grill also has three shot flights of tequilas, served with a sangrita chaser.

The Blue Mesa Grill is proud of their tequila selection, and I do not blame them. They must have close to 100 different varieties, including quite a few that you just don't see very often outside of Mexico.

The Blue Mesa Grill's Signature Margarita is, not surprisingly, blue. It is also very tasty. Top Shelf Margaritas are sweetened with organic agave nectar, if that sort of thing is important to you. The Blue Mesa Grill features a different fruit margarita every month. It's made with fresh fruit and locally sourced whenever possible. June's featured fruit margarita at the Blue Mesa Grill is Peach-Blueberry. The only fruit I like in my tequila is lime so it's not really my sort of thing, but my friend ordered one and pronounced it delicious. Luckily for me, the Blue Mesa Grill has a good selection of classic margaritas, too.

Happy Hour at the Blue Mesa Grill

Happy Hour at the Blue Mesa Grill is from 4:00 to 7:30 pm. A variety of drinks are on special, including the very blue house margarita served in a pint glass for $4.00. Mojitos, mixed drinks, wine and sangria are also $4.00, and draft beer is $2.25. In addition to Blue Mesa's standard salsas, tortilla chips and sweet potato chips, there is also a free quesadilla bar where they make quesadillas to order. They wrap them up pinwheel style and slice them into one inch sections so they're easy to share. The last time I went, we had cheese, sauteed onions and steak on a standard flour tortilla. The Blue Mesa doesn't skimp on the filling, and I did mention that they're free, right?

But what about the food?

The Blue Mesa Grill is a Southwestern style restaurant and definitely not your standard Tex-Mex, so if that's what you're expecting, you have come to the wrong place. Stay anyway and try a bowl of the Painted Desert soup: half black been, half creamy corn and chile, with a dollop of pico in the middle. They do a table side guacamole that's pretty good, and the Blue Mesa Grill is great choice for vegetarians. The Blue Mesa Grill even has a separate vegetarian menu. They also focus on using local ingredients, which I like.

The tortilla chips at the Blue Mesa Grill are of the now standard multi-color variety. Ignore them if you want, and dig into the hand cut sweet potato chips-- they're free, too. They were inconsistent on our last visit: some under done, some almost burnt. The ones that are just right were excellent though, and I think the inconsistency adds to their hand cut charm. Others disagreed with me, and I have to admit they were a bit more inconsistent than usual, although it was a busy Friday night.

The Blue Mesa Grill has two kinds of salsa: a basic chunky red sauce with a nice level of heat, and an excellent roasted chipotle that is divine with the hand cut sweet potato chips.

Brunch at the Blue Mesa Grill is the deal of the century. For $16.95 you get a buffet of both breakfast (waffles, made to order omelets, huevos rancheros, migas) and lunch (enchiladas, adobe pie, salads, salmon, brisket) items, a dessert table, plus bottomless Mimosas, champagne, coffee, tea or soft drinks. Service is just as good at brunch as it is at other times, so you won't have to interrupt your eating to beg for a refill.

Brunch at the Blue Mesa Grill was voted Best in Dallas by various publications in 2006, 2007 and 2008. Brunch is served Sundays from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. Better still, the Blue Mesa Grill now serves brunch on Saturdays, too, although the hours are somewhat shorter.

The Blue Mesa Grill also does a lot of catering around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. It's been quite a while since I've been at anything catered by the Blue Mesa Grill, but from what I hear they still do an excellent job.

Location and Driving Directions

The Blue Mesa Grill is located in the Village on the Parkway on the southeast corner of the intersection of Beltline Road and the Dallas North Tollway. From the Dallas North Tollway, exit on Beltline Road and go east. Take the first right, driving between Bed, Bath & Beyond and TGI Friday. Take the immediate right and drive south, straight past Bed Bath & Beyond for a couple "blocks" and you will see the Blue Mesa straight ahead on the left. When you can see the red roof tiles, start looking for a place to park.