Cayman Islands: Blue by Eric Ripert (July 2011)

Blue: Eric Ripert Always Delivers, Even in the Caymans!
My spouse and I ate dinner at Blue by Eric Ripert in early July 2011 over the Independence Day holiday weekend. We love Eric Ripert’s restaurant Le Bernardin in New York City, and so we had high but tempered expectations for our meal at Blue at the Ritz Carlton. The Ritz property is classy and chic and sophisticated, and Blue is located on the ground floor (the floor below the lobby, Taikun Restaurant, and the Silver Palm Lounge). The size of Blue is expansive, with plenty of room between tables. Despite the fact that we booked as far in advance as we could (which I believe was one month), we didn’t have the most desirable table. (We originally had planned to stay at the Ritz, and had been staying there when we made the reservation; as a hotel guest I would have been more disappointed with our table than I was as a non-guest.) The hotel has a nice bar area, and also seemed to have the possibility of dining outside in cooler weather. One of our two waiters had an off-putting attitude about him, and gave my spouse a difficult time when he inquired as to the beer selections. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to serve him beer, but he didn’t want to recite the list, even after telling us that it wasn’t extensive. The food was amazing! One of us had the Eric Ripert tasting menu, and the other had the Blue Tasting menu, both of which contained the same number of courses, but one of which was slightly more expensive than the other. (The restaurant also has an a la carte menu.) We sampled every one of each others dishes, and agree that although it’s a close tie, we preferred the Blue menu to the ER menu. The food was every bit as good as Le Bernardin, which pleasantly surprised us (perhaps snobbishly, we didn’t think that food on a Caribbean island could be as good as food served in Manhattan). Service was polished and professional, though a little more informal than NYC service. Overall, if this restaurant had been open again during our short stay in the Caymans (it is closed on Sundays and Mondays), we would have gladly returned, even though it was a bit of a splurge.