Bluefin Grille

I'm giving this rating to whoever is managing this restaurant, not to our waiter. Our waiter was VERY friendly and made sure we were accommodated as much as he could. I believe the negative results of this experience were out of his control.

The menu has plenty to offer (see photo). My dad ordered the clam chowder, which he said was very good and came out at an average time for an appetizer. However, when it came time for all of our entrees, my brother's Margherita flatbread came out with a plain Cobb salad (which nobody ordered) and a vegan salad (the one I ordered) with chicken on it. I believe my dad ordered the Cobb salad with chicken, but the order was all wrong, and my mom's lobster sliders still hadn't come out. My dad ended up just taking the chicken off of my salad and putting it on the Cobb salad. He said the chicken was very dry and tough, and the Cobb salad was "half-assed." The waiter did take my salad back and say that a new one was being made, which was great, but it wasn't until 5 minutes later when our other two entrees came out.

My mom said the lobster rolls were good, but average. My brother loved the flatbread and my salad was pretty good - just warm which was weird, but I think it's because the carrots were cooked and the salad must have been tossed beforehand. Don't think I'd come back here, but it's fine if you're staying in the h

This restaurant was nothing but disappointing. The menu is limited and pretty sure it's all frozen and microwaved, at least it tastes like it. I ordered the butternut squash/apple bisque and I could tell it was microwaved by the way the soup temperature was hot on some sides and cooler on others. Also it's June and butternut squash is not in season so definitely not fresh. For entrees I ordered the rustic sandwich and the chicken was rubbery. My boyfriend ordered the chicken entree and just said it was okay also they put some apple thing as a vegetable which also was strange since that is more of a fall side. Service was ok and the ambiance looked nice since they just renovated it although it was right by the lobby and seems like this hotel gets crowded with kids during events. Lobby is nothing special and pretty under whelming for a Marriott property. I wouldn't recommend this restaurant as there are so many others that are fresh and local near by.

The food, the service and the atmosphere was great to be a hotel restaurant. Enjoyed all the food we tried and the drinks were great. Loved the seating arrangements next to a bar.

In Providence for a hockey tourney (of course). This was the only place we could get a last minute reservation.

Overall, service was slow, the food was not so good, and the prices were high Vs the value.

We had:
Caesar Salad - big enough for three to share. Needed a lot of pepper.

3 dinners:
Sword fish. Way over cooked
Steak fritz - the steak was great, but the grits were
Just roasted fingerling potatoes
Duck special - WAY over cooked.

All this for $99 plus tip. No alcohol or drinks other than water.

I suggest waiting for a table at another place.

This is a restaurant located within the marriot hotel. Came here for dinner with some friends. The crab cakes were fantastic, lots of crab and flavor. You can skip out on the calamari because it was small and nothing to call home about. The table had a combination of scallops with different sauces. You can get the scallops cooked a various amount of ways, we had blackened and pan seared. Loved both! The scallops were HUGE. The lobster butter sauce was great, went well with the garlic spinach. Now when you order the side, it's a small portion so if you're hungry order another. The drinks are good, just make sure when reading cocktail menu and if the drink has "vodka" in it, please request the type of vodka. Otherwise it will taste like well vodka and I cannot drink well vodka. It makes me sick. Would I come here again for dinner? If I was staying at the hotel, yes. But there are better seafood places.

We came here in the morning for breakfast. They had an omelette station and all the fixings for breakfast. Eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes, fruits, bagels, salmon, breakfast pastries. It was good but there are other breakfast places to go to. I only came here since I was in a time crunch and staying at the hotel.

3.5 stars. So I admit I'm not too knowledgeable about Rhode Island and it's fare but upon some Googling and license plate reading (it's the Ocean State!), my family and I decided to find some seafood for lunch. When we realized the Bluefin Grille wasn't too far from where we were, we decided to take a chance. This place is located inside a Marriott but there was a decent amount of parking and we didn't need to valet or get anything validated. The restaurant wasn't too deep into the hotel and there were only a few people inside so we were promptly seated.

However, upon looking at the menu, we were disappointed that there were few seafood choices. Then again, there is a possibility that the dinner menu has more seafood entrees. Here's what we decided to get:

New England clam chowder: $6 for a big portion compared to where you might go for other places. Not bad at all! Creamy and had nice chunks of potatoes and clams.

Pan Seared salmon: $17 for pan seared salmon with mustard vinegarette with roasted fingerling potatoes, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and warm green beans. Very succulent and juicy salmon. The vegetables were done just right, not over-cooked.

Grilled cheese sliders with tomato fondue: $10 for approximately 6 grilled cheese sliders composed of small baguette slices and white cheese. I thought it was cute/funny that the tomato bisque was referred to as a "fondue". It was essentially fancied up grilled cheese and tomato soup. Hard to mess that one up, pretty good.

While the food was solid, service was... on the slow side. Maybe it's a Rhode Island thing or I'm used to a more fast-paced lifestyle where I'm from but waiting for someone to take our orders, waiting for our food to be delivered, and waiting for the check to be taken care of took a reeaalllly long time. My family and I just felt like we were doing a lot of waiting while we were there. If you are in the area and want a bite to it, the food here is good but don't expect this to be a quick bite.

Owners and managers of this this business should be embarrassed and ashamed of the Easter brunch buffet they put out. Embarrassed for the poor quality of the food and ashamed for what they charged for it. I've had better at Denny's. Nuff said.

The Bluefin Grill is the restaurant at the Downtown Marriott, I had the opportunity to sample both food and drink, mostly at the bar which was fairly busy when we returned from dinner after visiting area vendors.

A couple of days in we finished early enough that I ended up being on my own for lunch - the Bluefin was just the ticket as I sat at the bar and enjoyed a couple of pints of beer (there was a list of local craft for $5 a pint - quite a deal). Although this is a Harpoon mug, it's actually a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA - one of my favorites!

Service was very good and I could tell by the techniques employed by the bartender that she was well trained (not that pouring beer takes much but the mixed drinks she was making for others were very well done). Both the restaurant and the food were rather above par for a typical hotel.

There was also a great "Gameday Special" cited "Burger and Beer $12" and "Angus Beef, aged cheddar, crisp bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion and a pickle paired with a selection of one of the beers below" - I passed on the $3 beer selection and want with something crafty. I also ordered a side-salad instead of fries in an attempt to eat a bit healthier - not that I succeeded very well if you look at my other area posts.

In all, the food, even as a special burger, was exceptional. I don't know if there's a better hotel in Providence, but the food at the Downtown Marriott makes all the difference in my book.

(also posted in a much longer review on my food blog)

Bluefin is a perfectly adequate hotel restaurant located in the Marriott. It is pretty spacious and there was ample open seating when I stopped in. My server was pretty friendly and the food came out surprisingly quickly.
My clam chowder was rather bland. The clams were a little gritty and the veggies were super well done. Overall it was a sad clam chowder being that we are in Rhode Island. My salmon was decent, but nothing memorable. It was served with some pretty terrible beans/rice type dish. I don't even know what it was, but it sucked! Also, sticking with the theme of indifference, the bread was simply two cold butt ends of a loaf. Nothing about the meal was beyond what I would expect at Red Lobster in any city, much less Providence.
I wasn't expecting too much, so I wasn't let down. I was happy to just have a quick dinner at my hotel after a long day of travel. If you are looking for a great seafood dinner the I suggest you look elsewhere.

I'm a typically a fan of Marriott restaurants but this one had extremely slow service and mediocre food. It was soo slow I didn't want to send back my overcooked burger.

I had dinner the first night in the restaurant the Bluefin and service was extremely slow. I started with a cup of clam chowder which was very tasty and ordered a burger with fries. I requested the burger medium rare, it came out well done so it was a tad dry and didn't have a lot of flavor.

The waitress took forever to replace my water and due to the wait I decided to pass on dessert and just headed back to the room.

Unfortunately this is not a restaurant that I would recommend, and actually I probably would never go back to this hotel either unless it was updated.