Blu Bbq in North Down

Like many of the other reviews, my food was most definitely not smoked. In fact my ribs and beef were BOILED. Absolutely vile, and the blatant lie that the food is barbecued is shameful.

It was excellent, especially the noodles

First and only time I'll visit. We turned up to be told they didn't have most of what was on the menu. The place wasn't busy and the service was awful. The food was sub par being polite. Even when we asked for extra drinks during the near 50 minute wait for them to clear the plates after our starters they never came. We didn't finish our meals we were so appalled with the standard of the service and quality of the food

That's the first time we've visited this place ( and defo last time ) Saturday lunch time.. we were waiting 50 mins to get starters, and they were absolutely spot on...then 40 mins later main meal came in. Plater for two : smoked ribs,smoked brisket, and smoked half chicken. Well non of it was anywhere near smoker... just cooked meat without any flavour whatsoever, covered with bbq sauce... I'm not fussy when it comes to food but that was different level of putting clients away... seriously terrible taste. Maybe burgers r god but plz stay away from smoked meat

The Blu Buddha Thai is by a mile the best restaurant in Bangor. Nicest food I've eaten in a very long time and great friendly service too.

Absolutely delicious! We ordered 3 separate dishes and each one was so flavoursome, full of quality ingredients and jam packed with veg, chicken breast and spices. Proper hand cut chips and egg fried rice the likes of which I haven’t tasted since the 70’s!

Delicious chicken Tom Kha soup, and potatoes and a burger. Plus, at certain times, you can get a second burger for free!

Love the different dishes we order food is always fantastic

Chicken cashew was delicious as always ! Massive portion

Very good food, but very expensive More than 140 reais per person There is no parking

Arrived at a pre booked table on a Friday night 7.00pm. Ordered food and waited over an hour and a half for a burger and chips. A far better experience can be had going to McDonald's. I take it "bring your own" must mean food .

Chips a bit scarse and i think we got about 3 cashew nuts. The taste was good tho and i did enjoy it. I would prob get from there again but try something different...it also came earlier than said but was glad it did😉

Great food and great staff looking after you 😁👍🙏

I had a really poor experience here, and wanted to give the restaurant an opportunity to address my issues. I contacted them by email the next day, however nobody had the courtesy to reply. So I figured they aren’t interested, so I might as well publish my feedback. “ I wanted to drop you an email regarding the service we received last night. I didn’t want to leave a review or anything, preferring to pass on my feedback instead in the hope that you might address it. We popped in last night to grab a quick takeaway Thai. We got a lukewarm welcome and were asked to take a seat before our order would be taken. At the same time an Eastern European family came in behind us hoping for a table. The young guy didn’t even say hello to them, instead saying “are you okay there?” The woman said “we were hoping to grab a table for dinner” He responded with “did you book?” She was abit amused by the question, as there was about 20 empty tables, none appearing to be reserved. She said “no, do we need to?” Then he said “Ok wait there” and he dandered off. We cringed, it was so unfriendly. Then we waited a few minutes for someone to come to take our order. When nobody came, we stopped a guy and asked a guy. He looked confused but said “yea okay”. Then he walked off and didn’t return. A few minutes later we saw him taking an order of drinks to a table. There were three staff standing at the end of the till all chatting. Nobody came near us so we left. We never received a menu, or any further acknowledgment and waited for about 10minutes. It seemed like a really young team, with no manager visible. This was a pretty poor experience for a Friday night. We’ve always ordered from Blu Thai since it opened, usually on an app or over the phone. We crossed the street to try Camile Thai for the first time and had a much better service experience. This is a bit of a shame, as it seems to be a chain, and we would much prefer to support local business, but we literally couldn’t order from you guys because nobody was interested.”

Fantastic food at very reasonable prices. Thai food was to die for, the Thai beef. Salad is probably the nicest. I've ever had! And the burgers & ribs just looked so delicious, was spoiled for choice! Will def be back again soon to try the bbq food!

Penang Curry was OK, taste was good only let down by the tough beef. Sweet & Sour chicken was excellent as was the real chips. There was 25% off for cash and a £3.50 corkage for BYO which made the whole experience affordable and enjoyable. Sort the beef out and this place would be unbeatable.

The food I ordered was delicious. Fresh and tasty ingredients. Will definitely order from here again. Will try something more spicy next time.

Myself and a group of guys went for dinner on a Saturday evening, expecting a good meal and some good service and couldn’t be more wrong. The young front of house staff were great and as helpful as possible but the back of house staff and management were more than useless. We waited over an hour and a half for our starters, only being told there was an issue with the grill after an hour. When the starters came out, the Brie served was cold and rubbery. We waited another half an hour for the main course to arrive and when they did, the burger that was served to one of the group was Pink in the middle. Despite cancelling the order. The person that seemed to be in charge was adamant that it was acceptable to serve it. The gluten intolerant member of our group ordered and then cancelled their burger due to lack of gluten free ingredients, despite ordering off the gluten free available menu. I have never been in a restaurant where all 5 tables have been in discussion about how long they’ve waited for food, the lack of help from the back of house staff and the poor communication from them. I felt awful for the front of house staff who were trying to fight the fire but could only do so much. When it came to pay, we refused to pay for the meal that was undercooked and the meal that was sent out which we had cancelled. At this point a person who we assumed was a chef came out of the kitchen and was screaming at us, swearing and being rude, slapping her hands together and seeming threatening. I politely asked the lady not to shout at me, to which she shouted back “I am not f***ing shouting at you!” We are a very reasonable bunch, as most of us have prior experience working in hospitality when we were younger, and some of us are even involved in the hospitality industry. We have never felt belittled, degraded and have never experienced on either side of the service. The way we were spoken to and treated was pathetic. They explained that they have a business to run etc, which we understand but I have never seen paying customers being treated so poorly and a restaurant of people disagreeing in unison with the management, some even refusing to pay. We will not be back and would not recommend to anyone. It felt like an episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen nightmares.

Had a christmas meal there last night. The sharing platter was delicious and the main course was all you could want for a christmas dinner. The service staff were fantastic, with a good knowledge of the Thai menu for those wanting something different

We sat downstairs and ate from the Thai menu. Took a while for it to arrive, but it was a Saturday night, and you can’t complain whenever you can bring your own drink and you’re not in a rush. Service was good, and the food too.

This place used to be pretty good but it’s gone downhill. Upstairs needs a make over (carpets need lifted) While service is friendly the food and surroundings let it down upstairs. Corkage was a bit steep. While my dish was ok (Chicken cashew) my partners was not very good, think it was called Thai Beef Salad. Place needs a revamp and find its fizz again.

Wonderful flavourful food. Delivery was prompt and food really hot.

Absolutely delicious, delivered early and still hot.

Absolutely amazing service for the food and delivery time being so early 👍🏻😀

Food was delicious as always. I preordered for delivery to be 8.30 but it was 25 mins late. I appreciate sometimes there are delays but if the estimated delivery time had been adjusted I wouldn't have minded so much. The status still said estimated delivery time 8.30 and that it hadn't left yet.

Ok, so, food was delicious. It always is. Service was poor. 3 times my son had a drink spilt over him. Orders not written down correctly. Drinks had to be sent back as they were either flavourless or not what we ordered. No music in the restaurant so the atmosphere was lacking. But, the food being good helps to lift the experience a little.

I ordered potato skins two portions and 3 main courses.i have waited 45in and only got the food whe I ask for it. Potato skins taste was like old potato cooked long time ago and re heated horrible do I returned them right after first taste. Still payed for it. No one even noticed that.when I payed the bill I asked why service was so bad today and the waitress told me that big table come before us and they needed to be served first. My advice? Tell you clients as information next time that they must wait 45 minutes before they even get any food.

First time trying this restaurant and didn't disappoint. Delicious, fresh food and the chips were sensational!!

Tasty prawn pad Thai ( though curiously didn't have any peanuts), and delicious chicken satay skewers.

Good food and drink. Service let's it down

We visit Bangor regularly for family and we do have a usual spot, but that was full this particular evening so we said we'd try elsewhere, Authentic BBQ and Thai seemed like a good option. We arrived with no booking. In a town that is basically all restaurants and cafes now we expected the bar to be quite high and the menu reads very well. When we sat, we were not offered the Thai menu, we didnt want it, but it wasn't even offered The tag line is 'BANGOR’S TOP RESTAURANT, SPECIALISING IN GREAT TASTING, AUTHENTIC WOOD SMOKED BARBEQUE' To start i had wings, BBQ Honey wings, and while they were crisp, and well sauced, the wings themselves were dry, now they are claimed fresh, not frozen, but dry wings can only come from 2 things, frozen, or cooked, and cooked again. The latter being my expectation. Now if they were smoked wings from this 'Cookshack Smoker out back' i could accept the twice cooked, or i could accept not so crispy but these were neither. The BBQ honey sauce was average, certainly not noteworthy for a BBQ restaurant. For the main I had Beef Brisket, 16hrs Hickory Smoked, Vegetables and a Baked Potato, i was asked if i wanted Pepper Sauce or BBQ with the Brisket. so i went with Pepper. What i was presented with shocked me. I was floored to think any self respecting BBQ restaurant could call that authentic, smoked, slow cooked or even worthy of being charged for, my Beef Brisket, 16hrs Hickory Smoked, came covered in pepper sauce, when i took the sauce away it was a grey square of meat. I would quicker bet bet on the Flagship opening tomorrow than that piece of meat having ever saw a smoker. The meat was though, meat cooked for 16 hours should be able to be eaten with a spoon, this was not, the silverskin was still on it, and the meat was dry in most places. There is no doubt in my mind that piece of meat came out of a vac pack and never ever saw a BBQ/Smoker. However, if by some freak of nature that this piece of meat was in fact cooked in house for 16hrs in a smoker, you really need to look at your process. 16 hours of work for that appalling result. 14.95 for glorified heat and eat. The veg that came with it was strange, there was pak choi in the mix which isnt very BBQ but nonetheless the best thing i got. THe baked potato was huge, and the sour cream and 'chive' was sour cream in a dip bowl with a tiny scatter of chive, also not nearly enough sour cream relative to the potato size and at 3.50 a side thats an expensive meal by Bangor standards The restaurant itself, in retrospect probably should have forewarned me about the impending food. The staff were basically kids, no issue with that in itself, but they were not at all managed. There must have been 7 or 8 staff, yet we were always lacking attention, they choose to fill water glasses instead of leaving a jug, yet they weren't all over that, i had to ask for a refill and even still no initiative to fill again. When the mains came i had to ask for cutlery as they had gone with the starter and never replenished and the young fella was nearly surprised at me asking for them. At one point i saw 5 of the staff around the bar having a chat, about the latest Tiktok no doubt, as we sat with no cutlery, no food, and no water. the amount of chat between staff was ridiculous. It wasn't that busy and we dint get very attentive service. There was a manager poked his head out at the start, gave them an order to do something, and left never to be seen again for the duration. Kids need managing. I do not blame any one of them for the failures of the management to manage them but needless to say food that is poor in a town with some exceptional eateries with staff that have no guidance or leadership. I would have had better food and a better customer experience in KFC

Ordered the long and slow cooked brisket.... it was hard and dry so wasnt eaten. When the waitress came to clear and asked was everything ok I said about it she's replied oh sorry about that I'll tell the chef... it wasn't mentioned again when they brought the meal or offered a discount so I payed 16 quid for a few garlic chips

Continues to be our favourite take away meal. Especially love the red curry and the chicken cashew nut dish. My only disappointment is that they have stopped doing their hand cut chips. They were the best and set them apart from any other takeaway. Please bring them back!

I can only speak for myself. I have had excellent food here. Didn't mind waiting on it as was so good. And the young staff that served me were attentive to any thing I asked. My experience of. Food and service. V,satisfactory result. Thanku BLU BUDDHA.

Lovely and tasty. Arrived hot. Really good quality. Will definitely order again.

Excellent food. The thai is tasty, hot and fresh. The burgers and salad from bbq are very tasty. I go for the thai and the bbq regularly

if you go please get the chilli beef nachos as a starter for your food they are so good! food was absolutely delicious and every server was so friendly and helpful, can't recommend enough :)

Love the food. Only thing was they forgot the sauce for the spring rolls but the chicken the noodles and the veggie spring rolls was wonderful 👏👏👏

We ordered for delivery and it didn’t arrive and we called the restaurant and asked why the food is taking so long they said we had asked for collection not happy

The young waiter we encountered front of staff was brilliant. Very polite and helpful. The only problem was the food is not great. We had Pad Thai from the upstairs section. I have travelled at length throughout South East Asia and I have eaten a lot of Pad Thai but this wasn't a good one. The colour and texture of the noodles suggested just throw them into the wok with leftovers of the last dish.

Great food ,well priced and friendly staff.we are looking forward to going back again soon

We ordered hand cut chips but received french fries 😥

The food is absolutely excellent. The kitchen is "on display" - nothing hidden. Thai and "American" menus. Choose from either or both. No licence but you can bring your own and pay a small corkage. Good atmosphere and friendly, helpful, engaged staff.

Thai golden triangle and chicken penang with rice, delivered hot and absolutely delicious xx

Stir Fried Chillies & Thai Herbs, Chicken was mediocre but very good large portion which is great. I got two sides- chips which were amazing😍 and stir fried vegetables which weren’t great, they seemed to be the type you can get frozen from Asian stores. The food all arrived piping hot which was brilliant and large portions 😀thank you. Delivery man was very pleasant which is always nice and the food came before I expected, even on a Friday evening. Thank you!

Best restaurant in Bangor, both Burgers and Thai are amazing!

Beautiful, and just as nice as the normal restaurant experience. Excellent portion sizes, top quality ingredients, really polite and courteous delivery driver. Would highly recommend

Food was delicious as always, and I requested a change to one of the dishes which they met and let me know at the door on delivery that they'd done so which was lovely!

Food was good but we had to wait for a long time before it was served.

Gorgeous food as always, and arrived ahead of expected delivery time.

Beautiful food delivered early and hot 👌

Absolutely delicious meal yet again, brilliant quality and quantity, we order starter and main between two of us and it is more than ample, flavours amazing food came five minutes early and was piping hot. Very highly recommend and will be ordering again.

Eight of us in Blu BBQ last night for our annual Christmas get together....First class service and food as always ! Thank you to Oliver & all the staff for looking after us so well ! Great night was had by all, cannot recommend this restaurant highly enough.

Food is fantastic, both Thai and BBQ. All the waiters are friendly and the restaurant floors are fairly spacious. I would definitely recommend this restaurant!

Went to the blu Buddha and having had authentic Thai food I was a bit underwhelmed. Portions were good however it was just lacking that real Thai flavour you get in Thailand, food was spicy but it could have been any Asian spicy. Also I would suggest that you go early as a lot of the dishes we ordered were not available. We were there at 7:30 but there was no soup available. Staff were great and very knowledgeable about the food that sadly was not available.

Our food was really good but a lot of items on the menu weren't available, overall the service and food was great so we will be back

A lot of hidden costs, swapped a bbq dip for peppercorn dip, was charged for an extra side order, as well as ordering a portion of chips with my £14.95 burger, was charged again, ordered extra gravy with my Roast beef was charged again for an extra side order, food was mediocre, and when I pointed out the extra costs to a staff member , I felt so sorry for him as he looked so frightened as what to do, I let it go, lovely kids there trying their hardest, but lack of management must be terrifying dealing with the public being ripped off

Really really bad service wait 1.5 hours for our food and when the food arrived was full of salt not edible. Never again

Enjoyed my burger though served on cold plate so not warm enough food towards end of meal. Main issue was incessantly coughing member of staff who was serving people's meals. And I mean incessant, not just occasional! That young lady should not have been at work, especially in a restaurant.

Really pleased with my order the flavours are dancing around my mouth orderd the combo starter and a chicken curry delicious will defo be ordering again🙂

Had ran out of alot of the menu and it was only 7pm on a Saturday night poor management

Absolutely delicious food, made with fresh, high quality ingredients and arrived really quickly!

Lovely the food fabulous as always!

Delivery always takes so long, and usually longer than it says but the food is outstanding and always piping hot. Definitely worth the wait.

Sat down at table to complete silence apart from a very loud crowd in the corner… no music or anything. Young staff were nice but were told there was no ribs as theyd ran out yesterday (in a smokehouse) so ordered beef brisket and was shocked when it came out. Little tiny blob of beef looked like dog food covered in gravy and the “handcut” chips were like the frozen ones youd find in a chippy. Was 90£ for a family of 4 with a full meal and 2 chips being sent back!! Wouldnt recommend at all reviews made it out to be exceptional so disappointed

Just awful. We went out for my birthday dinner. It wasn't until we ordered that we were informed that ribs were off the menu as they sold out the day before. Instead I ordered the smoked brisket at £14.95 before side orders. I wish I could tell you that it was nice but I sent it back for two reasons. One, the plate was literally one slice of brisket and a small ramekin of coleslaw. That's all. The chips looked like they were the scrapings from yesterday. The kids food?, one burger was dry, the other was fine and again the chips were scraps. I came to this place with really high expectations and left totally disappointed. I will never be back nor will I recommend it.

Poor service, long wait on food even though it wasn't busy.

Lovely friendly staff, nice atmosphere, chose the Thai Green curry… great choice!! Second time there had the Thai Beef Salad… see the menu. Not exactly sure what it was… more like a beef stew?? Confused. Although the words rice and salad are mentioned on the menu, there is no salad or rice?? Still confused by the name of this dish, so next time I’m there, I’ll try the red curry 👍🏻😁

Good arrived very very early which created a problem as the other person wasn’t here. Very disappointed!!!

Absolute top drawer as always. Best Thai curry in town by far. Very consistent too!

Staff very helpful and well mannered and food was beautiful will definitely be back

Staff really nice and professional. Relaxing atmosphere, and amazing food, colorful and beautiful presentation .

Food was excellent as usual, real weekend treat! Thanks :)

We ordered a takeaway £25 for delivery. No sign of order after 1.5hrs. So rang to check. Was told we didn't specify delivery in spite of giving address and stating it 3 times and even making sure they included the delivery fee. Food arrived half hour later... Stone cold and with half order incomplete... no rice and the wrong dish ... oh and soggy burnt chips. Wrong back and was told by Oliver, the owner that it would be corrected. Further he later I rang to be told there was no order coming. I asked for refund (legal right) and told manager had gone home (9.30pm) and only he could authorise refund. I asked to speak to the manager but evidently he was authorised for refunds. I brought the 'food' back to restaurant for refund and was given contents of tip jar... £7 short of order value. 3 tragedies 1. we didn't eat and were £7 out of pocket 2. this must be the 10th time we have had a wrong or incomplete order - they are the single worst Front of House service by a long way. 3. Biggest tragedy of all - they make the tastiest food. Their dishes and chef are great kitchen. But never again. I read many Facebook reviews and they sadly say the same. If you eat in then you will have a good meal. If you want a Thai take away then try Camille for cost and promptness. Try Tuk Tuk for quality but don't use Blu Buddah

Great food ... really slow service.... 1 hour before food arrived...

Usually I live for this place but the sauce was so thick I could use my fork to pick it up I ended up leaving it but usually the dish I got is beautiful I also got about 2/3 of the usual amount of rice all I ended up eating was the chips today

Last minute decision to try here on a Wednesday evening and no regrets. Got the 2 for 1 offer on the burgers instead of the 25% cash discount deal (booking advised and check offer times). Thai menu available too (next time)

Very good food, best in Bangor :] I brought the chef out and he was very welcoming and gave me a handshake, we are now best friends.

Food was delicious as always, only thing that could be improved is the delivery time.

Great food as always, quick and pleasant delivery. Will always return

Great food and service. The staff and owner / manager are fantastic and they always go the extra mile for the customer. Super food at a very reasonable price. Something for everyone on the menu!

First of all we we’re given menus . Went to order and was then told there was no salmon or steak as it was too expensive to get in . I ordered beef brisket. All 8 of my friends received there food and mine didn’t appear eventually appeared 2 mins after everyone else and was piping hot so clearly it had mean in microwave . Watever they gave me definitely wasn’t beef brisket. It looked more like dog meat . It was actually disgusting . The rest of the food was pretty rank too. My friends ordered cocktails which were extremely weak . The beer also tasted flat . When I spoke to the manager and said I wasn’t satisfied he raised his eyebrows . Took the food away and I didn’t see him again . No apology or anything . I did wonder y it was so quiet when we went in . I’ll defo not be back . Disgusted

We sat upstairs and had a great meal. Very relaxed atmosphere and great food.It was really good and would definitely recommend

Food was as really good, delivery was slow but the food arrived hot👌Plus we are hard to find as slightly further out. Aware that everyone is having issues with staff and drivers so overall good👌

Food good but delivered 45 mins late even though we ordered 2 hours prior

I enjoyed the food. Good quality for the price and very close to authentic. I lived in Thailand for over 10 years, and I am normally a bit hesitant to eat Thai food in Europe as it rarely has the same tastes, but I would eat it here again for sure.

Food was fantastic, will definitely order again 👌

Spot on tasty food nice option to

Very bad service.food was ok but had to wait more then hour and restaurant wasn't bussy

Great quality food and good portions. It was so good!

Excellent service as usual. Thank you.

Food was delicious very helpful & friendly staff 10/10

Very nice food, good portion sizes and well prepared. It was a little bit quiet when myself and my friend went there, despite it being a Thursday evening. I cannot fault the staff or food.

excellent thai takeaway as always. pad thai & sweet n sour chicken superb!

Amazing takeaway food during lockdown, some of the best Thai food I have ever tasted. Beautiful restaurant and lovely staff. Bbq food is great too, amazing smoked meats and burgers are huge!

Prices reasonable, had a burger and chips the bap could have been toasted

Lovely staff trying really hard to make your dining experience very enjoyable. Certainly will be back .

Food was tremendous. Spicy and can do as spicy as you like it!! Very good will be back

First time visiting this place .found it to be very disorganised and had to wait for our table to become available despite being pre-booked. Despite the starter menu offering a significant selection of choice it turned out that there were in fact only two choices left ! I had the sizzling pork to start which wasn’t sizzling and was in fact over cooked……….. things just went downhill from here :( the order for the main course was taken and we were made to wait for over two hours. Then a waitress came over and told us that our food was just being put “in the wok” now …… that was at 10.20pm ! By this stage none of our group wanted to eat dinner at that time of the night and asked to speak with the manager. The manager came over and couldn’t have cared less about the poor service . He was both rude and dismissive. I’m amazed with this sort of attitude they have any customers at all .I will most definitely not be back and would urge anyone reading this not to waste their good time and money with a so called restaurant.

Unfortunately no chilli flakes or nuts with Pad Thai