blue-plate special

plural blue-plate specials · alternative blue plate special

1. USdatedA popular meal offered at a reduced price, usually in inexpensive eateries and often on a plate divided into compartments for different food items.

   Most had stayed at the convention hotel, but at dinner time many went across the street for the fifty-cent blue plate special.

   1968, Erik Barnouw, A History of Broadcasting in the United States: The Golden Web: 1933 to 1953, Oxford, →ISBN, page 36

   1 more example

   [H]is big blue plate special, with meat course and three vegetables, is purchasable for a quarter, just as it has been for the last ten years.

   1928 December 2, Bertram Reinitz, “Where New York Dines on a Dime […]”, in The New York Times (Special Features section), New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2025, page 2, column 2