Staks Kitchen - Germantown — Restaurant in Germantown

I want to preface this review by saying I love this company’s food and the look/atmosphere. I have always been a supporter of Staks, and I sincerely hate that it has turned into the place that it is now. I am sure the owner and it’s workers are trying very hard to staff it and maintain it’s goodness which is hard with COVID.

That being said, after my interaction today, I will never give another dime to this company. Me and my husband decided we wanted brunch so I checked in the wait list online for the first time completely unaware of the process. It estimated a wait time of 45 minutes-1 hour. No problem. Good food and service is worth waiting on. We get in our car, and about 30 minutes later we show up and try to check in as the app directed.

There was a very disorganized system/line happening outside and one gentleman seated taking reservations/checking people in. When we got there, he immediately went inside (no explanation was never told to us as to why). He comes back out, so I try to go to the podium to ask what to do, let him know we are here, etc.

I truly do not know what came over this staff member but as we were standing waiting to be greeted, he completely ignored me and my husband and let people walk past us without acknowledging why or what was taking place. As he checked in the third person without acknowledging us, I tried to say “excuse me, we have been trying to check in—“ he immediately snapped back “they registered online so I am getting them” I said back “so did we...” he rudely asks for my name, I tell him, and then he raises his voice in a harsh tone saying “okay well we don’t have anything yet so when we do, you will get a text so I am getting these other people you will get in when it’s your turn.”

I turned around, looked at my husband and said “let’s go somewhere else to eat. I do not want to give my business to a company that this gentleman is representing.” All this to say, I am only asking to be treated with dignity/respect, be greeted/not ignored, and to not be spoken to rudely when I check in to a restaurant when the website stated that is what I was to do. Had this gentleman handled the situation appropriately, we would have been the easiest customers. We never complain about wait times, are always polite to wait staff, and always tip at least 20%.

Instead of having a delicious brunch, I sat in my car crying for a solid 5 minutes before I was able to go into another restaurant. And yes, we did get a nice brunch at another local eatery for those of you who make it this far.

As to the owner, I am telling you this as someone who had my first job at Chick-fil-A and understand how inappropriate people can get as customers and feel restaurant worker’s pain as I’ve dealt with it firsthand. However, how I was treated was unacceptable. And if he did it to me, he will probably do it to someone else. I highly recommended further staff training on appropriate conduct if you want Staks to keep the Memphian reputation it has built thus far. While it’s too late to make this right for me, it’s not too late to prevent it from happening again.

Edit: even sadder, the owner has not replied or attempted to make the situation right despite having replied to other reviews that were posted more recently than mine. Truly heartbreaking....

The food was great. I ordered the big stak of pancakes and my wife ordered the 2 eggs, bacon and hash brown. When we walked up and placed our order the girl at the register was less than courteous, not really rude but definitely not hospitable. After paying she told us we would be at table 10 so we went and sat down. She never told us to wait for our drinks at the counter so we didnt get our drink order until we stopped a girl that was cleaning up and told her we never got them. Then we noticed the girl at the register was supposed to have given them to us. We also noticed that when patrons of her race would come up to order she was more than friendly and would smile and engage. That seems more of a personal issue than an issue with Staks themselves. After we got our drinks we noticed that, while the building and restaurant were appealing and neat in appearance it was not very clean. The plastic dividers in between booths looked like they were cleaned with milk and there was smear marks on them. When we really started looking around it was appearant that cleanliness was not a top priority with management. Even most of the staff looked like they just rolled out of bed, not even wearing any type of work uniform, shirts wrinkled, and hair a mess. Not professional in appearance at all. My wife received her food in a timely manner and it was delicious. However she was nearly finished when we had to stop someone and ask them where my pancakes were. She told us that they always tried to send the food out as soon as it was ready while it was still hot. She sounded like she had used this line many times before. Remember, all I ordered was pancakes. She ordered 2 eggs, bacon, hash brown and a biscuit. When my pancakes came out the guy bringing them sat them down and just said "It takes a while when you order that many pancakes" and walked away. THIS IS A PANCAKE HOUSE!!!! That is why we came here. You have an option of a tall stak or a short stak of the original buttermilk pancakes and I ordered the tall stak. Nothing special, no fruit, no special topping, not the cinnamon roll flavor, just regular pancakes. I felt like my order inconvenienced them. They came with 6 pancakes but only 1 small thing of syrup. The pancakes were delicious but I had to ask for syrup 2 more times and it was still not enough so when I got tired of eating dry pancakes we left. It is a shame that management would allow this great place to eat to be ruined by the unprofessionalism and lack of cleanliness at this location. The atmosphere and food are great. Deserving of 5 stars. But the things that are completely in control of the staff is what made this experience less than enjoyable. I hope their new location in Southaven is run by different people who require customer service and cleanliness from their staff. In my picture you can see the dirty plastic divider and the tub the syrup came in compared to the huge stak...

Came here with a friend, July 31, as we’ve both never been and wanted to try their breakfast. We arrived at 10AM (I placed our names on their waitlist), checked in, and told that we would receive a text message when our table was ready. We only had to wait 10 minutes before the text message came through and we went inside to order. Be sure to utilize the waitlist if you’re not wanting to wait a long time for a table

We looked over the menu and went to the registers to order. I ordered a short Stak w/strawberries on top and an omelette, that I customized on my own, with a side of chicken sausage. For my drink, I had water and a cranberry mimosa. My friend ordered the shrimp and grits topped with a fried egg, spinach with water and a pineapple mimosa.

The pancakes was just ok but the strawberries were fresh. They did give 2 syrups and it was needed as 1 would not have been enough. The omelette was tasteless even with the veggies in it. I had to add salt and pepper to even enjoy eating the omelette. Thankfully I had a side of salsa (which was good) to eat with the omelette. The chicken sausage tasted ok (nothing else to mention on that). The mimosa was good but the glass was fairly small for the amount you pay.

My friend did not like the shrimp and grits as they were undercooked (I tasted and they were crunchy) and surrounded in a visible broth. The fried egg needed a little more time, as well, so she returned the meal, for another bowl (grits and eggs cooked longer), but was told that the meal would come out the EXACT same. She decided to order their BLT with a side of hash browns but instead of receiving their BLT on the menu, she received a PLAIN BLT.. just bacon, lettuce, and tomato. That sandwich tasted how it looked... SAD. She did enjoy her hash browns and mimosa, though.

We definitely won’t return to Staks as we was very underwhelmed but.... try it out...