Mesquite Chop House — Restaurant in Memphis

Had reservation for around 6:00 pm for two adults and four kids. I don’t remember the exact reservation time. Missed call from restaurant earlier same day. Attempted to call back and went to answering service. We then listened to the message they left and all it said was they were confirming our reservation and there was no need to call back unless we needed a change. At about 20 min till our time while we we almost there we missed another call from them. Finding that odd we called back three times and finally got someone who told us they would be unable to seat us that evening. My wife asked how was that possible last minute??? He then told her he had tried to call her three times that day to tell her. That just was not true. He then hung up on her. She called back and on second attempt she got someone different. She explained that we were already in the parking garage across the street and asked if there was anything they could possibly do. They agreed to seat us. We walked in and they were hardly busy at all. Took us downstairs and sat us. We were sort of confused why they said they could not seat us on the phone last minute. Waitress was very polite. Ordered sausage/cheese plate, bacon wrapped shrimp appetizers and five steaks and pasta for the little one. Appetizers were marginal at best. Freezer section at Costco would get you better choices. All five steaks were cooked incorrectly. We didn’t say anything because the couple of bites we tried were so incredibly salty there was no reason for them to try and cook them as we had ordered as even cooked correctly they would be uneatable . $380+ bill came. Give the waitress my card. Came back and they added 3.9% because I paid with a card instead of cash. I’ve seen this with other purchases but never at a restaurant. I tipped a little over 20% because it wasn’t the waitress fault. Left all the steaks on the table. We eat out a lot. A lot more than we should probably. I’ve never in 40+ years written a review for any restaurant before now that I can remember. This place was horrible. Not that they probably care but I will never go back. Interestingly this same day some friends were over at our house earlier and we had mentioned our reservation. They immediately told us their experience there and how salty the food was and how the appetizers sucked. They evidently had eaten at another location several times and liked it and said it sucks now at this location. We assumed they were just being picky or something. Boy...

This place should not be called Mesquite Grille. This place should be called Must get outta Hell.

First, I had reservations and nobody was really in the place and my options were to sit in front of the door on a pub table where the wind is cold when the doors open or sit in front of the cooks. I chose the cooks.

When sitting near the cooks, warning: There is an annoying high pitch buzz/ long continuous beep that goes off constantly and it’s really annoying to listen to it while out to eat. I could have stayed home and made my fire alarm go off if that’s what I enjoyed listening to!

Now, to start dinner… that bread is so hard and tough. I could not make my front teeth do that tugging/tearing without fear of needing braces. Okay, a raspberry mojito has raspberry in it or a raspberry syrup or something raspberry. If not, and it’s just plain mojito! Next, I got the chicken breast with mash. I asked the waitress can I SUBSTITUTE for a baked potato. She said yes. I got my appetiser on time; which was the bacon shrimp and those shrimps were so over cooked. I ate them, but they sucked. My chicken breast came out on a big plate all by itself and it was so hard and over cooked. I couldn’t eat much of the chicken breast. My salted baked potato had no salt. The baked potato was on its own dish; which has been sitting on the cooking ledge for 10 minutes. I watched the sitting baked potato move from under the heating lamp, by the cook with the dreads, to out of the heat light lamp, by the manager a couple of times. It was like a potato placement war! Just give it to me?! Then I saw it was delivered to me. Yeah, I get the sitting baked potato. It was still hot and the best part of my dinner! After, we get our check and we see that we are charged 10.00 for the baked potato. We asked why it wasn’t SUBSTITUTED and the sever just said oh you still have to pay for it. My husband replied to her, then it’s not substituted and that’s what my wife asked you when she ordered. This waitress never went to the manager, all that was said was sorry for the inconvenience. No manager was called and no care was very evident. Her mistake and we have to pay for it and did pay for it because 20% tip is force, plus tax.

I am reviewing this place to let the manager, owner(s) and the people know that there is a reason that all the other places around this hole has business and this eatery does not have much going on.

To the people… Run. Don’t go here. It’s a mistake at...

I ate here five years ago and had the double boned pork chop ,it was awesome. I have looked forward to having it again since then.. Wednesday night I was back in town and ordered the same double bone pork chop. Instead I’m served two bone in pork chop that were horrible . It took ten minutes to cut the outer pig hide around the edges and they were so tough . I finished one and told server these are not what I’ve been looking forward to, nothing like before. She said I don’t know I just started. There was no manager to complain to. By the time I drove back to Hot Springs I had food poisoning. for the next 24 hr. I tried calling to complain and it goes to voicemail but voicemail full .. I called the other restaurant and they gave me number for home office. They don’t answer either, left two messages and no reply. Tried calling Mesquite Chop House last night to complain to manage and to challenge him to eat a pork chop, but they don’t even answer during business hours. So that’s why I’m leaving a review cuz they won’t answer or call me back. I wish I would’ve gone to Cracker Barrel instead at least you know what you’re ordering. I have told people for five yrs to come here and order the double bone pork chop , but never again....