Napa Café — Restaurant in Memphis

Where shall I began? So before we even stepped one toe in the building a $500 deposit was paid. Which went towards our meal. Once we arrived we were all told that our cards would have to be put on tab for our drinks. I thought that was odd because I have never experienced a card being held on tab at a restaurant unless volunteered. Not mandatory. Now keep in mind I have eaten here before. With a large party and this wasn’t done. But you know what no biggie. During the dinner everything was fine. Then one of the partygoers finds a piece of copper wire in her Salmon. She politely excuses herself from the table and ask to speak to managements, because she didn’t want to disrupt the party. Shortly the after the manager comes to the table and tells us she can’t comp the meal. Which was outrageous considering this woman had a whole piece of wire in here food. Which we do know they use to clean the grill. While trying to ask why the manager continues to interrupt so we asked her to please let the patron to speak her peace. The manager than gets upset and says she not going to do anything for us. So we than ask for all of our cards to be returned and the check. After 45 mins later they bring some of us our checks we pay. Then they bring the $1,100 plus bill. $500 was already payed it left a balance of $600 plus. Which was outrageous because it was only suppose to be $200 plus balance. Ohh and I forgot to mention the drinks were not included on the final tab. We all payed individually. Which almost all 19 of us had drank almost $100 plus dollars as a couples or individuals. We ask for the bills to be broken down they refused. The main card they were charging was already on file. We just needed the breakdown so we knew how much we owed the person who arranged the party. Once we told them were not paying the $179 gratuity. So they wrote by hand $179 service charge. Which coincidentally was the same amount as the gratuity. Oh I also forgot to mention that once the manager stomped away the first time she never returned. But sent the teenage hostess out to record us. Who expressed that she was not comfortable doing so and didn’t want to do so. We understood she had to do her job so we let her record. But the fact you would send a child out to do your dirty work was disgusting. Once the police arrived and everything put the gratuity was paid the manager who I also forgot said she was the owner magically appears from the back with this new found courage and starts to talk crazy. But we repeatedly asked to speak to her for over an hour to settle the whole dispute. But instead she calls the police (like most whites do when they can’t talk to black folks) they show up and arrest one of us because we asked a question. So after the fact we already payed them $400 plus cash on top of the $500 deposit. They attempted to charge the card the whole $600plus dollars they tried to overcharge us originally at the restaurant. SHAME ON YOU NAPA CAFE...

This is quite the long rant, but MY MOTHER WAS IN TEARS ON HER BIRTHDAY!!!

I emailed the owner, Glenda Hastings, on September 26 to inform her our horrible experience. After a couple of emails from her saying she would call me ASAP, it is now October 7 and I've given up on getting a response. Apparently Napa Cafe servers have the same attitude as the owner.

On Friday, Sept. 23, we had reservations for my mother's 67th birthday for 6 people at 6:00 pm. Soon after, there was a much larger (obviously more profitable) group in the next room. We were completely ignored. While hot food was being delivered to the group that apparently had 7:00 reservations, we did not receive our entrees until AFTER 8:00, and that's after one of our guests told the hostess we'd been there over two hours --since there was no waiter around. My $30 entree was lukewarm at best, as were a couple of others. What's worse, after having to ask for bread for the third time since we were all starving, the waiter actually ROLLED HIS EYES!!! I couldn't believe it, so I asked two of our other guests if they saw the same thing I had, and they did! No one ever came to check on us or apologize for the wait. The final straw was the coffee we ordered with dessert was cold. Not lukewarm, but COLD. They were also out of crab cakes (at least for our table) and Bailey's Irish Creme. Who runs out of Bailey's Irish Creme? We were all so disappointed by then that we just wanted to leave. My mother had tears in her eyes by the time we got out of there --on her 67th birthday!

Later, I found out that mother's best friend went to the bar to get her own drink since we couldn't get any service at our table. She must have asked a waitress instead of the bartender because the response she got was "I'm not your waitress". Not, "I'm not your waitress but I'll see if I can find your server or get the bartender", just "I'm not your waitress". Also, when the bill came, this same friend told the waiter she was not going to leave a tip and they STILL charged the automatic "group table tip" on her credit card!!! She emailed owner Glenda Hastings, and yet again, no response at all.

As an aside, not only was it my mother's birthday, but she just had to move my 93 year-old grandmother (who was in attendance that night as well) in with her, and that's after moving my 95 year-old grandfather into a WWII veteran's home in Oxford. This was all within weeks of her birthday and we were all looking forward to a very much needed nice and relaxing time. The tears in my mother's eyes was heartbreaking.

Please do not eat at Napa Cafe, if for nothing other...

I walked in and immediately loved the energy in the room. There was live music and it was really nice. I started with a delicious cocktail that I neglected to capture in a photo. It was light and smooth in flavor but should not be under estimated. It was a 74 of some sort it was one of the two house signature drinks. My appetizer was backed crab dip. There was no lump crab in it, more like shredded crab. It had a nice flavor and was well balanced. I always get crab cakes when they are an option on the menu, but I decided I would try something different this go round. I should have stuck with the crab cakes. The crab cakes had jumbo lump crabs, there were minimum fillers, and it was packed with flavor. Those crab cakes are definitely in my top 3 for crab cakes in Memphis. I also tried the tomato soup. I was ok, nothing spectacular it was tomatoes soup. The food I ordered was interesting in color. It was a pretty plate. I ordered scallops accompanied by forbidden black rice and a mango salsa. I quickly found out why the rice was forbidden. I tried to give it a fair tasting, but after a good 3 forks full, I was over it. I'm not sure I have the right words to describe the rice. I'll just say it wasn't god awful, but it sure is nothing I'd ask for again. The mango salsas was basically a few pieces of mango tossed with pickled onions. In my opinion, it was not a salsa at all, hard pass. The main component of my dish were the scallops. While cooked to perfection, there was something peculiar about the glaze that was on them. I didn't like it. The sauce that the scallops sat in saved the day. It complimented the scallops well and masked the flavor of whatever they were seared in. There was bread and butters, and it was delicious. Nice soft butter with hot bread , yum.I like everyone else's food, but not my own. I would comment on the server, but I feel I would be doing him an injustice due to the fact he had too many large tables and was doing the best that he could. I'm going to return to this place and try a few...