River Oaks Restaurant — Restaurant in Memphis

My boyfriend and I had high hopes for this restaurant as it was highly rated and located conveniently next to our hotel.

We arrived a earlier than our reservation time with hopes of grabbing a drink or two before dinner. The bar was fully seated but the hostess was very accommodating and took my number to contact me when a seat was available. No problem. I was happy to wait as it's Saturday night and we expected a full bar.

The bar and restaurant was busy when we got the call that seating was available. Our drinks were fantastic, the bartender while very busy was helpful and attentive. Since the place was currently packed I placed our food order with the bartender so it would be ready shortly after our table reservation time. After being seated we waited for 10-15 mins before being acknowledged. A little disappointing but not a huge issue as we had placed our food order with the bartender. Our food arrived and our server finally arrived to take our drink orders. We had no menus to order drinks from , silverware or napkins. By this time the place has cleared out considerably.

The steak was undercooked. My burger was great. The brussel sprouts were delicious. The frites were a bit soggy as though they had been sitting under a heat lamp. We had no plans to send it back but even if we wanted to as our server was MIA.

Then we sat. And waited ....and waited to be acknowledged to order desert and order a post dinner drink.

Not once did a server come by to check on us to see if we wanted more drinks or needed anything additional.

Our busser came by and gave us the dessert options after we expressed that we hadn't seen our server. Which was nice, but not his job.

I will never complain unless it's one that's warranted and felt the nice hostess should know that our experience was lackluster and why.

Our server finally arrived after this with our check and was apologetic to the lack of service but at this point we just wanted to leave. Our bill was not cheap and we would have spent more and tipped 30% if we had actually seen or heard from our server more than twice.

I do want to stress I don't blame the server. She was nice and very professional when addressing the issue. Hopefully the staffing can be adjusted to accommodate the influx of additional outdoor seating that recently opened so your customers are not sitting questioning why they are being ignored.

I don't like leaving negative reviews but felt this experience should be brought to managements attention so whatever caused the lack of service can be fixed for future patrons.

Beautiful establishment with great drinks, table service was just a huge...

My husband and I had dinner here tonight to celebrate our.24th wedding anniversary.We we’re visiting the area and didn’t have any personal knowledge of River Oaks. However, I always read previous customer reviews when selecting a place to dine. As such, chose River Oaks because the many positive reviews definitely outweighed the few negative ones.

So, I’ll start with the good. Upon arriving, the host was very pleasant and seated us immediately. While the restaurant is beautiful, the seating wasn’t what I expected. Food was very good. Beautiful presentation. I had the lamb and husband had the scallops.

This is where things quickly went downhill. Space is very, very quaint. You can literally hear conversations from other tables without listening. In my opinion, it’s not the intimate, romantic setting that I thought it was portrayed to be. Nice but more communal setting.

Our server approached the table, no greeting, no introduction, no offer of an appetizer, no discussion of the menu, nothing, Just can I get you something to drink other than water? I ordered a Spritz, by now my husband is like no, just water for me. Already put off by her demeanor. As was I, but thought it might get better. Wrong. My drink comes. Are you ready to order? Thankfully we had perused the menu prior to arriving. She came around once to ask if everything tasted OK. The answer was yes, because it did. My husband’s water glass was less than half full at this point. Finally, I asked the server who was attending a couple next to us to please ask our server to come over. She obviously did pass the message, and told her we needed water. She comes with the water pitcher, immediately fill his glass and ask do you want dessert? We did, but no we want to get out of here. Check comes, we pay and leave. But, not before I voiced my concerns to a manager (she didn’t introduce herself either.} I relayed to her all the things I mentioned above, not sure it made a difference. So, my best advice is if all you desire is good food, then by all means check it out. But if you expect good service, I hope your experience is better than what received tonight. We definitely...

This little place is a gem. I was going to have the gluten free fried chicken, Wednesday special but we got there at 8pm and they were sold out. Our waiter suggested another dish, pork tenderloin. It was amazing! The combination of flavors was a delight because it was stuffed and wrapped in bacon, sitting on a bed of polenta with avocado etc. Truly wonderful for my taste buds. My husband had a burger and he said it was okay. So it’s better to order something that the chef can create with. Their menu doesn’t describe enough what goes into the dishes so ask. Also we shared (the pic shows half) the watermelon salad. Again a very creative combination of flavors that was delightful. I feel like they picked the best part of the watermelon to make it, (the center) in order for it to be perfect. The food was well worth the price as I don’t mind spending money on food that is excellent. The one down side is the incredible noise as the room was full of loud joyous people. I think they were so full of joy because of the food. I will definitely tolerate this noise to get this food! And last but not least, the service...