Slider Inn — Restaurant in Memphis

Ok, this is gonna be a long one. My wife, dog, and I stayed in Memphis on our way to Chicago. I got sliders and fries to go and ate them at a nearby brewery. Pretty good. A week later, we were staying at the same place on our return trip. The slider inn is a cool little spot with a great atmosphere, and service and food were great the first time through, so this time, we brought the dog and sat in their heated outdoor space. So far, so good. Our server came out quickly and gave us waters and menus and took our beer orders. The beers came out quickly, and I asked for like three minutes more to decide on food. She left and came back in maybe 10 minutes (no big deal) and took our food orders. I was halfway through my beer by then, but I figured I'd see her again soon enough (nope). For some context, there were three other tables in our area with a total of 10 customers, all being taken care of very well by the other server. I saw her in and out of there at least 10 times while we waited. Anyway, my beer runs out before the food comes (maybe 15 minutes), and a food runner brings the food. I asked him if he could find our server, and he gives me a lost look and goes back inside. 5 minutes later, I go inside to ask (very politely) for a refill and find her just hanging out and chatting with what appear to be her friends, or at least regulars. I ask for a beer, and she brings it right out. Meanwhile, the wings are way overcooked and inedible. We ate one each of 6. The sliders were also overcooked and dry, but we ate 2.5 of 3. The fries were pretty good. So we're sitting there not finishing our dinner with empty beers waiting for Halley's server to return on her orbit, and the whole while I can see her inside just chilling with her peeps. Eventually, she comes out and asks if we want a to-go box. I tell her the wings were too fried to eat, and she responds, "Oh." I give her my card, and she returns promptly with the tab, wings still on the tab, whatever. Here's the kicker: she auto-gratted our bill 20%. For two people! My wife and I both worked in the service industry, her for 10 years as a server, me for 20 years as a bartender. I have never done that to less than at least 6 people, and then rarely. Ok, she may have been having a bad day, I've been there, but don't give me terrible service and make me pay for burnt wings we didn't eat and then auto-grat me. Because I'm not an a-hole, I left the 20% tip in place and didn't talk to the manager or whatever. Like I said, maybe she was having a bad day. The reviews here are generally positive, so maybe this is a rarity, but I felt the need to let the management know how our visit went.

P.s. I just read some other reviews, and there is apparently always an auto-grat. Not very visible on the menu, and nobody expects that...

We are from out of town so we wanted to try this place. The first time we went, it was really good. Food, drinks, server. The second time we went absolutely terrible. So terrible in fact we will never go back. When we got there it was a little busy. We sat down at a table (its seat yourself) waited 9 minutes for someone to come wipe the table off, get us menus and just acknowledge us. A woman (in a flannel) came to the table wiped it and handed us menus. We asked if she was our sever and she stated no and walked away. In the meantime another table sat themselves. The same lady that came to the table brought them waters and us waters. My husband politely asked the woman if she could do him a favor and just let our server know that we were seated first. She stated “she knows” and walked off. We continued to patiently wait for another 9 minutes and we seen a server come out and try to come to our table and the lady in a flannel told her to take the other table because we were the other servers. I waited another 4 minutes before I went to the bar and asked to speak to the manager. The bartender tells me that the lady in a flannel is the manager. I couldn’t believe it. I approached her and asked her if we were ever going to get service. She stated that our server just got a party and the servers take turns? I explained to her that I’ve been in the service industry my whole life and that’s just absolutely bad business. If she knew our server had a party then why didn’t she let the other server take care of us. Or even communicate that to us when she brought us the waters? Or as A MANAGER, take our order herself knowing that the server was tied up? I said we’ve been here over 20 minutes and no one has taken our order. Her reply was I talked to you. If that’s what she calls talking to a customer I am floored. She then said well are y’all ready? I said we’ve been ready. She then said well I can take your order right now. Okay so why didn’t you do that when you first encountered us?? She followed me back to our table and my husband ordered first and asked for a blue moon and the pick 3 sliders. I then gave her my order and she looks at my husband and asks if he wanted anything to drink. Ummm the blue moon he already ordered. We just got up and left. In our opinion she is not a good fit to be a manager. I don’t know if she was just in a bad mood or if she truly doesn’t understand what it takes to be a manager. You have to have some type of hospitality in your personality and...

Came here after a google search to find somewhere new to eat.

When we arrived, there were only a few people seated at the bar, so we were seated pretty quickly.

Order: I ordered a lobster roll with potato salad for the side. My daughter had a combo slider plate, which came with her choice of three sliders and a side. She chose what was supposed to be something like a Krystal chick, the memphis (which was just a typical burger), and the lowrider (grilled chicken sandwich) w/ fries.

Quality: Her fried chicken slider was so greasy, it looked like it had been fried in old oil. The grilled chicken was a bit dry, but not too bad. The hamburger slider was average, not very flavorful, but still edible. Fries were hot and fresh, but of course, super thin. Overall, it was decent.

As for my meal, it definitely left something to be desired. The sandwich is served cold, which it did NOT state in the printed menu. I can get past that. What I couldn't get past was the fact that the lobster was so tough and over cooked, that I could hardly chew it! Not only was it cold, it was rubbery! I couldn't even finish it. I took two bites, and that was all I could stand. I ended up sharing my daughter's platter and getting full off of water and potatoe salad.. The potatoe salad was bland, and I didn't finish it either.

As if that wasn't a slap in the face, when I got the ticket, the lobster roll was a whopping 30 bucks for 3 tbsp of tough lobster meat (for the small portion that i did have, i expected it to be about $20). I was so disgusted. I just wanted to pay and get out of there!

The waitress was really sweet. The food was terrible. Why didn't I send it back? One might ask... Because my appetite had already been spoiled, and to be honest, I didn't think it would be worth the hassle.

I had saved my appetite for this "highly praised" lobster roll, and was let down hard!

It's a cool hangout spot to drink and have a smoke on the patio, (They allow smoking on the patio if that is your thing. It's not mine.), and blow money on eats if you don't mind the subpar quality of food.

P.s. The mayo dipping sauce that came with the fries was rank... my daughter said it tasted like hand sanitizer, and I totally agreed! It had a firm layer of skin on top as if it had been...