SOB Downtown — Restaurant in Memphis

South of Beale is a nice-ish gastro-pub style restaurant any easy-ish walk from the center of Memphis heading, well, south of Beale Street. They’ve got a number of small plates, a few of which are suitable for vegetarians, plus a few mains that would fit the V-bill as well.

I had the cheese plate which was a selection of three cheeses – a Blue which was good but really just tasted like a basic blue cheese, a mustard seed infused hard cheese which was really good, especially with the homemade applesauce they serve it with, and a porter-cheddar which I also enjoyed. This was served with sesame crackers, which were fine, thoughI love a good cheese board served with bread. This also came with candied pecans which were weirdly soft. My wife suggested they may have been roasted.

We also shared the brussels sprouts side which normally comes with maple syrup and bacon. Of course we had it without the bacon, and they were able to do that still with the syrup and it was really tasty. They were perfectly cooked and just lightly sweetened by the maple syrup, and nicely charred as well.

I also had the Kiss Off cocktail (the name, at least, a nice tribute to my Violent Femmes fanmanship) which was a Caribbean inspired rum drink with spices, Proseco, and a sprig of rosemary which went delightfully up my nose while I drank it.

My wife got the Zaka Bowl, which was vegan and came with quinoa, various fresh vegetables, and a champagne vinaigrette dressing on the side (which she thought the dish didn’t need). The vegetables were delicious, though she would’ve cook the zucchini longer, but says that could be just a matter of preference.

The place was crowded when we entered, but fairly empty by the time we left. (We arrived at 7pm) and the staff were very nice.

Also they had noted on their menu specifically which items were vegan, vegetarian and gluten free which is always appreciated by those of us who have those diets.

South of Beale is a certified sustainable, project green, restaurant so they definitely put some thought into the health and sources of their food. Well done SOB!

(Pro-tip: Make sure to take a picture of yourself under the sign that says “S.O.B.” and send it to all...

My husband and I made a reservation there on a Thursday night (we probably didn't have to call ahead). There was only one other couple there when we arrived at 7:00. We were visiting the Memphis area and unfamiliar with the restaurant. We were served popcorn with brown moistened sugar while we waited on our food to arrive. My husband ate it and liked it while I did not, thinking it a bit odd to offer up popcorn with wet sugar as an appetizer. Popcorn just did not seem to compliment anything on the menu. The menu sounded delicious. I ordered a Summer Thyme Sunrise cocktail and Mahi Mahi Tacos. The drink was lovely but those were THE DRIEST fish tacos I have ever tried eating. I asked for lime wedges thinking that I could juice them up a bit, but the limes were dry too! I finally read through the ingredients again and discovered (too late) that the tomatillo sauce had been left off. Surely they are much better WITH the tomatillo. I probably should have told them at the time, but I didn't, I just wanted to get on with our night out. I was a little aggravated with the small amount of food and quality for the price. The menu ideas are good, but the chef needs to make sure that dishes are complete before leaving the kitchen. Service was ok, but nothing extraordinary. It took a little longer than it should have for our server to take our order, being that there was only one other couple in the restaurant. Our server was pleasant but also seemed like he may have been fairly new. This place has a lot of potential, but definitely needs to fix a few things. I wish them well, but with my experience at the restaurant I can only...

I'm not sure if they've lost their chef or just quit caring.

We were there for hamburgers the other day and it was just disappointing. The only flavor that came through was bitter.

The hamburgers are served on standard food service whole wheat buns, not what we were expecting from previous reviews. Whole wheat breads tend to lean to the bitter side already, and that's fine, but then they threw it on the grill and got dark grill marks on it. All we could taste was the char. They would have been better served to butter that bad boy up and throw it on the flat top.

It had a large piece of white cheese on it, but I really can't tell you what type, because I couldn't taste it. There was a house-made pickle spear served on top of the patty, but it tasted spoiled. I love all types and varieties of pickled vegetables, and this was just wrong tasting.

The patty wasn't bad. We both ordered medium rare and it was more medium than medium rare, but still remained juicy. The meat was under seasoned, but decent.

The house made chips weren't very good either. Having home made chips from Pop's Deli for the first time last week really made me appreciate what a chip can be. The chips at SOB were bitter, bendy, and chew. The ones that were cut thin enough to crunch up weren't as bad.

The best thing we had was the house made ketchup. It was a little sweet, a little salty, and all tomatoey. If everything were as good as the ketchup, this place would be ballin.

The service was great, but there were only two tables in the place and the server was the owner. So they've got that...