The Beauty Shop — Restaurant in Memphis

3/21/25 - This was my 2nd time eating there. My 1st time was on Jan 17th, a friend of mine and I ate there to exchange late Christmas and Birthday presents.

The visit today was because my mom's birthday was yesterday, and she'd mentioned wanting to go.

I surprised her, took her to lunch, and gave her her present while we were there.

The issue was with the service. The lady that was our waitress seemed nice.

When I 1st came in Jan 2025, my friend and I sat in a booth.

Today we were told that booths were reserved for larger parties. Although, there were other booths that had only 2-3 people already sitting in them.

The waitress attempted to sit us in the middle of the room, where we would be in the way of people passing by, frequently.

Since the lady would not sit us in a booth, we asked to be seated in a different area than in the middle of the walkway.

We were set across in an area that my mom was still able to sit in a cushioned spot, and only I had to sit in a chair (still next to the traffic of anyone passing by).

I was ok as long as my mother was able to have a better seat.

My mother automatically noticed that everyone else that had an appetizer was given a slightly larger saucer with a decorative pattern on it.

All the people after us were given them, too.

However, we were given plain white saucers that were dirty. I asked for new saucers. It seemed that we were given the same white saucers that someone just wiped off with a rag.

My mom and I also noticed constant stares. You know the kind you receive when the other people there, don't feel as though you should be there.

It didn't bother me as much as it bothered my mom, although it was definitely off putting.

This was a vastly different experience than what my friend and I had in 1/17/25.

Our bill came to $112.69, which was fine because I'd prepared to spend between $100-$120 for lunch today for the 2 of us.

I wanted to make my mom's birthday week special for her. However, you would think that with that type of a bill for just 2 people, and with 20% gratuity already built in, that you'd receive much better service than we did.

My mom also noticed that aside from the 2 of us, there was 1 older gentlemen that looked to be a dish washer or cleaner that looked like us.

As we were leaving, there was an older black man that we spoke to as we were passing by.

The 1st time I was there, I didn't get a feeling of unwelcome. My friend that was there with me the 1st time, is also black, so I was not expecting this experience, especially not within the Cooper Young area.

The area of town is usually more accepting of everyone, no matter ethnicity, gender, preference, etc.

Well, people used to say, we are still in the South. It's 2025, and this experience may be more prevalent throughout the country right now, sigh

The food was l good, just as it was the previous time. I didn't want this to put a damper on my mom's birthday week experience.

My mom noticed as we were leaving that most of those booths were still empty.

I had every intention of returning several more times for lunch. Unfortunately, after this, we won't be back.

All my black, brown, African American, Latino/a, Native American, and other people of color, may want to steer clear of this place from now own, too.

It's disappointing because the food is good. Racism should never be tolerated.

Next time, I'll be sure to take my mother somewhere that appreciates that she's there. I will not knowingly go to any establishments that don't understand that my $$$ is just as green as...

I went here for brunch today with my wife, sister, and brother in law. Overall I was incredibly disappointed with the meal we had. I didn't take any pictures because it was clear how I felt as soon as we got out food and didn't want to make a scene in front of everyone. I had high hopes for a restaurant with a 4.4 and over 1,000 reviews so I felt hopeful. I've been hurt before by restaurants in Memphis I thought this would be different. My trust issues remain.

The pros: it's called the beauty shoppe and the inside looks like a salon. That's neat

The cons: everything else.

For starters, the hash browns on the menu just don't exist. What we were given was some uneven cut potatoes with 2 pieces of sweet potato and maybe a slice of apple? If so my wife got it. They were garnished with cilantro which I feel should have been stated on the menu seeing as how that is a bit of a controversial herb. I dislike it, my wife thinks it tastes like soap. My meal: Beneduck. Now normally when I think Eggs Benedict I think of some kind of bread with an egg, meat, hollandaise, and whatever frills all built up on the bread. What I got? A tiny duck leg that was overcooked with 2 little toast points, 2 eggs, some arugula, and the almond skordalia all just kind of plopped onto the plate. I guess the intention is that I have to build my own Benedict piece by piece and carve my own duck leg. My wife got the chicken and waffles that normally come with sunny side up eggs. She prefers a good jammy over medium and that's what she asked for. If what she was given is the definition of an over medium in that kitchen I'm terrified to see what over hard is because her eggs were fully cooked, the yolk almost chalky. The chicken was pounded so thin you probably could have left it outside in the summer for 5 minutes and it would have cooked through. That made it somewhat dry, maybe some jammy egg yolk would have helped. We'll never know. She could have used the gravy that came with it, but country gravy with chile lime doesn't sound very appetizing.

The service is a really interesting concept. You're forced to autograt 20% to your server and the restaurant is laid out so that the servers don't actually have to do anything more than take your order. We were given 4 cups with a small amount of ice and a carafe with some lightly chilled water to get to room temp by the time your ice melts. Our food was brought out by a different person than our server. He came back to show us the dessert "menu" (several scraps of paper in a server book.) In total we saw him 4 times, once to say hi, once with menus, once with the dessert menu and the last time and bill. He really maximized his work to tip ratio on our table.

I won't be back. Maybe my wife and I just ordered the worst things on the menu and every other person with a great review has never gotten either of those. But I don't plan on going back to try anything...

I honestly hate giving bad reviews for local businesses, but our experience was so negative. My husband and I are expecting our first baby and wanted to splurge on our last Valentine’s as just two. We decided to go early so that we didn’t get the Valentines crowd. From the moment we got there the woman who seated us and was also our server was not hospitable. We do not like to overthink these things, but my husband is Indian and often times servers give us bad service due to the stereotype that he won’t tip. He always likes to tip extra just for this reason, to break that stereotype, but I do get remarkably different service when I’m eating with another white person vs eating out with him. I had requested a nicer area in my reservation that I made weeks prior as I’m quite pregnant and I can easily get uncomfortable, and there were multiple booth available. The server sat us in a tiny table with one chair being in the way of all the servers going back and forth, to make me more comfortable my husband let me sit on the inside but he was out in the aisle. We saw tables around us receiving rolls and butter but were never offered, our server was difficult to get and had to be reminded to refill our drinks. We actually had to send another server after her because she didn’t check on us for such a long time. When you are spending several hundred dollars on a nice meal you expect to be treated kindly, but I felt like I had to constantly catch her or be sure to order really quickly or she’d run off, and she was honestly quite rude. My husband didn’t even feel comfortable talking to her after the first few interactions because he could sense that she didn’t want to serve us. All we wanted was a special dinner, to commemorate a close of one chapter and the opening of another, but instead we were quite conscious the whole meal. Even then my husband left over 25% despite me telling him not to, because he wants so badly to dispel this stereotype. If you’re a server and reading this, please understand that not everyone who looks a certain way will act how you think they will, and those of us that are at the receiving end of your rudeness will have to suffer in silence while the ones that are guilty of not tipping well really won’t care one way or the other. We still made our own night special, because no point in wallowing, I just wish we didn’t have to. PS, the food was absolutely INCREDIBLE! I actually stole this entire salad from my husband that we were supposed to share because I loved the vinaigrette so much. It’s nice to pull the pregnant lady...