Mike’s Jazz Cafè — Restaurant in Richmond

I do not even know where to begin. This was a Mothers Day to remember! First of all, I AM A Foodie! I love to eat and I love to support black business. But this place needs a overhaul! I have wanted to try this spot for a while. I previously supported the owner and purchased a few dishes from her, before there was a Mike's Jazz Cafe! So, what better time to support than Mothers Day. So I make reservations and plan to bring my mother in law. We arrive, and can not be seated for about 15 minutes. No big deal, we have a large party. We patiently wait. And finally, we sit. Everyone is excited because the ambiance is pretty nice. Jazz playing and our waitress, Wana, I believe, is nice. We are advised there is a buffet, which I was told previously by phone. We all proceed to eat. This is where it all goes left for me. The FOOD! Everything was sitting under a heat lamp. Garlic seared steak, TOUGH and Salty! Chicken and waffles...the chicken tenders were dry and tough and waffles so hard, I could not cut. The shrimp and grits were delicious, after I stirred then up from being clumpy from sitting so long. The fish was rubbery and the potatoes were horrible. They tasted like they were burnt. They were literally black. I've never seen black home fried potatoes. The Biscuits rock hard. People, I am not making this up. The only think I ate was the shrimp and grits and pork bacon. Now the eggs were decent after waiting 30 mns to be prepared. Everything was cold! Except the fresh eggs that came out. I was so disappointed! This is not the worse. My brother in law comes to join us. Who did not know there was a buffet only. He is a bariatric patient, that eats less than a 5 year old. He came prepared to order wings. My husband had a discussion with our waitress, who got permission to charge him the kids price. He went to the buffet once and got shrimp and grits and 2 strips of bacon and a 1/4 of a Belgium waffle. He picked through everything but the shrimp and grits. There were no eggs, when he got his plate. So after he finished, he went back to get some eggs, the eggs were still cooking, so he put maybe 1/4 cup of shrimp and grits on his plate and another strip of bacon. That is all he ate or even could eat. After we all finish, party of 7, we are checking out. They decide to charge my brother in law, full price $42 instead of the $20 that was agreed upon. Seems that there was a game of telephone where someone said they saw him go up multiple times. 🤔 who is counting, watching and reporting this? He questions the change in price and from here, downhill. Nobody would say who advised that he went up multiple times The manager came over, then the owner, who kept yelling and telling him not to yell and multiple other people surrounding our table. All sent to justify the change of 20.00! Now there were 6 of us that paid full price,my daughter even paid an extra 10 for a take home box for her man. Why would they think he was trying to rip them of for 20.00. Seriously, he BARELY ate anything! It was a all out argument, back and forth and so embarrassing! Why wouldn't management honor what was told to him. I have never experienced anything like this. They preferred to continue to argue and justify what some one said than to provide outstanding customer service and appease possibly a returning guest. I couldn't believe it. Sad to say, this is why black owned restaurants succession rate is low. BASED ON THE FOOD AND CUSTOMER SERVICE! THERE DAYS IN BUSINESS ARE NUMBERED! Don't waste your time! It's...

I wanted to share with my wife a bit of what I enjoy. I enjoy jazz and good food. I did a search and Mike's Jazz Cafe popped up. I was imagining a good jazz band some good New Orleans style cuisine comfortable atmosphere. I figure you can tell by my rating none of that was experienced. I got there around 7:30pm the restaurant closes at 10pm. I was seated and the waiter was fine. Everything I ordered the answer was we just had lot of big groups today and we don't have that item. I could understand if I was there at 9:30 instead of there at 7:30. I ordered the first appetizer which was the Chicken Egg rolls, I was informed that item was a mistake and should have been removed from the menu. I said "Okay , Let me try the Nina Simone Soup", I was then told." Oh I am sorry we just ran out of that." This is two strikes down so far. I then went out on a limb and decided to try the deep fried deviled eggs with shrimp. BIG MISTAKE!!! The eggs were deep fried to the point that the shells became like a piece of plastic. Imagine you have the deep fried crust and you have the deviled egg filling and then between both of those you have this plastic like egg shell. Not good and totally overcooked!! My wife ordered the wings and they were not that bad.(These were the highlights of the meal mind you!) My wife and I ordered our main courses, she ordered the smothered chick breast and I ordered the short ribs.(Here comes strike three!) My waiter comes back and says," I am sorry but we are also out of short ribs. LOL. I am like okay bring me the menu and let me find something else to eat. I then chose the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and collard greens. The food comes and my wife and I prepare to enjoy our meal, unfortunately that wasn't to be the case. When we go places we pick different foods so we can sample off of each other's plate to really enjoy our meal. I was not pleased with a single item on either of our plates. I tried the meatloaf and gravy - the meatloaf was dry and overcooked and the gravy was burnt(I had ordered extra gravy for the mashed potatoes and sent it back saying no I don't want it, that is how burnt it tasted), The mashed potatoes were creamy okay but that should have meant use so much sour cream that that was all that you could taste. The collard greens were just okay at best but very heavy on the vinegar. Not Good on my plate at all. My wife's food was not good. The smothered chicken breast tasted like a thawed out chicken breast from Sam's Club, it was hard, dry and didn't taste like it had seen any side of being slight marinated or tenderized and it was smothered in the burnt gravy as well so that killed the flavor and the experience for her. I paid my bill and told all of this to the waiter who said that he would inform the chef and to no one's surprise no one came out to apologize for the totally awful experience. I do not recommend this place as a spot for a really good jazz cafe experience. I forgot to mention the "JAZZ" was Sirius radio being piped through the speakers. I went in with high expectations and looking forward to having a good time and was not pleased. I wasn't trying to get a free meal I just wanted them to have...

Visited this restaurant on both April 29th and on April 30th (the grand opening). The experiences were slightly different however there were some common themes.

Pros: The musical selection was nice and they have a very good Moscato.

Cons: There is a 20% service charge that does include any tip for your server (a tip is expected on top of the automatic charge). This causes the price of the meal to be roughly 35-50% higher than what is listed on the menu (depending on how well you want to tip. The concept of the menu is cool and interesting but I found everything that I tried over the 2 days to be too salty (I tried the deviled eggs, spinach dip, and the grilled salmon entree). This may not be the case all the time, but there were many children running around the restaurant on the day of the grand opening (these children appeared to be related to patrons close to the owner). This definitely ruined the vibe. Overall, I found myself underwhelmed by both experiences and unfortunately won't be able to recommend this establishment to my neighbors in the Fan due to the combination of inflated prices for a mediocre meal. Both times the servers were nice, helpful and trying their best (as everyone is with staffing shortages these days). I just hope the financials sort out better with time so that management does not have to rely on raising the cost of the meal with this service charge (which reportedly does not go to the servers) to pay their staff a living wage. For me, either the quality of the food or the prices would need to change for...