Staks Kitchen - Southaven — Restaurant in Southaven

(I had to shorten this review several times). We've had brunch here once before and GREAT experience. The second was VERY disappointing. My husband's over-medium eggs were overcooked with solid yolk (should be runny). He sent them back after two bites, keeping a piece of sausage for something to eat meanwhile. My meal came a few minutes after his. The gouda grits I so looked forward to were lukewarm with burnt looking spots and super thick like paste, perhaps the last of what they’d made for the day. The waitress agreed they didn’t look good, offering to substitute something else. We agreed on a pancake (never arrived btw) as I took one bite of the scrambled eggs then the ham, realizing both were lukewarm and sent those back too. We nibbled on the pancake that came with his meal, also barely warm and maybe ate two bites. The large biscuit with his meal was almost hard on the outside, pasty on the inside (not eaten). We strived to remain pleasant and patient, as server Alyssa was doing a good job. My husband's next eggs were even worse with one side entirely singed/burnt. My eggs and ham returned shortly after with rubbery looking overdone eggs. I had one bite and stopped due to odd flavor. We learned conversationally they were having challenges with new cooks in the kitchen. We offered to pay for our coffees (cut our losses and leave), not intending to pay for food we couldn't eat, and requested a manager. A young man arrived. We described our experience, offered to pay for the coffees, and asked the meals to be removed from our bill. We tried to empathize for less experienced kitchen staff. He replied hesitantly 'the food was prepared correctly' and was provided... their cost, etc., doubtful for adjusting the bill. We repeated we weren't paying for food we hadn't eaten that was NOT prepared correctly - TWICE. He said he ‘would have to speak with my general manager’ and disappeared. Several minutes later (est. 45 minutes invested), a young female manager Gabby arrived. We recapped our experience, offered to pay for the coffee and requested our bill be adjusted. She explained their skillets were unique(?) and ‘crispy’ edges of my husband's eggs was normal. I asked if she ate her eggs over medium...silently thinking she didn't understand what that meant. We shared the first manager's response in arguing the food was prepared correctly, disappointed to encounter much the same with her, adding it wasn't as if we’d eaten half or more of our meals, said it was terrible and wanted a refund. I added it was pretty hard to mess up scrambled eggs or pancakes... She appeared annoyed, glanced at the table and asked what we’d actually eaten and how much(?!). I've uploaded photos of the food on the table at this point. We confirmed about 1/4 of his mostly uneaten pancake, his piece of sausage and couple of bites of almost cold eggs, repeating we weren't trying to scam free meals for good food, rather trying to let them know they have a problem. She said she would ‘see what she could do’ and walked away - no apology, no smile, and complete absence of service recovery. Only skepticism and what appeared inexperience. Several minutes later, the waitress brought our bill, almost apologetic we were being charged anything. It was $15.40 for one pancake ($3), one piece of sausage ($5) and two coffees (that weren’t ever refilled). She commented their automatic gratuity (?!) had been removed. We thanked her, paid cash and tipped based on what we estimated the original bill would have been. The only reason I rated as high as a 2 was for the server's efforts. I would rate everything a zero otherwise if I could. Whoever owns this restaurant needs to get involved, seeing other similar reviews online. WE WILL...

The service was terrible. The food was even worse. There is no reason a bill should be as expensive as it was for 3 people to have breakfast and the food came out cold, rubbery, and not cooked properly. The prices do not reflect the quality at all. Very poor service from start to finish.

I was so excited to share this place with my family that was here visiting from out of town. We wanted a nice breakfast place that had good coffee options. I hyped up Staks for this reason. The moment we walked in they loved the atmosphere. When we sat down at the table that's when it all went downhill.

Let's start with the coffee. If you're going to serve latte's and macchiatos please make sure your servers know how to prepare them. There was so much foam and alternative sweetener in ours we couldn't drink them.

I ordered avocado toast. The sourdough toast was not toasted at all. The avocado was a mashed up mess, it tasted of a very poor quality cheap guacamole. There were no tomatoes on it as the menu stated. My egg was cooked perfectly, but there was so much balsamic on the plate it overpowered the entire dish. It was really terrible.

My daughter ordered a 2 egg breakfast with sausage patties and lemon blueberry pancakes. The sausage was rubbery and cold. The hash browns were cold. The eggs again cooked perfectly. The pancakes were so thin, flat, and covered in a cheap blueberry syrup compote type thing. For that price you'd expect a fresh component of fruit. Not here. It was gross.

My mother ordered a grilled chicken sandwich with waffle fries. The chicken was squished so thin that it was very dried out and again rubbery. The fries were so greasy. Bun wasn't toasted. It looked as if they simply didn't care at all what they sent out of the kitchen.

I attempted to try the banana nut protein pancakes in place of the avocado toast. The pancakes came out cold with 4 slices of banana and a pile of plain pecans on top. When I cut into them you could still see the batter where it was not cooked throughout. They were inedible. I had to send them back.

The entire experience was awful. The young lady taking orders seemed to not want to be there, no smile, couldn't answer questions about the menu, and could not make a coffee drink at all. The staff could use some training. To pay close to $100 for breakfast should never be this unsatisfying. This was a waste of money and time. We will not be returning. All around an awful experience. August 15, 2023 at...

First of all, this place visually is adorable. It's the perfect aesthetic you'd expect to see in like a tea house or something and I loved that. We need more of that in this area. Super cute. (Atmosphere-wise) the only problem is that there is mold growing on the ceiling around the vents (lots of it), and the noise. The place has no sound padding, so it echoes loudly like a cafeteria, which they tried to mask using loud music (which only made it worse). I couldn't hear the person speaking two seats down from me, so we were leaning in and raising our voices. There were three of us, and they sat us at a six-to-seven topper table. We requested instead (as soon as we sat down) to go outside where it wasn't so loud and where the table wasn't so large, and were told (in kind of a snooty way) we couldn't--that there was a "waiting list" for outside. Only, there were no lines that day, over 7 empty tables outside, which REMAINED empty the ENTIRE time we were there--which was a while, because our food took a while to come out. The waitress was okay. She wasn't friendly, but wasn't rude either. The food was so-so. The pancakes were decent (though it's kind of hard to mess up a pancake), the french toast was more extra-sugary fry bread (didn't see or taste any egg. That said, it tasted fine, just not like french toast), the biscuits and gravy had a weird taste to it, and the cheesesteak sandwich was kind of overcooked and SUPER dry (plus, siracha ranch is not a flavor that I enjoyed on a cheesesteak sandwich). So, the food didn't make this place stand out, the mold was gross, the noise was too much, and the fact that we were snubbed for an outside table for whatever reason made what could have been a cute, cozy lunch a regrettable experience. Which is so sad, because inside is so cute. I wanted to like...