Carole H’s last post under “Now this makes me mad” heaps praise on Paulette’s, for food, service and hospitality at a recent lunch. I’ll duplicate the post here so you can read it. Anyway, it’s inspired me to open this thread where we can talk about all the things that restaurant get right, from professional service to a little extra touch that makes you feel the love, man.
Last week at Lobster King the server brought over a complimentary plate of shrimp rolls for us to try, which went a long way toward good will and probably cost the restaurant very little (by the way, sometime soon I’m going to tackle a story about the margins restaurants operate on–it’s a tough business and I’m shocked–shocked!–at times when I hear how much friends are paying in credit card fees, losing to employee and patron theft and so on.)
So, here’s my shout out to Lobster King for a little lagniappe last week.
(And by the way, Paulette’s was where I always ate my birthday dinner when I was a kid, and I still love it.)
Shout outs
Responses to “Shout outs”
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
My wife and I celebrated our anniversary at Roustica on the recommendation of friends, who also happen to know the Chef. (full disclosure there) Our entire experience was outstanding. Before anyone knew it was a special dinner for us, we were made to feel special. Without pointing out any single thing, it was the combination of warmth, professionalism and wonderful food that added up to an evening that we would repeat again and again.
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Praise to the bartender at Encore…properly crushed ice, restaurant-marinated maraschino cherries, knows the liquor she serves (especially the gin-Broker’s is excellent) and is friendly. I’d love to hear about any other bar in town that cares as much about the cocktail.
October 2nd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
This is what Carole H had to say about lunch at Paulette’s:
Nice touches to report from a very good dining experience at Paulette’s for lunch today. I had a combination plate which included ham palascinta & a spinach souffle crepe w/a nice cheese sauce & crumbled bacon topping. I was getting full after a side salad & a tiny bowl of the soup of the day to taste beforehand. My sister chose that instead of salad as a result of tasting the sample. I had bread pudding with vanilla sauce & she had a chocolate crepe for dessert. They delivered the wrong dessert but the server caught it, boxed the incorrect one to go, & delivered the correct one. When I got the box with the remainder of my crepes, the server had added an extra roll & a container of the cheese sauce for the leftovers, unasked. I feel sure the cheese sauce was made on the premises, so that shoots the theory about not giving away the ones made from scratch. Maybe they were making a new batch for dinner, as we were there on the late side for lunch. But the extra effort went a long way with my sister, who was there for the first time & paying the bill. Granted, the entrees were more expensive than the gyro from My Greek Cafe & probably what was taken home from JaJa’s too. But we would not have felt slighted without the little extras at Paulette’s.
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:18 pm
To further elaborate on my post about Paulette’s, it was my birthday but we never told the server. I don’t know if they do things like singing, which I could have done without in any cas. But if that is just ordinary service, that’s pretty darn good. I made sure my sister had a bite of everything I was eating so she would know if she wanted to order something different the next time. I have to correct what I said about cheese sauce. When I got into the leftovers for today’s lunch, it was honey mustard for the rest of the ham palascinta. And there was a little sprig of fresh parsley in the box as well.
October 3rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
My “feel the love” place is the Asiana Garden, little Korean family restaurant on Mt. Moriah. It’s not much to look at, but the food is delicious and the service is some of the friendliest in Memphis. I don’t know what we did to become the owner’s favorite people, or if they’re just nice to everyone, but they often bring us a free plate of Haemul Paejon (seafood pancake) or a whole grilled mackerel (yummy!)
I’ve been to several Korean places in the Memphis area, and to my taste, the Asiana Garden’s food is the best. The Dae Gi Bul Go Gi (pork bbq, Korean style) is spicy and flavorful without being greasy and heavy, the side dishes (which vary every day) are exceptionally good, and the little private rooms in the back are a nice place to sit and talk. My only gripe is that if you’re a non-Korean like myself, all the hot pepper may cause you to need your glass filled more often than the servers expect. But the last time I went, they left me an entire pitcher, so now I can’t even gripe about that.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:14 pm
This all reminds me of going to Lucchesi’s on Sanderlin just for salami, olives, and bread for a lunch. They asked if I needed cheese but I told them I thought I had some at home. Paid up, got home and took my stuff out of the bag. There were 2 slices of cheese to make the rest of the meal. I called back and thanked them - they told me they just couldn’t let me go without the provolone.
October 4th, 2007 at 9:30 am
I don’t want to reopen a previous discussion, but have to pass on our experience last night at Circa. In short - superb. We had not previously dined there, but were motivated by the varied experiences reported on this blog. Not only was Chef Bragg there, he spoke with us on three different occasions, twice presenting us with complimentary tidbits. The service was excellent. More importantly to me, every dish excelled. We’ll be back.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I’ve become a fan of Lucchesi’s of late. I generally don’t buy prepared foods, but my mother-in-law does and she often goes to Lucchesi’s. A few weekends we (she lives in an addition to our home) had company in town and she got lasagna, salad, bread and cake from there for dinner one night. It was the weekend Bob and I had the stomach virus, so she froze the leftovers for us to eat later. Even from the frozen state, the lasagna was very, very good, as was the bread. I didn’t try the cake, but on her recommendation went there to buy cake for a birthday last week and it was one of the best I’ve ever tasted. And when I picked up the cake, the nice man at the register insisted I sit it back down until I got my keys from my purse (”I always tell my daughters that,” he said) so that I wouldn’t have to fumble for them at the car.
Made me feel right at home.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Overally generous, amazing cheeseplate appetizer at Circa! Enough for a whole meal! Delicious and in abundance!
October 7th, 2007 at 2:07 am
Okay, I’m a long, long way from Downtown, but with all the compliments for Circa, I looked at their website online. And I have a question. It says on the front page that dinner entrees run 17 - 21 dollars. I say to myself, gosh, that’s more than reasonable… then I click on the dinner menu, and not one single entree is priced in that range. The lowest is 22, the highest is 36. Not exactly truthful, is it?
October 9th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Allie-
Does Asiana Gardens have tableside or table top grills? (Boy singular/plural issues are rampant in that sentence)
October 9th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Asiana Garden has both tableside and tabletop grills depending on where you sit. I prefer to sit in the back rooms, which are entirely private (1 party 1 room) and let the kitchen cook for me, but there are grill tables out front, plus those portable things.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Jennifer, the man at Lucchesi’s who asked you to sit down until you found your car keys reminded me of my dad. He picked up my purse one day & told me he thought I needed to take the day off & clean it out. I asked him if he thought it would take that long & he said yes, & I might need some help. I confess - I keep a lot of things in my purse. And it’s really heavy. But I do try to get my keys out before I leave a place with my hands full. Too much chance of spilling the food or dropping it if you’re fumbling for keys too.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:47 am
now, in response to comments about Paulette’s: how did this restaurant keep receiving the “most romantic” vote for Memphis??? There are so many others with a warmer, more inviting ambiance. In terms of food, the salad served this past weekend was a poor shadow of what salads are. It consisted of limp leaves of large size romaine, two (2) slices from a plum tomato, and two slices from some anonymous cucumber. One of the people in our party ordered the spinach and crab crepe,which came to the table as two separate crepes; the way it was described on the menu one was expected. To their credit it was said to be excellent. Given the overall experience I won’t be in a hurry to return.
March 12th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Shout out to Jarrett’s Restaurant!!!!!
I recently dined @ Jarrett’s and left my visa as well as an envelope of old family photos. I received a phone call a few days later from the owner who had locked my items up for safe-keeping. I’m not listed in the phone book and apparently visa won’t give out personal info and told her to cut up my card. How did she find me? She searched her guest checks for that night, found someone who dined with us, found thier out of town phone number, called me and then offered to drop the items by my house !!
How is that for service! By the way our meal was exceptional. We enjoyed it so much we went back for a small plates wine tasting this week, then again last night we hung out at the bar for appetizers.
Thanks Jarrett’s !
March 29th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Paulette’s used to be ‘our place’ for anniversary dinners but after the last one - we decided that we wouldn’t be back. My husband made reservations and when we arrived were led to a table in the middle of the room - right by the traffic to the kitchen. We asked to move to a side table and after a prolonged wait were told ‘if you insist.’ Food was less than average and service indifferent.
When someone suggested that we meet for a birthday lunch, I agreeed - shouldn’t have. Again even with reservations and very few tables filled, we were led to center table in the footpath to kitchen. We asked to move and after much rolling of eyes and sighing, eventually were shown another table. Again food and service were well below par. I’m not sure how Paulette’s has managed to stay open - Must be the K Pie.
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