The Majestic Grille 145 S. Main Street
Memphis, TN
38103
WHAT WE ORDERED:
Grilled Artichoke Heart Flatbread, Grilled Salmon with Rice and Asparagus, Filet Oscar with Lump Crab & Bearnaise Sauce, Broccoli, Jasmine Rice
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
Atmosphere - 8
Menu - 9
Presentation -6
Taste - 7.5
Price -7.5
Service - 6
Overall -7.5
Atmosphere
- Definitely one of the most unique restaurants that we've been to so far. The minute you walk through the front doors, you feel like you've been transported to the past. It just oozes classic style. All of the seating (booths and tables) are a dark wood, accented with the simple elegance of white table cloths. The three sections of seating (floor, raised side bars, and balcony) are all slightly cramped, but it adds to the warm cozy feeling. At the back end of the restaurant, above the kitchen, there is a giant screen where they project classic black & white movies during the evening and cartoons during Saturday morning brunch. It is a nice touch, but the screen should be dressed up a little bit. The palm trees down the center and dark lighting make you feel somewhat like you are in a cross between The Great Gatsby and Casablanca. A few problems kept it from being a 10. First, it was a good choice to have the waitstaff in all black. HOWEVER, most of them were wearing t-shirts which had no place in that restaurant. Next, the two plasma TV behind the bar completely killed the vibe. It seems it's almost mandatory for bars to be equipped with a shrine to pro sports, but it did NOT support the aesthetic at all. 
Menu
- The menu was almost perfect. It was kept to a simple two pages that were black and hard-bound. The font and accents evoked a 1920's feel, but did not make it difficult to read. There were extensive beer and wine offerings along with a vast array of liquor bottles behind the bar. The specialty cocktails on the menu all were listed with their recipe origin and the year it was created, maintaining the authenticity of the time period. There was a substantial amount of dishes available for the vegetarian and the carnivorous alike. The menu was near perfect; the only thing that knocked it down to a 9 was the lack of organization. The sandwiches and salads were segmented together and all of the entrees were lumped together randomly. As you read through the entrees options it skipped around from pan roasted chicken to ravioli to salmon, back to another pasta dish. If they could make it just a tiny bit easier to find what you want, we'd have a 10 on our hands.
Presentation
- The grilled artichoke heart flatbread was served on a wooden slab that gave it an artisan-crafted feel. The colors of the spinach, artichokes, feta, and mozzarella cheese made for a beautiful dish. There wasn't anything particularly pleasing or displeasing about the presentation of the entrees. The dishes were classic white, adding to the elegance, but the food itself was plain looking. The only thing that stood out (and not in a good way) was the Bearnaise sauce drowning the plate so that you couldn't even see the crab or the filet.Taste - There were some aspects of the meal that were done very well and some that missed the mark of their potential. The flatbread was amazing. All of the ingredients blended well together. The spinach was not too wilted, the artichoke hearts were cooked perfectly and there was exactly the right amount of both feta and mozzarella cheese. It was one of those dishes that will make you believe that you could survive as a vegetarian. The Bearnaise sauce of the Filet Oscar was delicious; it had a perfect consistency and flavor...the problem was the sheer volume of it. It drown the dish. Luckily the steak had a good char and enough flavor to cut through the yellow flood, but the taste of the lump crab was completely lost. On the bright side the steak itself was delicious and cooked to a perfect medium. The broccoli was salted, peppered and buttered wonderfully, but was slightly undercooked, as was the asparagus. The salmon had a fantastic honey rosemary glaze and was served with the skin on...which is where the problem was. Despite the excellent taste of the fish, the skin was not crisped, but BURNT. To eat the salmon you had to either mutilate the salmon off the skin or eat the skin and ruin the flavor. It was a shame.
Price - As far as price goes, we found it very comparable to restaurants of similar quality. The portions were good, but for what we paid, we would have expected not to experience the taste faux pas that we did. Service - Our server was just ok. She was polite but not friendly. She didn't introduce us to the menu, offer specials or suggestions, and didn't offer to answer any questions. She checked up on us a couple times, but not frequently. The kitchen was very slow.
WOULD WE GO BACK?
Yes. We would definitely go back for the signatures flatbreads and would want to try them all. The taste of most aspects of the dish were good, so we would just hope that we could avoid things like over-saucing and burnt skin. This is a great place for a special occasion, date night, or business dinner.
Here's a link to their website:
http://www.majesticgrille.com/
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