Five Spot

HANDS DOWN, THE WORST SERVICE I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED, and that is coming from 5 of the 6 members of the party being servers. General manager (Jan) was beyond inconsiderate. After calling ahead to make sure they could accommodate a group of six, we were seated and told we could not order our drinks and entrees at the same time. Once we were able to order our food, it took our food just over an hour and a half to arrive (we ordered four sandwiches and two medium rare skirt steaks). Twenty minutes before our food came out, I went and spoke to the maître d (who I had spoken with beforehand about accommodating our party), said he would check on our food. Our food arrived cold and the best offer Jan could come up with was 25% off just our food (explicitly excluding our alcohol). At this point we were shocked at this «discount» and just ready to get out of there and pay. Our incompetent server (and that’s generous) came over and had to rewrite each person’s entire order… TWICE. Once he got everyone’s order again, he returned to the table with ONE check that had NO discount applied and proceeded to tell us to split it up. The accountant at our table frustratedly approached Jan and the server about the multitude of issues with the checks, food, service, and EMBARRASSMENT on their entire establishment as a whole. At this point, the member of our party had to literally itemize every single order from our party IN FRONT OF Jan to ensure that they would get it right on this FOURTH attempt. Jan’s response was to offer 50% off of our FOOD and then she took an additional 10 minutes to redo the checks. We (reluctantly) paid out and warned our fellow diners not to walk out of there without 50% off their checks. If you enjoy spending your Saturday night trying a new restaurant with your friends, waiting two hours for cold food, and negotiating with shameless management THEN THIS IS THE ‘SPOT’ FOR YOU!

Four stars because I like the food and atmosphere. Never been impressed with the service. Oysters are great. Sandwiches good. And you can always order a tried and true soul burger from next door. Hopefully they get the staffing worked out. Would love to see them succeed.

Really good food located in a historic building. The vege chicken mushroom pâté sandwich was amazing! Girlfriend had chicken skin blt and highly recommends. Not too far from the water if you want to walk along the river.

I had such high hopes for this place and really wanted to give them a better rating. The food was mediocre and the service for a half empty place was ridiculous. We ordered the shrimp and grits (meh) and the chimichurri steak very tough and surprisingly lacked flavor being it was covered in what is an extremely flavorful accompaniment handled properly. Our waiter kept disappearing and was totally unapologetic for the slow service.

It’s been a few months since we are here but we had a good dinner. Service was a little spotty but hey we’re nice. The food was good and it seemed like everyone at the tables around us were enjoying their dinners. Will try it again at some point I’m sure.

Unfortunately, another poor attempt at South Main dining. I guess they had Kelly English help with the menu but then there is no one that knows how to run a restaurant or maintain any kind of standard. There was only one server for the whole place. The front doors/​windows were open and the Ernestine and Hazel’s employees were sitting on the sidewalk smoking. A large group of voluptuous women were seated next to us so the server was more interested in them than us. We had average oysters, small frozen shrimp, an average salad that they overcharged for and a decent catfish but not decent enough to try again.
Clearly, it’s for a drinking crowd that doesn’t care about the food.

Just a great mix of Southern inspired bites. The chicken skin BLT, aerated steak, buffalo sweetbreads are phenomenal. Great place, great staff… what more do u need?

This place is a trip to a very tasty twilight zone. The entertainment is a+ the décor too. The food still lives in my memory. Go here! Go here now!!!

Great spot if you have 4 hours to kill waiting on drinks and food. It gets 2 stars rather than 1 simply because of the fried catfish, which was very good. The rest of the food was underwhelming. Clearly the wait staff is paid a salary and is not at all concerned with making tips.

Had big expectations, since we were there before, but WORST service ever. Stay far from this restaurant. I believe they think they are fancy, but giving glass of water in plastic cups and our drink orders the same way (plastic cups!!!) is not a good way to keep customers coming back. The worst: the other tables had real water glasses…

We had a pretty bad experience. We started out with a table that would come pretty close to falling over if you did not have a balance on the other side. The food was definitely not up to the quality I expected from the menu pricing. Someone ordered wine at our table, and we spent the evening swatting gnats and fishing them with a spoon out of the wine.
The only positives were nice bathrooms, and the cocktails were a fair priced.
It would be hard to return when there are bars that have good cocktails and better bar food in town.

I don’t even know how to explain the server except for-​he don’t give a damn about nothing. He made that clear from the start so I didn’t set my hopes high for the remainder of the meal. The food on the other hand was amazing. This place is worth trying.

Excellent meal. Start with the shrimp & grits. The sauce is so good they give you toast to soak it up. Next the BLT is 3 layers with fried chicken skin on the top layer for that extra crunch. Finished with the monkey bread. The whipped cream has a bit of bourbon mixed in and really highlights the finish of a very nice meal. If your lucky Ray will help you find your way thru the meal. Way cool guy in a way cool spot.

Reopening, great chief, you can watch him openly if you choose at the open bar section of restaurant, if you go on weekends the 5 spot interior bar is open, nice open wood wall to wall beautiful bar that has bands on weekend, then if your in the mood to mingle walk through restaurant to Ernestine and hazels and experience interesting people in one of the best dive bars in the USA.
I am a frequent guest, maybe we will bump into each other

Better find this spot before it gets packed. Steak, catfish paws, mushrooms, chicken skillet, the PRICES! Wow. Wife and I got app, 2 diners and wine for $ 65. One of the top meals on main, I’ve been to them all!!! Amazing…

The service was awesome — specifically Raymond! And the food was delicious and served to us very quickly. Will definitely be back soon!

I really wanted to like this place, but as it turns out the only way to describe the food and service is it totally SUCKS!
While we were there, 2 tables got up and left because the waiter was so slow getting to them. We ordered and twice the waiter had to ask to remind him what we ordered, which leads me to the food. $ 12 dollar Caesar salad with fried oysters that resembled cafeteria food and tasted no better. We also ordered skillet shrimp, a dozen which turned out to only be ten and it wouldn’t matter if it were a hundred, it was the most bland, non seasoned excuse for a meal that I may have ever had. We each had one shrimp and gave up. By this time the waiter could tell we weren’t happy and charged us to his credit just for the salads.
The 5 Spot is trying to pass itself off as a New Orleans type eatery, judging by the food and service, they can’t begin to spell New Orleans.
As I write this review, my wife and I are having dinner at Huey’s, the service is fast and the food good, maybe the owners should come hang out at Huey’s for a while.

Rating based solely on the friendly staff, ambience and cold beer :)
Stopped in at Earnestine & Hazel’s and was pleasantly surprised that this place had reopened. It has great rustic décor and a perfectly candle lit dining room. Per the bartender, the restaurant will fully open in a few months, though they did have a limited menu available. From what she told us, sounds like Creole/​New Orleans inspired food.
Will definitely come back!

We attended a company party here. The staff was very attentive. The food was amazing. The ambience was «spot» on. From the live music to the preserved interior, the time was well spent. All of the staff looked us in the eye and thanked us for coming in.

Dont let the décor fool you this place has something going for it… Good food
Ok let me begin with if you are stickler for food safety and cleanliness this is not your place, or maybe send someone to get it for you.
I was the only person in there the entire time I ate, which is fine a little lonely but you have their attention. I chatted with the waiter /​cook a little to see what he recommended. He suggested the Willy T, which was basically shrimp and grits with some veggies in it. (see picture) This was a good choice and other than maybe a little too much butter (I know, I can’t believe I’m saying it either) it was spot on. And for being in downtown-​ish Memphis the prices were very good.
Getting here is easy as well since the trolley basically stops right at it. It is across the street from the legendary Arcade and with a little more curb appeal good be happening place place, for now we will just say hidden gem.