The Arcade Restaurant

Great atmosphere, I like the merchandising. Food: I don’t like the sweet potatoes pancake. The traditional one was better. The rest was good. Service: 80% of the staff were good. I wish my waitress was looking more the room and was more on top of things. One of them seems to be really annoyed or done with her job. The Restroom were dirty.

We were really looking forward to eating at the oldest cafe in Memphis and what a disappointment! I really don’t want to write such a horrible review, but feel it’s necessary and important to warn diners before dining here. Let’s start with the hostess service. We were welcomed with smiles and southern hospitality. Much appreciated and welcomed. Things pretty much went downhill from there. We waited at least 45 minutes for our food and when it arrived our food was cold, as if it had been sitting in the kitchen for quite some time. My hash browns were cold and stale, eggs were cold, and biscuits were doughy and undercooked. I sent my food back to the kitchen and one would think that getting my food back out would be a priority, but I waited another 25 minutes. At that point, I told our server that they could cancel my order and remove my order from our tab. The server asked if she could at least box it up and I accepted her offer. Not much changed. My boxed up food was cold, hash browns were terrible, and the only items I could eat were the two biscuits. My friend’s bowl with hash browns and eggs was cold and the melted processed cheese squares on top was literally atrocious. Why not purchase and use shredded cheese? The server offered to bring salsa and said it would help with the taste. Yep, basically acknowledging the food was not great. But my friend never received the salsa. We were essentially ignored. This restaurant has so much potential. There’s plenty of dining space, the local history is interesting and fascinating, and there’s some revitalization of downtown Memphis in the works. Hopefully the owner and management will take the necessary steps to improve their customers’ experience.

Historic diner with GREAT breakfast! It’s crazy to think that this diner/restaurant has been around since the 1920s. Soon as you walk in your greeted, it was about noon and it was pretty full so there may be some wait but it wasn’t more than waiting for a table to be cleaned to sit us down. Had the sampler and I have to say this was the best French toast I have ever had. Deep fried French toast was the highlight. The sweet potato pancake was really good too! Food is inexpensive and the service was pretty good.

An institution that has been there since 1919, so we had to go. Food was ok. Not a fan of the French toast though...too crispy...reminded me of a Burger King French toaststick. Eggs and grits and breakfast sandwich were good.

All four plates ordered were delicious. Country ham, Turkey sandwich, chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate gravy (tastes like chocolate sauce) and deep fried French toast. I hope these pictures help someone who is considering one of these plates.