Felicia Suzanne’s

I went with a group of 9 on a Friday evening. There weren’t many people in the place and the bar was empty. That should have been my first clue. The atmosphere and décor was unimpressive, teetering on depressing. They should pay attention to lighting, fix their ceiling, and freshen up the furniture. There seemed to be plenty of staff, although our waitress appeared to have all of the tables. She didn’t pay much attention to us, probably because she knew the gratuity was included. We placed orders, and waited. And waited… and waited. She finally brought some bread to the table, enough for eight out of nine of us. I asked for more bread twice, but it was never brought. Did I need the bread? No, but pay attention. When we finally got our food, about an hour after we sat down, it looked appetizing. It was presented fine, and I think everyone enjoyed what they ordered. I had the shrimp and grits, which was good, but not anything special. I wasn’t overly impressed with anything brought to the table, but there weren’t any complaints either. I may be critical, but really expected much more.
Not a bad restaurant, but I don’t plan on returning and wouldn’t recommend it.

After a recent incident regarding our not being seated on the wonderful patio area of the restaurant, the owner called to personally apologize and explain the internal problems that led to the mix up. With that kind of personal concern and attention to detail, FSR’s reputation for excellent cuisine is not surprising. We will be returning very soon.

I was in Memphis for a week long business trip. I read some of the previous reviews, and the few negative I can only rack up to everyone has a bad night here or there.
In our case, this was by far the best meal we had in Memphis. Fried chicken livers on gritts? Amazing! Then I got the shrimp and grits, which didn’t sound very upscale, but they would make Bobby Flay cut and run and get into the food truck business. I also had the collard greens cooked up in bacon and honey, fantastic.
We dined at a number of high end eateries, and this was by far the best, all the way around.
If I go back, this is my first stop.

This is where you want to eat in Memphis. This is southern crossed with Emeral. The venue is polished and interesting. The food is great. I could not think of a better attribute. The shrimp and grits are something I will go back for and ignore the rest of the menu

Great dinner tonight at Felicia Suzanne’s! We have a sample of several different items and OMG! Fantastic! If you are looking for a downtown restaurant in Memphis you have to try Felicia Suzanne’s!

Since this is going to be a long review I will starts with some brief ratings for thos ewho don’t care about the specifics:
Hostess — ³⁄₅ (pushy but polite on the phone but dodgy when we arrived)
Waiter — ⁴⁄₅ (Steve or Stevie was new and not a veteran of the field but tried very hard)
Food — ³⁄₅
Bar Area — ²⁄₅ (lack of seating and situated in a terrible space if you can’t find a seat)
Bartender — ¹⁄₅ (total jerk to the ladie sin our party that asked for drink suggestion)
Manager — ²⁄₅ (gave our table away and then blamed it on us)
Atmosphere– ³⁄₅ (nice but noisy)
Noise Level — ²⁄₅ (see above… could barely hear the 7 other people at our table.
So before I start this review please note that Felicia herself reponded to a previous review regarding a lack of a cocktail menu back in early March of 2016. She stated «I appreciate your feedback and I apologize that you did not have a good experience at FSR. We are currently redo-​ing our cocktail list, which is why your server did not present the outdated one.» Yet in late Marchof 2016, one of my female friends was verbally insulted by the bartender because she made the mistake of asking for a cocktail menu. Now… on with the full review…
Suffice it to say that I have had a bad run in with Felicia Suzannes in the past, but I had some out of town guests staying with me who found the menu online and wanted to go… I reluctantly said yes. One of my friend’s called to make the reservation. They were told there was a 7:30PM available… and then they were pressured into confirming it because it could «go away any second». He thought that was weird but he took it. Not to get ahead of myself, but lets just say it would not have been taken at any second because by 7:30 this place was rapidly becoming a ghost town. In any event… they also told us we could come early and if the table was ready we could be seated.
So our next interaction with a Felicia Suzanne employee was when we were greeted at the door by the hostess. She was pleasant enough, she checked our names off on the reservations list, and advised us that our table was almost ready… point to it being cleared and reset. Five minutes later however a guy, who I must assume was the manager, was sitting another group at that table. When we asked the hostess what just happened, she looked at us with these scared and confused eyes and deferred to the guy who was now standing next to her (the manager) and he simply said «That wasn’t your table.» Um… really? Clearly frustrated he decided to try and «calm us down» by telling us it was because our entire group wasn’t there yet… which only served to piss us off further. First it wasn’t our table and now it was conveniently because our party wasn’t there. As an FYI, our party actually was there some were outside enjoying the weather… had he asked we would have advised him of that.
So now we have to wait for our table… so lets get a drink at the bar, right? The bar has no empty seats and there’s no good place to stand but nonetheless what are we to do? So we had to try and squeeze in at the end. One of the women asked for a cocktail menu… to which the bartender looked at her and said in the snootiest voice possibly that there is no cocktail menu. When she asked if he had any favorite «girly drinks» (my words not hers)…he again answered in an inappropriate manner that he has a full bar he can make anything she wanted. At that point my friends (the women anyway) said, «With that attitude I don’t want anything.»
So its a given that our night wasn’t going well. Our waiter maybe the only redeeming thing of the night. A young black guy named Steve or Stevie was our waiter… you could tell he was new, but he was trying very hard and all in all did a very good job. Also the food was good… not great but definitely good. The biggest problem was that the main course came out piecemeal leaving me and several others waiting to eat while our friend’s orders were still being prepared in the kitchen, very unprofessional. I was also surprised that given it was Good Friday, a major catholic holiday, that the special that night wasn’t some kind of seafood dish. Of course food coming out at separate times and planning meals is the kind of attention to detail that this place just doesn’t have.
So all of that and then we finish our entrees. You would think all the damage is done but no. we also ordered coffee, dessert wine and desserts. The coffee and port wine came out 15 minutes before dessert… in doing so all of the coffee and dessert wine was gone before the desserts even arrived.
The only memorable part of the meal were for those people who ordered some of the better dishes which include the grouper as a main dish, the mac’n’cheese side and some terrible attitudes from the staff.

Went for 25-​cent martinis for brunch/​lunch on Friday, and cannot complain. It was pretty empty, but the food was nice and inventive (we had crab grilled cheese and a catfish poboy — both great). The martinis were tiny, but packed a punch — 3 each and we had a nice afternoon buzz.

Had a horrible experience here on February 13 th. We were very rushed by wait staff (I asked where restroom was and waiter asked if I could order when I came back 25 minutes after being seated because they needed to flip table) and my rack of lamb that I ordered medium rare was cooked beyond well done. They did offer to recook it but by that point we were just over it. I hope Felicia wasn’t there and would suggest that she does like Jarretts use to do and close when he wasn’t in the kitchen. We had a really good meal at Flight the night before.

I have to admit to being very disappointed this week. Felicia Suzanne’s has been our favorite special occasion restaurant for years. We took some out of town guests there as a thank you dinner, hoping for a really wonderful experience. It didn’t happen. The waitress who started out with us was too busy/​distracted. She told us they had no cocktail list, and no beer list. When we asked about cocktails, she said, «You can have whatever you want. We have a full bar.» They assigned us a different wait person-​a very nice young man who brought us the cocktail and beer list that they do, indeed, have… but the kitchen thwarted his best efforts to keep us happy. First off, we ordered the deviled eggs appetizer. The next thing we knew, someone brought us each a deviled egg «on the house» as an amuse-​bouche to thank us for coming in. So we cancelled our appetizer order. They were baffled. They forgot to make one person’s macaroni and cheese. The dessert took almost 15 minutes to come out. Our entrees were good. Not great. And the seating is appalling. We sat at a table with 2 people on the bench which was too low, and the other two sat in chairs that have seen better days-​they felt like upholstered toilet seats. Someone needs to do a service training for everyone from the chef to the wait staff, and they need new chairs at a minimum. I wish we had gone across the street to Flight.

Visited here in July 13. Loved it. Went back tonight. Not so much.
Understaffed. Waitress doubling as barkeep. Had to beg for water refills. Lots of delay. Made us 30 min late for our play. Had to ask for the check before we’d received the dessert so we could get to the theater.
Had the chicken liver appetizer. It was tasty of your ok with real spicy.
I had the special — scallops on grits with a really good sauce. I enjoyed it, but the green beans were practically raw. Also had the bread pudding side. It was bland.
Wifey had the New York strip. Her first bite was full of grissle. It almost ruined the dish for her. The rest was tender, juicy, and cooked as ordered, but almost no seasoning.
We shared a dessert — the bread pudding with ice cream. This was good, but not spectacular.
I suspect Felicia is not present and monitoring quality. For the cost, one expects more.
Two stars for the scallops.

I gave four stars due to the arkward location. If you don’t know exactly where this place is then prepare to go in circles. Other than that everything was ok. I had the beef tenderloin dish which was just ok for me and I didn’t care for the fried green tomatoes. I’m not the type to try too many different dishes but if you like duck, quail etc then the other courses may be for you. My husband said the shrimp and grits dish was really good. The atmosphere was the best!!! Very romantic and quiet. The servers were incredible and very attentive.

The service here is amazing and the food is out of thus world. I will definitely be going back.

The restaurant was exquisite in its service and food presentation. The robust flavor brought a pleasant suprise. Checking out was very smooth, overall the best experience I have ever had at a restaurant.

Came here for dinner with the boyfriend’s family. The place is very classy. Interior décor is spot on. They also have beautiful outdoor seating in the courtyard that I hear gets very crowded when the weather is nice! The place is definitely pricy, so this a special occasion/​celebration go-​to restaurant for me. Also, dressy attire is a must.
Their bar is pretty bad ass. We had wine and vodka tonics (the fanciest vodka tonics I’ve ever seen!). We ordered quite a few appetizers and starters. The kale salad and beet salad were amazing. Everyone on our table was singing the praises of the chicken livers. The deviled eggs and the onion tart were delicious!
For entrees, I had the salmon which was served on a bed of grilled sweet corn and covered in some delicious tomato jelly. The others in our group ordered the lamb, duck, strip steak, and shrimp and grits entrees and everyone was very happy with their food. The dishes looked like little works of art!
For dessert, we ordered the blackberry cobbler and bread pudding, and both were devoured despite the fact that we were so stuffed and slowly slipping into food comas.
The servers that work there were so nice and attentive. They tried their best to keep checking on us even though the place was packed on a Saturday night, and they were clearly under-​staffed. The only complaint I have is that it really took a while for the food to come out, and it was clearly because they didn’t have enough people working there considering how busy the place was! But all in all, I would definitely come back here for a celebratory dinner!

The fact that FSR has 3.5 stars at the time I am writing this is absurd to me! I’ve been for dinner, downtown dining week and for drinks in the summer on the patio and have had a great experience every time.
We end up having the same server every time and she is fabulous. She makes great food and wine recommendations. I love coming and ordering a bunch of appetizers and going through a bottle or two of wine. If I wouldn’t gain 50 pounds, if eat the chicken livers and fried oysters every day. This is one of my top picks for a nice meal downtown other than Flight.

What a nice place to have a nice meal!
Our server, Kat, was personable and prompt. She made recommendations for us and was just a nice smiling face.
I had the BLFGT salad and it is as good as everyone says it. This perfect mix of the unexpected that leaves you with a great start to the culinary delight ahead. And I always love a good pimento cheese. Two fried green tomatoes, two bacon strips, a spread of pimento cheese hiding beneath a spring mix salad is genius that you can eat.
My entrée was the shrimp and grits. the shrimp was fresh, the sauce was not to heavy, yet robust. Most importantly, the andouille sausage was perfect.
For dessert, i went with the Bread pushing in spite of the fact that it had coconut. While coconut in food is typically tantamount to blasphemy– this is a rare exception.
This was truly a pleasant dining experience, I can’t wait to come back.

Came her for Friday lunch. Nice jeans are definitely okay – FYI. Great way to sample this place everything was absolutely wonderful. The wait staff was kind and professional. The food was insanely delicious. I had Sunday Ragout over risotto and my husband had the catfish. We got a side of greens and an appetizer of empanadas. My only complaint the tables seem old and we’re off balance and way too close together. Food was extremely hot in terms of temperature not spice so be careful. We are definitely returning for dinner!

After having several issues with reservations being cancelled for unknown reasons, I finally went in during Downtown Dining Week. I had a reservation. I expected the place to be full but it wasn’t. There were several tables available however they were no longer taking any customers. My server, Zack, was good. After hearing and reading so much hype about this place, I expected more. Instead, the food was just barely decent. Nothing wow about the taste. However, the BLFGT salad was very pretty to look at. The presentation was nice. However, the tomato was very thick and hard to cut through or bite. The Sunday Sugo I had was over grits and tasted like salty meat sauce without spaghetti. I have to say, nothing at all impressed me enough to return.

Anyway you slice it, Felicia Willett is a rock star. She was one of the first to bet on downtown with a fine dining restaurant. She is a huge supporter of the eat local movement, and she rarely says no when a non-​profit asks her for a donation.
Over and above all of that, her food is delicious. My most recent visit was for downtown dining week. I had the perennial favorite bacon, lettuce, fried green tomato salad with pickled jalapeño pimento cheese. Then I moved onto the Sunday sugo make with local beef and pork and Hanna Farm grits. The finale was the white chocolate coconut bread pudding with rum caramel sauce. I may or may not have licked the plate.
Her Thursday Tacos and Tunes events are always fun. Each week brings a different taco and $ 5 margarita to accompany great live music on her «almost private» patio. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention her $ 0.25 Friday martini lunches. The short rib grilled cheese is my favorite meal to soak up my martinis.
Well worth the trip any time.

We visited for Downtown Dining Week and it was a lovely experience, as usual. The staff is super efficient and courteous. I have never been to a restaurant where the bread serving assistant also had an assistant, or so it seemed. Being an exceptionally busy Monday due to the Downtown Dining event, the management planned accordingly with plenty of staff. Kudoes.
The special event menu was a good representation of what they do best, Nola style with her own unique twist. The fried oysters with bbq sauce over creamy grits were delicious and perfectly prepared, crunchy on the outside and melt in your mouth tender oysters, (the sauce made me want to lick the bowl).
The entrees were equally divine, the Sunday Sugo was reminiscent of the sauce served at my mother’s Catholic church prepared lovingly by 80 year old Italian Grandmothers, simple but a depth of flavor that is indescribably comforting.
The butternut squash risotto brought new meaning to the word creamy, perfectly prepared as well, which is hard to do in mass quantities, obviously cooked to order and so so divine with kale and toasted pumpkin seeds for a little crunch.
We were stuffed by the time dessert rolled around but we soldiered on, I mean who could pass up white chocolate, coconut bread pudding and salted caramel and pecan whiskey swirled gelato.
We were very appreciative of the attention to detail shown by the whole staff and particularly our server Kat, who was busy as heck but never made us feel neglected. If you can’t get in for Downtown Dining Week, try it soon you won’t regret it!
Oh and one more thing, if you can’t get a reservation at one of the participating restaurants in advance try calling the day of, most places have cancellations. Bön Appetit!

I took my husband here for his birthday. I thought it would be romantic, but it’s really not. It’s a large open room, very noisy, and tables are too close to each other. The food was good, but could definitely be better. We ordered the onion tart to start with, which was good. My husband had the grouper, which was very tasty, but the duck three ways was gamey and not good. (South of Beale has better duck dishes). Service was good, and the wine list was interesting (unique options). However, the price didn’t match the experience.

As a vegan, I love the fact that Felicia Suzanne’s can accommodate my dietary needs. Twice, I have had the wait staff immediately offer the coconut milk risotto when I asked if there was something I could eat. Their salads and drinks are really good too but the best part has to be their really cool patio!

So I had the pleasure of eating here along time ago, but can’t quite remember what I got. I just remember loving it! And thought it was pretty cool they sat everyones food down at the exact same time on the table. Very sophisticated and fancy.
My aunt had her reception here, and it was absolutely stunning. I don’t know if words will do it justice, but I did happen to snap a few pictures ;). The fountain was the perfect back drop with candles lit all around. The one downside for me was the size of the dance floor. Im a dancing fool and need my space. They can’t really change that though. All-​in-​all, very fancy and absolutely breathtaking outside patio area.
Oh and the finger foods they paraded around on the trays… ridiculously good.
People were swarming them and quite frankly it was a little scary. And annoying.
They would run out within 2 minutes of stepping outside hah!
BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL!

Husband and I went here to order a couple drinks just sheerly by walking by and admiring the patio. It’s an open concept with an overhang bar and tons of seating for those that want to have drinks or eat. We didn’t realize it had it’s own in door restaurant as well, so this is just our review of the outside patio.
Service was great, we sat at the bar and had a very friendly bartender that made sure we were well hydrated. We ordered some specials — the food was okay, but I definitely prefer the mixed drinks from the specialized menu and their ceviche, but the rest of what we ordered was a little too heavy to top off the night since it was so hot out. Fried green tomatoes were good, but the vegetable side we got I just was not into — it tastes like a mirage of random veggies thrown in with some brown sugar, just not what you’d expect from a veggie. side.
We’ll definitely come back again just for drinks.
— - update, came back for taco thursday, best mixed drinks and amazing SUPER phenomenal tacos priced at $ 2 a piece. had some other items off the menu, couldnt be happier. same bartender on the patio, still awesome. loved the live music they had that night!!!

Patio was fun and relaxing.
Friendly bartenders.
Special food and drinks on Thursday
and live music.

I went here pretty late one evening for dinner with a group of friends.
The outdoor seating is beautiful; it called to us from outside. There are beautiful outdoor lights, a fountain, and an outdoor bar. The inside did not seem as nice. I would also prefer outside.
The waiter was great – very informative of the area and the menu.
I ordered the trout, which was good, but I thought it was a bit unimpressive. It was a big filet of breaded trout – that’s it.
I would try it again because of the beautiful patio and atmosphere, but I may prefer to just go for drinks outside.

Felicia Suzanne’s marked our end to Downtown Dining Week 2014.
Every seat was occupied and I am not surprised, as rumor has it that the namesake of this restaurant came up with the whole idea in the first place to have a restaurant week in Memphis (unconfirmed information).
The service was impeccable.
The first course, a squash soup, was muted but full of flavor at the same time. I appreciate that the soup was not overly salted.
The main dish, a breaded white fish, had a mix of flavors as well. The black eyed peas rounded out the dish well.
As for dessert, the cake was the best part of the meal.
What a great way to end our weeklong dining adventure.