Long review: My family and I (4 adults, 1 kid) ate at Cafe Ole on Mother’s Day we arrived around 12:40 pm. When we walked in the restaurant was seemingly uncrowded and we were seated fast so that was great. The waitress came to the table, she was nice, she did not introduce herself so we didn’t know her name. She brought drinks, chips, salsa, and water to the table fairly quickly as well. The chips were very greasy and bland. We were trying to ask questions about the menu and the mimosa bong the waitress was very inattentive and it seemed as though she was rushing. We placed the order for drinks, which was a mimosa bong and shots of grey goose. We saw the bartender making the drinks and then they sat on the bar for a while. She then brought over the shots and not the tower she kept saying the tower would be out in a minute and she walked past the bar at least twice after that. One of the guest from our party went up to the bartender to ask if that was our mimosa bong, the bartender verified that it was and brought it over to our table himself, no waitress in sight. When we poured our drinks we noticed the mimosa bong was leaking so we told another staff member about this, he started that we shouldn’t have to “deal with that on Mother’s Day”, and he grabbed another one for us. Then our waitress came back and asked if we got our mimosa bong, we asked if we could go ahead and place our food order. The food was okay we ordered the pancakes, shrimp and grits and an omelet. We received the everything else like 5 minutes before the omelet, which the waitress had to go grab from the back. The waitress did not comes back anytime after that to check on the table. We had to ask other staff members to get water and napkins and utensils. The bathrooms were disgusting and dirty no soap in the bathroom and pee on the floors. When we payed for our bill, which was over $100, the man who replaced the mimosa bong stated “Make sure you tip my waitress good”. We payed the bill and left what we felt was an appropriate tip for the service provided. While we were walking out the restaurant the same man who made a statement about the tip, proceeded to walk up to us outside of the restaurant as we were getting in our car and asked about the tip we left we asked if there was a problem and told him about the subpar service. He was visibly upset and stood outside the restaurant as if he was trying to intimidate us. The encounter was very uncomfortable for us and we felt like we were being harassed. I would suggest that Cafe Ole work on their service, cleanliness, and professionalism in the near future. We are from out of town and really wanted to have a nice brunch for mother’s day without the long wait. I am sad that we chose cafe ole as it put a damper on our day. We will not return and I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant. I do hope this review helps and that the staff at Cafe Ole will improve.Vegetarian options: Their brunch menu has some good vegetarian options. Pancakes, eggs, potato hash, and etc.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Shrimp and Grits
Asia Johnson
The only pro was that we were sitted quickly. Waitress (whose name was not given in the beginning) was not very attentive throughout the experience. The women's restroom was disgusting and smelt bad. One of the stalls were stopped up with fecal matter in the toilet. The other stall had a black ring inside the toilet bowl. The restroom was out of soap and one of the sinks were stopped up with standing water. We had to ask other workers for service at at a restaurant that was visibly NOT CROWDED AT ALL (Inside and outside). As far as the food and service, chips were hella greasy. As said in the beginning, the nameless waitress was not attentive. There were times we had to ask other workers for assistance because the nameless waitress was nowhere to be found or walked past the table without acknowledgement and we also had to have one of our guests in our party help find servers. The nameless waitress took quite some time to takedown our food orders. Food was decent however lukewarm when served. Our table ordered a Mimosa Bong but had to have the first one replaced due to it leaking when pouring. The gentleman who replaced the bong made a comment stating "I'll take care of that because y'all shouldn't have to deal with this on Mother's Day." After we finished our food and the bill was paid, the gentleman who replaced the Mimosa Bong made a comment to "Be sure to take care of my server". I feel like he made that comment because he knew we were unhappy with our experience there. I personally didn't want to leave a tip for the waitress due to our experience (we tip very well IF and only IF DESERVED) however one of our guest decided to leave a $7 tip our nameless waitress. Once we left to the establishment and were about to enter our vehicles, the same gentleman who replaced our Bong and made his comments, decided to follow us outside with the tip in hand and question our decision. We felt VERY uncomfortable and harassed by that interaction along with our experience. This was my first and LAST time visiting this establishment.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
Matthew Montgomery
The music was so loud my ears were bleeding. We asked that the music be turned down more than once and it never was. The tacos and rice were bland with hardly any taste. My wife wanted a sangria and was told she couldn’t have one. Have you ever heard of a Mexican restaurant that refuses to serve customers a sangria? The best thing about Cafe Ole is the Spuds McKenzie photo. We won’t be returning. Oh, I almost forgot. The most outrageous thing is my wife was charged $6.00 for sweet tea in a small plastic cup! She was charged for a tea refill! Have you ever heard of being charged for a tea refill anywhere in your life? I haven’t. And don’t get your chips refilled because they will charge you extra for that too. Don’t go but if you do be weary of all their sneaky up-charging.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 4
PressedByLex
I understand that we came on a busy Saturday night (NOT). 1 table occupancy in the inside. But to be told to seat ourselves ?we located a table on the patio. Minutes later the SAME girl who told the man server to tell us to seat ourselves walks out with menus and utensils to seat a white couple. Still I waited, another server walks past us and proceeded to ask the couple who just sat down to take their drink order. At that point we CLEARLY got the message and will NOT BE BACK!!
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Jessica Muñoz
Our group waited 20+ minutes to get water / chips & salsa. The service is horrible and we should’ve just walked out, but we didn’t because we had already ordered our food and our group is respectable and considerate. Another group waited the same amount of time to be seated. This is simply unacceptable and must be rectified. I’m not sure how this place can stay open with the level of horrible service.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
cherri christley
My family and I came and sat for 10 mins.. NO ONE CAME TO GREET US.. a group of White people enter and literally 3 waiters hovered their table to offer water.. I spoke with the “supervisor’ he says.. “yea we were just talking about that”.. So yea we packed up and left! Zero Stars! And while we were waiting my husband asked an employee to have our waiter come to our table. Her response was pretty much the same as the supervisor: yea I’ll get someone over. They never came so we left. In 2024 and “IT” still exists!
Bryana C.
Terrible service. It took about 45 minutes after we were seated for the server to come to the table and ask us if we wanted water. It took us another 2 hours to get our food and even then the food was subpar. The waiter also forgot our appetizer.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Mack L
I had the brisket tacos for a takeout order and they were amazing. I haven’t found great tacos in Memphis before coming here. I definitely will return!
It’s been decades since we’ve been here but skipped in last night because we heard Dave singing and were blown away. Cafe Ole serves Sol beer (rare for Memphis bars) and we also had a great frozen marg! Chips and salsa are incredible.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Ellie F.
Most people come here for the mimosas and brunch on the weekend. The food is Americanized Mexican food, like nachos and fajitas. It can be a fun spot when there is live music during brunch and you can have a few drinks. Other than that, I didn't find the food to be exceptional.
Mandy Johnson
I was in the neighborhood because I had a tattoo appointment, so I stopped in for lunch. Lunch was really quick. I think it took me longer to get my check then it took me to get my food.The food was okay. Not bad but not excellent. I ordered the chilaquiles, and the server told me the owners were considering taking it off the menu because no one ordered it. Having had a lot of authentic chilaquiles in many spots, I would probably call these nachos instead of chilaquiles... But they had good flavor.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Patricia Black
Wasn't a big fan of my food, but the service and atmosphere was great. I didn't realize it was mainly a place for drinking before we went so that's on me. It wad also super expensive. $75 for my two kids and myself and husband. No alcohol was purchased.
Long review: My family and I (4 adults, 1 kid) ate at Cafe Ole on Mother’s Day we arrived around 12:40 pm. When we walked in the restaurant was seemingly uncrowded and we were seated fast so that was great. The waitress came to the table, she was nice, she did not introduce herself so we didn’t know her name. She brought drinks, chips, salsa, and water to the table fairly quickly as well. The chips were very greasy and bland. We were trying to ask questions about the menu and the mimosa bong the waitress was very inattentive and it seemed as though she was rushing. We placed the order for drinks, which was a mimosa bong and shots of grey goose. We saw the bartender making the drinks and then they sat on the bar for a while. She then brought over the shots and not the tower she kept saying the tower would be out in a minute and she walked past the bar at least twice after that. One of the guest from our party went up to the bartender to ask if that was our mimosa bong, the bartender verified that it was and brought it over to our table himself, no waitress in sight. When we poured our drinks we noticed the mimosa bong was leaking so we told another staff member about this, he started that we shouldn’t have to “deal with that on Mother’s Day”, and he grabbed another one for us. Then our waitress came back and asked if we got our mimosa bong, we asked if we could go ahead and place our food order. The food was okay we ordered the pancakes, shrimp and grits and an omelet. We received the everything else like 5 minutes before the omelet, which the waitress had to go grab from the back. The waitress did not comes back anytime after that to check on the table. We had to ask other staff members to get water and napkins and utensils. The bathrooms were disgusting and dirty no soap in the bathroom and pee on the floors. When we payed for our bill, which was over $100, the man who replaced the mimosa bong stated “Make sure you tip my waitress good”. We payed the bill and left what we felt was an appropriate tip for the service provided. While we were walking out the restaurant the same man who made a statement about the tip, proceeded to walk up to us outside of the restaurant as we were getting in our car and asked about the tip we left we asked if there was a problem and told him about the subpar service. He was visibly upset and stood outside the restaurant as if he was trying to intimidate us. The encounter was very uncomfortable for us and we felt like we were being harassed. I would suggest that Cafe Ole work on their service, cleanliness, and professionalism in the near future. We are from out of town and really wanted to have a nice brunch for mother’s day without the long wait. I am sad that we chose cafe ole as it put a damper on our day. We will not return and I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant. I do hope this review helps and that the staff at Cafe Ole will improve.Vegetarian options: Their brunch menu has some good vegetarian options. Pancakes, eggs, potato hash, and etc.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
Recommended dishes: Shrimp and Grits
The only pro was that we were sitted quickly. Waitress (whose name was not given in the beginning) was not very attentive throughout the experience. The women's restroom was disgusting and smelt bad. One of the stalls were stopped up with fecal matter in the toilet. The other stall had a black ring inside the toilet bowl. The restroom was out of soap and one of the sinks were stopped up with standing water. We had to ask other workers for service at at a restaurant that was visibly NOT CROWDED AT ALL (Inside and outside). As far as the food and service, chips were hella greasy. As said in the beginning, the nameless waitress was not attentive. There were times we had to ask other workers for assistance because the nameless waitress was nowhere to be found or walked past the table without acknowledgement and we also had to have one of our guests in our party help find servers. The nameless waitress took quite some time to takedown our food orders. Food was decent however lukewarm when served. Our table ordered a Mimosa Bong but had to have the first one replaced due to it leaking when pouring. The gentleman who replaced the bong made a comment stating "I'll take care of that because y'all shouldn't have to deal with this on Mother's Day." After we finished our food and the bill was paid, the gentleman who replaced the Mimosa Bong made a comment to "Be sure to take care of my server". I feel like he made that comment because he knew we were unhappy with our experience there. I personally didn't want to leave a tip for the waitress due to our experience (we tip very well IF and only IF DESERVED) however one of our guest decided to leave a $7 tip our nameless waitress. Once we left to the establishment and were about to enter our vehicles, the same gentleman who replaced our Bong and made his comments, decided to follow us outside with the tip in hand and question our decision. We felt VERY uncomfortable and harassed by that interaction along with our experience. This was my first and LAST time visiting this establishment.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
The music was so loud my ears were bleeding. We asked that the music be turned down more than once and it never was. The tacos and rice were bland with hardly any taste. My wife wanted a sangria and was told she couldn’t have one. Have you ever heard of a Mexican restaurant that refuses to serve customers a sangria? The best thing about Cafe Ole is the Spuds McKenzie photo. We won’t be returning. Oh, I almost forgot. The most outrageous thing is my wife was charged $6.00 for sweet tea in a small plastic cup! She was charged for a tea refill! Have you ever heard of being charged for a tea refill anywhere in your life? I haven’t. And don’t get your chips refilled because they will charge you extra for that too. Don’t go but if you do be weary of all their sneaky up-charging.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 4
I understand that we came on a busy Saturday night (NOT). 1 table occupancy in the inside. But to be told to seat ourselves ?we located a table on the patio. Minutes later the SAME girl who told the man server to tell us to seat ourselves walks out with menus and utensils to seat a white couple. Still I waited, another server walks past us and proceeded to ask the couple who just sat down to take their drink order. At that point we CLEARLY got the message and will NOT BE BACK!!
Atmosphere: 1
Service: 1
Our group waited 20+ minutes to get water / chips & salsa. The service is horrible and we should’ve just walked out, but we didn’t because we had already ordered our food and our group is respectable and considerate. Another group waited the same amount of time to be seated. This is simply unacceptable and must be rectified. I’m not sure how this place can stay open with the level of horrible service.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 2
Service: 1
My family and I came and sat for 10 mins.. NO ONE CAME TO GREET US.. a group of White people enter and literally 3 waiters hovered their table to offer water.. I spoke with the “supervisor’ he says.. “yea we were just talking about that”.. So yea we packed up and left! Zero Stars! And while we were waiting my husband asked an employee to have our waiter come to our table. Her response was pretty much the same as the supervisor: yea I’ll get someone over. They never came so we left. In 2024 and “IT” still exists!
Terrible service. It took about 45 minutes after we were seated for the server to come to the table and ask us if we wanted water. It took us another 2 hours to get our food and even then the food was subpar. The waiter also forgot our appetizer.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 1
I had the brisket tacos for a takeout order and they were amazing. I haven’t found great tacos in Memphis before coming here. I definitely will return!
Great food
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Shrimp and Grits, Brisket Enchiladas, Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Shrimp
they're doin' somethin' right .. folks here are cool .. patio for sure ?
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Friendly service and great food.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
It’s been decades since we’ve been here but skipped in last night because we heard Dave singing and were blown away. Cafe Ole serves Sol beer (rare for Memphis bars) and we also had a great frozen marg! Chips and salsa are incredible.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Most people come here for the mimosas and brunch on the weekend. The food is Americanized Mexican food, like nachos and fajitas. It can be a fun spot when there is live music during brunch and you can have a few drinks. Other than that, I didn't find the food to be exceptional.
I was in the neighborhood because I had a tattoo appointment, so I stopped in for lunch. Lunch was really quick. I think it took me longer to get my check then it took me to get my food.The food was okay. Not bad but not excellent. I ordered the chilaquiles, and the server told me the owners were considering taking it off the menu because no one ordered it. Having had a lot of authentic chilaquiles in many spots, I would probably call these nachos instead of chilaquiles... But they had good flavor.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 4
Wasn't a big fan of my food, but the service and atmosphere was great. I didn't realize it was mainly a place for drinking before we went so that's on me. It wad also super expensive. $75 for my two kids and myself and husband. No alcohol was purchased.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 3
Service: 5