You only get one chance at a good first impression. Tonight was my first chance to visit the new LYFE Kitchen in Memphis. And I’m disappointed.
Since it was a Friday night and I arrived a little before 6:30, I expected a crowd. And a wait. In that, I was not disappointed. (No worries. I had a book.) The line moved well, though, and within ten minutes, even though I’d started out at the door, I was placing my order. The place was clean; the cashiers were friendly, the decor was interesting (well, the live herb garden was interesting; the rest was pretty spartan) and the food sounded good. So my first thoughts were fairly positive.
It was so crowded and so noisy, I decided to get my dinner to go. But I was thirsty, so I ordered a cup of grapefruit juice to drink while I waited for my unfried chicken with roasted butternut squash and brussels sprouts, Italian quinoa salad, and chocolate budino. According to my receipt, my order was placed at 6:35.
I sat down on a surprisingly comfortable bench in front of the herb garden. I took out my book and commenced reading. Since they were so busy, I expected a wait of 15 to 20 minutes. At about 7, I realized that I was brutally thirsty, and I still didn’t have my drink. So I stepped over to the checkstand and asked the young lady who had taken my order if she could check on my grapefruit juice. In less than 5 minutes, she had located it and brought it to me — notably, with a smile and a great attitude.
I returned to my book, sipping my juice as I read. When I finished the juice, I noticed a server coming off the line with a to-go bag. “To-go order for Tonya.” Not me. About 10 minutes later, another to-go bag comes off the line. “To-go order for Scott.” Again, not me. Ten more minutes go by. It’s now 7:25. I’ve been in the place for an hour and I’m still waiting on a to-go order. I’m trying to decide whether to get up and bother the poor cashier again when she glances over and sees me still sitting there. “Didn’t they bring your order yet?” Well, no, not yet. She smiles and says, “I’m so sorry. Let me go see what’s happened.”
She’s gone a while. More than 5 minutes. She comes back and asks for my receipt. I hand it to her. She checks the to-go order that’s still sitting in the pick-up area — it’s the one for Tonya. (Whoever Tonya is, she is going to be eating seriously cold food.) She heads back to the line, and I see her gesticulating at the runner who’s been bringing out the to-go orders. A few more minutes go by. She comes back and says that they are preparing my order and it will be a couple of more minutes. About 5 minutes later, the runner brings out my bag and my receipt. “Sorry for the wait. The way she rang it up, we thought it was dine-in.” Okay, that’s fine, I get that. Except that no one, in the hour I’ve been sitting there, has come through with a dine-in order looking for “Editormum.” And I’ve seen and heard them calling other people: “I have a pizza for Jean” … “Are you Tom? I have your hummus.” Not one call for Editormum. But there’s no point in complaining or arguing about it (especially in this noisy place), so I just smile, thank her, and head home.
At this point, I’m not really disappointed or upset. A teensy bit annoyed, but I know that in a busy kitchen with a long line of incoming orders, confusion happens and, hey, I’ve got my dinner and that is what counts. I get home and unpack my food. (Five-minute drive, which means it shouldn’t affect the food much.)
First disappointment is the size of the portions. They are reasonable portions, but for the price I paid, I expected more. When I pay $12 for fried chicken, I expect more than a half-breast cutlet. Still, it’s fresh food, and supposedly “clean-sourced,” so I guess that’s where the high sticker-price comes from.
Second disappointment is that the food that should be hot is stone-cold. Like it’s been sitting at the pass waiting for at least half an hour. The quinoa salad is room temperature. The budino is still slightly chilled.
Third disappointment is that my “roasted” butternut squash and brussels sprouts are burnt. As in, the outside of most of the pieces is black and crispy. I’ve done roasted brussels myself. They don’t get charred on the outside and stay almost raw on the inside unless you are pan-frying them to hurry them up. I salvaged most of them, but there were a few that were just a total loss. And according to the menu, there should have been dried cranberries and Dijon vinaigrette on my roasted veggies. Nary a cranberry did I find. And there wasn’t even a whole teaspoon of the dressing. I found a tiny smear of it, but it wasn’t enough to even get an idea of whether it was a good flavour or not.
Fourth disappointment is that the quinoa salad, in addition to being not-cold, is bland. Barely any flavour at all. With all those beautiful herbs growing in the lobby, they couldn’t get some serious flavour in their quinoa? The menu said that this quinoa salad has roasted tomatoes, cucumber, and a garlic-herb vinaigrette. There were no veggies in my quinoa, and mostly it tasted of … boiled quinoa.
Fifth disappointment is the dry, dry chicken. Not only is it cold. It’s bone-dry. The seasoning is amazing — if it had been hot and juicy, this chicken would have been absolutely amazing. But it’s cold and dry.
The only thing that was not a disappointment (besides the smiling, pleasant, and attentive cashier) was the chocolate budino. That was an amazing dessert! The pomegranate-chia sauce was the perfect tart foil to the sweet chocolate custard. And the serving size was just right. Even the price was reasonable.
Now, I try to be fair. I will definitely go back to the Memphis LYFE Kitchen and give them a second chance. If it’s not too noisy and crowded, I’ll eat in. Because I’d love to try that chicken when it’s hot. And there are some other delicious-sounding dishes on the menu that I’d like to have a taste of. But for a first impression, LYFE Kitchen definitely came up short.