Cupboard Restaurant

One of the best meat and threes in Memphis. Great laid back atmosphere and the speed of service is always excellent. Make sure to try the little cornbread!

A tasty and inexpensive early morning breakfast. Very casual and comfortable atmosphere, out waiter was kind and provided great service.

I ate here on Thanksgiving with a party of four. We all ordered the turkey and dressing and then chose various side dishes. The food was really good. My favorite things were the sweet potatoes and the corn pudding. Oh, and they serve these little tiny corn bread muffins instead of bread and they were awesome. I could have just eaten the corn bread muffins and the corn pudding and been very happy. The waitress was good but speedy because they were packed. Only complaint is they were out of pecan pie…

Ok. On a normal day, I would give this place three stars. My husband definitely likes it better than I; he’d probably give it four stars. My parents (who hail from Oregon) would probably give it five. We have been here many times over the past three years that we have lived in Memphis. It is nice that they have vegetarian options. I just don’t think that the food is that stellar. The meat options (which my parents always order) are probably better.
We have had a waitress named Mary quite often, and she is ALWAYS very friendly and is wonderful at her job. However, tonight we got a waitress named Evelyn, who I have never seen working there before. She was grumpy from the get go, acting like we were a burden to her. Four out of the five orders we placed were wrong — food mixed up amongst the plates, my mom didn’t get the fried green tomatoes she ordered, I didn’t get the beans I ordered, etc. My mom just shared my stepdad’s tomatoes, but I didn’t want the corn pudding that I got instead of the beans, so we flagged Evelyn down to get the correct side. She implied that it was my fault that she had written down «corn» on the ticket. Pretty sure that it was miscommunication on both of our parts (I could’ve been speaking too quietly, she maybe should have re-​read the orders to us to make sure everything was accurate) — not something that THE CUSTOMER should have been blamed for. What happened to «the customer is always right»? And there was no apology about getting any of the orders wrong.
She also never refilled my mom’s water, which was strange, as she refilled everybody else’s beverages.
But the most egregious error that Evelyn made came as we were getting up from the table to leave. She noticed my son with his blanket, and STRONGLY admonished him, saying something along the lines of, «You’re too old to have a blanket, don’t you know that? What are you, a baby?!?» EXCUSE ME? Did you just seriously tell my son he is a «baby»? Too bad my stepdad had already paid and left a tip, because that right there would have been a zero dollar tip from me. What makes her think she has a right to talk to my son like that? Ok, fine, if you want to talk to your own children or grandchildren like that — if that’s how you choose to raise children, making them feel bad about what they are doing to make them stop doing it — that’s YOUR child, YOUR family member. You have absolutely NO right to talk to someone else’s child like that. I could not even believe her nerve. If I ever see her again in that place, I will walk out and let the manager know why. fucking bitch!

Just moved back to Memphis. Haven’t been here since 2008, just as good as I remembered.

It’s been about a year since my last visit. This time Debbi and I went for lunch. As before the food was better than the average diner. We had meat and two vegs with coke and tea. The only surprise was the price! Our ticket without tip came to 26.00 and change! What the heck? This is Half Shell Lunch prices $$…From now on… this is our special occasion place if we are downtown!
Best service in town! Oh, the cornbread is great!

Ate here the other night with two friends. Ordered the liver and onions (entrée) with sides of stewed okra and tomatoes, and spinach. The liver and onions was inedible. The liver was cooked to the texture of shoe leather. The gravy came out of a can. I ate all of the okra and tomatoes, but it tasted like it was fresh out of a can. The spinach, which was highly recommended by our waiter, was OK, but it looked like it was frozen spinach seasoned with lots of Parmesan cheese. The cornbread was really white bread with a little corn meal thrown in for color.
I really wanted to like this place. It is kinda old fashioned Southern food. But I really can’t recommend it. To be fair, the service was good, and I received my food quickly and the order was correct. It wasn’t particularly hot, however.

Great atmosphere… casual dining. Tasty southern cooking. Friendly staff. Dessert not worth the price.

A great southern feast!!! Best chicken strips I’ve had in a long time… maybe ever. Whoever heard of corn pudding and eggplant casserole being vegetable choices on a plate lunch? Both were excellent. The hot mini cornbread muffins were an added plus. The owner was amazingly nice and warm. Love this place. Will be back.

Great breakfast place We had sausage and eggs grits biscuits & gravy. Tarus was our waiter. What a fab experience. We also noticed the table close to us raved about him. So be sure to ask for this guy. We loved our experience and the good.

This place is like good ol’ fashioned home cooking. I had a grilled chicken breast w the eggplant casserole and creamed corn and baked yam. Everything was delicious. My husband had the chicken fried chicken and turnip greens, creamed corn and macaroni and cheese. It was soo good too!!! My daughter wanted breakfast and they brought her 2 giant Mickey Mouse or bear shaped pancakes! The ate maybe 2 ears. Lol
Even the rolls and tiny corn bread muffins are soon good! Our waitress was so sweet and kind! We will return!

Nice diner menu, longtime stay in Memphis … But $ 2.25 for a small cup of coffee, refilled once?

Chicken fried steak is great. Biscuits and gravy not bad either. Service was a bit slower this time bc of Father’s Day crowd. Otherwise a good brunch and I left with a decent food coma.

If you are anything like me and enjoy eating by yourself, this is definitely the place for you. If you like eating with friends and/​or family, this could also be the place for you, but I can’t comment on that because I always eat alone.
I got the breakfast special and was very pleased with my eggs and toast. The bacon was also the best pig meat I have had in a very long time. And that is saying something, because I love bacon more than my mother loves my other siblings, and that’s a lot! The service was friendly and the environment was so warm I felt like I was at home. I even had to remind myself not to take my clothes off in the restaurant, for I felt they cared about me so much they might as well see me in my most natural form. Does that make sense? I hope so, because I really mean it. Overall, I give this restaurant a 9.9 out of 10. Thank you everyone for your warm feelings !!!

I had breakfast here while my grandfather was in surgery. The lot was empty, which made me nervous, but the food was good, service was good and prices were fair. I’d eat there again.

Good lunch crowd. Waited about 20 min to get food, a veggie plate, which was a bummer. It was ok. Wanted to give more feedback but there is nothing else good about this place

How does the Cupboard not have 5 stars? I am baffled beyond my creamed spinach! When living in Memphis, the Cupboard was on the weekly rotation of lunch spots. I mean, where else would you go to get your meat and threes?
This is a place where you feel like you are in grandma’s cafeteria, but without the standing line. It’s old school. I’d always get the mashed potatoes with cream gravy, corn pudding and creamed spinach for sure. Sometimes I’d mix it up and get the cucumber tomato salad.
We used to flirt a little with the manager and for some mysterious reason, whenever there’d be a huge line, we’d suddenly find ourselves a table! Tee Hee. But I’m sure it was because we were regulars and we were also nice, well behaved customers.
Ahhhh. I miss the Cupboard. If you find yourself in mid-​town Memphis, please do yourself (and me) a big favor and stop in for a meat and three.

One of my all time fav’s for Lunch. Home cooking southern style, with the freshest of vegetables. The corn bread muffins are incredible, be careful or you will eat the whole basket without thinking, they are truly addictive and should come with a warning label — «these muffins may be hazardous to your waistline». My must haves on the menu are the eggplant casserole, turnip greens and corn pudding. The service is extremely prompt and I think most of the servers have been there for 20+ years (kind of like being served by you grandma). Don’t miss out on the desserts– Black bottom pie, anyone?

This place rocks! Hands down best catfish in Memphis. You don’t even need a knife to cut it, it’s that tender and flaky. And it’s super delicious (I had the fried). Huge portions… that and two sides is $ 9.37, three sides is $ 9.99. Of and you get THREE fillets.
Their sides? Delicious! So many choices, and they were all good. Their green beans? To die for. Super flavourful. Delicious mashed potatoes. By the way, their vegetables? All are cooked without meat, so they’re vegetarian friendly.
You get rolls and cornbread too. The rolls are great (those delicious soft dinner rolls) and cute little cornbread muffins, they’re bite sized and adorable and delicious.
The service is great! Everyone is very friendly and welcoming. I really recommend this place.

The Cupboard is a long time Memphis restaurant. It’s a staple in midtown. It serves country food with different specials every day. It also serves breakfast every day.
The restaurant looks like a typical country restaurant.
For this particular meal, I had the country fried steak and italian spinach, which are two of my favorite foods. The country fried steak was good. However, the spinach was just ok. I prefer it a bit cheesier.
For dessert, I had the lemon ice box pie, which was good.
The Cupboard is a good restaurant for country food. They have little cornbread muffins which are really good. However, I prefer my country foods with a little more soul. I mean I prefer to eat soul food. Soul food has a bit more seasoning. The restaurant also seemed somewhere that my grandparents would prefer. Everything is fine, but there are better restaurants in Memphis.