I cannot figure out why this place is always so crowded!
I have never been to another restaurant, anywhere, that cared less about accommodating its customers. I wouldn't go here at all except I have friends who (inexplicably) love it. It's always crowded and noisy, and DO NOT go if you have a large party of people to seat. We were there this past Sunday with a party of seven and it took almost an hour for them to get us a table. I wanted to remind the hostess that two tables of four took up the same space as one table of seven, since she kept seating smaller parties ahead of us.
It took another hour to get our food (during this time we only got one refill of water; our waiter was mostly MIA) and when it arrived, it was cold. Cold fries, cold gumbo, cold hot sandwiches. My ""chicken and sausage gumbo"" had four small shreds of chicken, no sausage at all, and was served over about two tablespoons of rice. The flavor wasn't bad but it was basically a big bowl of watered-down, lukewarm, roux filled with large, unpleasant-to-eat, chunks of bell pepper.
It's overpriced in general. They charge $1.25 for each *can* of soda (no refills) but can't be bothered to offer a caffeine-free cola. They don't make substitutions: One member of our party is diabetic and asked if he could get a small salad or green vegetables instead of fries with his sandwich, but they wouldn't do it. A ""side"" of coleslaw is about three tablespoons in a plastic cup.
Be careful ordering meat or fish on days they are busy: It will almost always be undercooked. Apparently they don't have enough staff--wait staff OR kitchen staff--for the number of customers they can seat, because the service is always slow and inattentive, and the food is haphazard. Granted, this was Mardi Gras weekend, but I see it this busy or more busy on a regular basis so I don't think that's an excuse.
Furthermore, since they are very busy on a regular basis, I don't understand why they can't establish better seating and service protocols: It's not like they don't expect it.
The, the waiter messed up our tickets three times in a row because he didn't think he needed to write anything down.
On the way home, my friend and I stopped at McDonald's (54th and Broadway. Very nice McD's) for a coffee and soft-serve. It was quieter, cleaner, had better background music, and the service was better, and it didn't take us three hours.
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