Cajun King

[TheSteveHunt]

Think they must have forgotten to raise the flag for help.

They are open, I'm here now. Pretty much exactly like the other one.

[Martin]

They are open, I'm here now. Pretty much exactly like the other one.

awesome... gonna have to try again this weekend.

[Jeepnokc]

They are open, I'm here now. Pretty much exactly like the other one.

Got the menu today but doesn't list buffet. How much is it?

[Greggo71]

Went to the new Southside location for lunch with the family and simply put, it was really bad. Hopefully it's due to just getting up and running but I won't be going back until I start seeing some good Yelp reviews.

[baralheia]

Oh man. Tried to check out the new Cajun King location Saturday night at about 7pm with the hubby... It did NOT go well. I can't even comment on the food because we never even got that far. First, the entrance is extremely awkward. They put the cashier station immediately inside the second set of double-doors, in the entrance hallway, blocking half of the hallway and leaving little room for incoming and outgoing customers to get past each other. Once we made it past the people waiting to pay, we got in line behind another couple waiting at a barstool with a printed "Please wait to be seated" sign taped to it. Not long after we got in line, the couple ahead of us was seated, and we made it to the front of the line.... and waited.

And waited.

A few of the staff in the relatively empty dining room made eye contact with me after a few minutes, then went back to what they were busily doing. I figured they were probably shorthanded from being so newly opened, and now that someone noticed us, someone would come seat us soon. So we waited.

And waited some more.

Once we hit the 10 minute mark of waiting, with no greeting, no apologies for the wait, no promise that someone will be right there... hell, no human interaction whatsoever, we just gave up and left. We went to the Crawfish Pot instead - a few doors down in the same shopping center - and despite being much busier, they greeted us and sat us almost immediately, and we had a very enjoyable dinner together. Cajun King on the Northside is pretty awesome, but their new Southside location needs some serious help.

[stile99]

I was going to go today, being Mardi Gras. But before I went, I noticed the bad reviews. So bad, they even posted a mea culpa saying they're sorry, they didn't expect such a response (for the last five months, every post you made on Farcebook was met with comments saying "South side open yet?" and you didn't expect such a response? Calling BS on that one), and promising to do better.

I decided to skip it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I got the impression they are absolutely not ready for a 'holiday' just yet.

[stile99]

As much as it pains me to write this, there are even odds right now between this place closing before I give it another chance, or major changes are made and I give it another try. Even odds. 50/50.

For those asking the price, Wednesday lunch was $11.99 per. I'm not sure if this was intentional or a mistake, because when I call the north side location, it's $9.99 for lunch there, $11.99 is the dinner price (weekdays). Which considering how many items were not on the buffet at all is a complete ripoff. $9.99 would have been a tad pricey for what they had, $11.99 is a downright screw job. No jambalaya, no beignets, no crawfish etouffee. I'll admit I didn't bother trying the gumbo because it was way more watery than I like.

Now don't get me wrong, what they did have was delicious. Whatever they're doing do the chicken on the north side, they're doing for the south side as well (this makes sense for reasons to be explained shortly), the blackened pork chops (the sign said blackened catfish, but was quite apparently wrong), the greens, all delicious. But for $11.99? Really for what they had the place could very barely be called cajun, and it's completely crapping on the name Cajun King has built for themselves. If I went to this place without ever knowing about the one on the north side, I would be saying this was my first and last visit and then just forget about them. But knowing what they could/should be, I want to try again if they can make some changes.

I didn't raise a fuss when it was time to pay, I didn't ask for a discount, I just asked for a manager and asked if they felt that was an appropriate price to pay for what they had, or more accurately what they didn't have. To their credit. she did indeed offer a discount (in fact, only charged us the discounted priced for one when it was a party of two, or maybe when she said the price she meant the total, not per, in which case good move, THAT is what is making me willing to give you another try in the future, "above and beyond" should be the motto of customer service everywhere), but she said that we should call the owners and let them know, because the price and the food came from them. I didn't press for details, but I've heard rumors that the food is being cooked at the north side and trucked to the south to be warmed up (this might explain why they opened 15 minutes late, with a guy on the phone looking nervously out the door at the growing number of waiting people...perhaps he was on the phone with the delivery guy telling him to hurry?). This makes no sense to me, the catfish at least has to be cooked fresh, come on.

Anyway, this is what needs to change. First of all, that price was a mistake or intentional, and if it was intentional, stop screwing the south side, knock it down to match the price at the north side. If you're jacking up the price to pay for the gas used to deliver it, the solution to this is so obvious I'm not going to say it. Figure it out yourself or you deserve to go out of business. If it was a mistake, some training is in order. In line with some of the other reviews, the place was well-staffed, but it seems half of them were lost and had no idea what to do, so some training there would be a benefit as well.

The odds of them reading this are low, I admit, but on the off chance, a personal message. People desperately wanted this. Like I said, for months they were spamming you asking if it was open yet. You had such a bad start you felt the need to post a "we're sorry, please give us another chance" message and based on today's experience, didn't change. Here's my advice to you. Close. Nope, not being a smartass, I'm serious. Close for however long it takes to fix the issues, whatever the cause of those issues may be, then reopen only once you are TRULY ready to do so. If you think you're going to be open for a couple months and let the issues iron out over that time, what you're actually doing is losing customers (two drove off while we were waiting for you to open) who will never return, or will actually come in, try it and be ripped off, and then not only never return but might not come back to the north location either. Close and fix this. NOW. Before you lose any more customers. If you've no intention of fixing it, then just plain close before this place ruins your reputation.

[TheSteveHunt]

First time I went was fine, second horrible. Catfish was basically raw and the breading all gooey...this after a few
problems... kind of sad! Don't know what the deal is!