Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen — Restaurant in Arlington

I have been a person that has championed Pappadeauxs as one of my favorite restaurants but this Arlington, TX location has always been the one that makes me waiver a bit! The food is always good enough but the lack of service is just blatantly bad! Last night was the cherry on the cake that I’ll never come back to this location! I ordered curbside pick up at 6 pm and was sent a message to pickup at 6:25 pm. I placed my order with Marco that said he was a manager. My order was custom because of adding & taking away things and I let Marco know I was fine with paying the additional charges. I asked Marco a few questions so I knew what extra I wanted and what else I may need to pay for. What was $30 something dollars changed to the mid $50 and I gave a nice tip. My order didn’t come out til 6:45 ish and this was after I called in for my order because I put in my slot number and received the reply message of they were on their way. My order was not only wrong but cold. I kept everything in the car that was correct and gave them what was wrong and my bag. 10 minutes later Allen ( who said he was a manager) came out and let me know my order didn’t come with what I was told and I’d have to pay for the additional charges. I explained the questions I asked and the additional money already paid and Allen gave me the sorry, took my order, bag & credit card. Yes I was dumb for paying extra again after now waiting over 45 minutes for my order! Allen came back 10 minutes later with the additional hot item added to the cold items, my card and no bag! He let me know he decided not to charge me for the additional item like he had done me a favor. I told him it was taking everything for me to not take my tip back and return the food. He stood blank and never said I’m so sorry let me at least get another bag. He did however offer a bland Merry Christmas and another blank stare as I said thank you and let him know I needed a moment before I drove off after waiting more than an hour and countless others with pick up orders after me coming and going! Pappadeauxs’s work on your customer service, training management & wait staff , and hiring enough people to take care of your often beyond busy location. This all made me remember why I often go to other locations ( this one was closest to the person I was...

So, on 02/20/2025, I called this location and made RESERVATIONS for 20 people for 3:30 p.m. for my dad's birthday celebration on 02/22/2025. I arrived at 3:00 p.m. on the agreed day to check in and let them know I was there; at 3:30 p.m., I went back to the check-in and spoke to the hostess and asked about the wait time; she informed me that it was a shift change and they were waiting for my tables to be cleared. At 3:50 p.m., I asked to speak to the manager; the manager came to the front and stated that the other table we reserved had guests at it, and they were waiting for them to leave to set the table up for my party. I asked how long the wait would be for my reservation, and they said they didn't know; the manager offered to seat a party of 15 by this point throughout the restaurant; now, what sense would that make for a birthday party? My mother got involved at about 4:15 p.m. and started to ask for the ETA on our table; the hostesses said there was a party at the table that we reserved, and they had been there over two hours, and hopefully, they would leave soon. I asked if they could just let them know the table was reserved for a large party if they had completed their meal, and she said no. We continued to wait and wait and wait, all while watching the manager fake being busy to avoid my mother, who was waiting at the counter for answers about the RESERVATION. One of the hostesses told my mother, "A reservation doesn't guarantee a table. It just gives you priority." EXCUSE ME, in what world does that make sense? Come on!!! At this point, my sister-in-law came in and started looking around the restaurant for open tables. SHE, not a hostess nor the manager, found an open 8-person table and two booths in the same section. At this time, it was going on 5:00 p.m.

The "reservation" process needs to be clearly explained at the time of booking since it only gives you priority, which sounds dumb. Then it isn't a reservation; it is a waitlist, and I could have come up there at 2:00 p.m. for that.

The servers were excellent, and the food was delicious. I will leave my review on...

I came to dine here with my family for my birthday, but it was not a good experience, mainly due to the food. As we were seated to a table, I noticed it would be a cramped experience, it felt like the size of the menus, and later our plates, allowed for very little room on our small table. When they handed us a complimentary breadstick, some of us had to keep holding up our menus to fit the breadstick on the table.

I ordered the Mississippi Catfish Opelousas, a dish that contains a blackened catfish, which was cooked perfectly, however the texture of the fish was ruined, because it was served in an an absolutely excessive amount of the lemon garlic butter sauce, a sauce that I assumed would be on the lighter side, but due to the sheer quantity of sauce, it didn't turn out as light as it was described. The sauce didn't just ruin the texture of the fish, it also completely overpowered the texture and flavor of the lump crab and oysters that my dish also came with. Had I known that the large amount of sauce would compromise the majority of the dish, I would have ordered the sauce on the side from the start. Also, though the sauce tasted slightly too salty, it was nothing compared to how overly salted the dirty rice was; I took one bite of the salty dirty rice and I just couldn't bring myself to take another bite from there. In conclusion, the Mississippi Catfish Opelousas, a $40 entrée, was overpriced for its poor execution, especially with how excessively salty the dirty rice was, and how the heavier-than-expected over applied sauce ruined the texture and flavor of all the proteins.

Unfortunately, the rest of my family members also had similar problems with their dishes, I. E. everyone thought their dish had too much salt and sauce.

Our server was polite but, I feel like there was some sort of mix up, because somehow my birthday Pecan Pie a la Mode took 20 mins to arrive; I had the impression that they had forgotten about it.

Overall, it was a memorable experience, but not for the...