Drago's Seafood Restaurant - Baton Rogue — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

Having previously lived and gone to school in Metairie, LA, I have been familiar with Drago's restaurant for decades.  When I first ate at the restaurant, a birthday present from my dearly departed cousin who knew my love for, as he called them succulent biavales", I tasted their world famous chargrilled oysters for the first time and I thought I was seeing God!  The oysters were massive and the toppings tasty and plentiful, perfectly balanced with fresh parmesan cheese, butter, and garlic.  Since that first visit, and as I recall the first time I tasted a dozen they were $12.99, I have eaten at their Metairie location dozens of times and each time, save perhaps once, every visit was satisfying and thoroughly enjoyable.  When I heard a location was to be opened in Baton Rouge, closer to my current residence, I knew I would eventually dine there sooner or later.  Well, later was the choice, and my wife and I dined there today for our 26th wedding anniversary and the visit was, unfortunately, underwhelming.

As is typical, I planned on eating exclusively those chargrilled delights.  In fact, before my wife had made her selection I ordered a dozen with the intent on ordering perhaps a dozen to a dozen and a half more.  To say that I was disappointed with the dozen oysters upon their arrival would be an understatement.  These oysters were tiny, anemic, miniscule and any other adjective to describe exceedingly small.  There wasn't one single oyster of the twelve that looked of average size, not one.  Typically, when ordering a dozen you are likely to get a few of average size, a few small, and a few that are larger than average, but not this time.  You could probably have laid each oyster side by side on the palm of my hand and fit at least ten of them on my palm.  My wife even commented that the oysters were tiny and stated that the restaurant should be "ashamed" to charge $29.99 for this dish.  Now a little context is needed here.  We ordered these oysters on September 20th, 2023.  I realize that oyster sizes can vary due to multiple climatelogical and seasonal variances, HOWEVER, I eat oysters rather frequently and received significantly more sizable oysters, fried and chargrilled,  within the last two months at competing restaurants.  Additionally,  these oysters had virtually no fresh parmesan cheese sprinkled on them and I tasted no garlic flavor on the oysters.  I thought about complaining but chose to forego this behavior so as not to spoil a celebratory occasion.

After eating all twelve oysters, it took no time at all given their size, I asked for the menu to select something else to satisfy my hunger but while perusing the menu nothing struck my fancy and I decided to save the $30 to $45 I would have otherwise spent on another entree  (or another 18 oysters) and spend that money at another establishment that serves comparable in quality chargrilled oysters.  I have eaten chargrilled oysters at numerous other establishments and have never received 12 oysters as consistently small as the oysters I was served today.

With lunch ruined I decided to satisfy my lingering hunger with something sweet so I ordered the creme brullee for $9.99. It was underwhelming as well, a small portion with relatively unflavorful egg custard that wasn't as creamy in texture as one might expect.  I can get a portion almost twice the size and far superior in taste and texture at Mike Anderson's for the same price.  The disappointment continued as I realized why, perhaps, this Baton Rouge location was over 90% empty at 11:30 a.m. on a Wednesday during lunchtime.  In fairness, my wife was satisfied with her lunch and dessert but satisfied is about the lowest compliment my wife can give a restaurant as she is effusive with praise if the fine dining restaurant meets or exceeds her expectations.  While every restaurant can have a bad day I suspect that this particular location may have a few more bad days than the competition that I dine at routinely and I have no intention on returning to this...

I never review.. I travel and eat out 3 weeks a month and usually I eat what is served to me. I was told that this restaurant was good for seafood. I have eaten her three times because it is close to the hotel I stay at. I have never had a good meal, but Im lazy and I try to eat healthy when I am on the road and Fish is usually healthy and good most places that specialize in it. All three times I have eaten here, have been disappointing. To night was particularly bad. I entered the restaurant. It was a 20 min wait, which is fine, but the hostess staff were not even polite or friendly. I asked to Order a drink while I waited. I was told no. No explanation, Just “our bar is closed, you can only order from your table” I eat out 3 weeks a month in LA, no one has told me that, but ok. I waited 30 mins for a table for one. I sat down, and ordered an Woodford’s Old Fashion from the “Specialty Drink Menu ” I asked in advance “Do you have the large single ice cube and do you have the dark cherries?” I was told yes to both questions. The drink came, with small cubes and maraschino cherries and was by far the worst Old Fashion I have ever had. I dont think they even used bitters or Woodfords. When I questioned the waiter he said Oh, I thought you meant larger tables cubes.. well, there are only one type of bar cubes I know of... and I got them in my drink. He did, however, come back after I was almost done with my drink, with the dark cherries on a napkin.

I ordered the “catch” Red Fish Mediterranean. I would say that it was way, way too salty.. but it was not half as salty as the steamed spinach, which was not edible, it was so salty. The salad was a typical run of the mill iceberg lettuce salad with two pieces of “not” ripe tomatoes, that was refrigerated wilted. The blue cheese dressing was quite good, but the salad was terrible.

The bill was more then I would want to pay for a below average meal. I feel I have given this restaurant three chances and...

Dragos Seafood Restaurant has exceptional service. My family and I dropped in after attending the Perkins Rowe Food Truck night after having heard a great review about it.

We were seated immediately and offered a high chair for our daughter, along with being given coloring pictures and crayons for the kids to enjoy.

The service was amazing, even after our waiter for our table found out last minute. I enjoyed the open dining that some restuarants don't have because of intimacy, but this was nice to be able to see the chefs preparing food in the kitchen for guests.

The food was pretty good, a bit over-salted/seasoned. I don't mind salt in my food but not to the point of it being almost too much. However, the manager was great about remedying the situation with the burger that was borderline an issue with one of my daughters.

The portion sizes were okay, but I found it lacking for the steak and lobster plate with the mac and cheese, but it was good, just not quite what I was thinking when offered a steak and lobster plate. The red drummer fried fish though, OMG, I enjoyed and would recommend over catfish anyday of the week!

Overall, my family enjoyed dining at Dragos and I would recommend it to others but definitely feel the amount of food may need to be increased, more shrimp on the shrimp platter and less fries to make it seem like there is tons of food, I would also recommend that when fixing plates for families of over 5 they make sure that the fries are all consistent, as the ones on my shrimp platter were soggy but all my daughters had crispy, golden fries.

The wine was okay and the Long Island Ice Tea my fiance had was okay as well. For this reason I would say an overall 4 star rating, with some...