Southern Pearl Oyster House — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

My husband and I ate here about a year ago, and the food was good. Which is the reason I didn’t give one star. However, my family and I were looking for a place that served charbroiled oysters in celebration of my grandson’s 21st birthday. I called the restaurant on Saturday just to make sure they could accommodate a party of 14. The young man said it shouldn’t be a problem, although they do not take reservations. On Sunday afternoon about 6:00 I called again just to see how busy they were and to once again mention we had a party of 14, celebrating our grandson’s 21st birthday. The girl asked me “ how many” once again, and I explained the occasion and how many. She then stated “did the person you spoke to tell you that we don’t allow decorations or cakes?” I said we have no decorations, but we do have a special order ice cream cake. She once again stated “we don’t allow cakes, no outside food!” I explained it was only a small cake, she once again stated their no food policy. After a short pause, I thanked her and hung up! I proceeded to call Mike Andersons in Prairieville, who not only welcomed a party of 14, along with our cake, but told me we could come in and get our name down, to keep from having such a long wait. We were seated in a large room, at a long table for 14! I would think in todays economy, a restaurant would bend over backwards to keep from missing out on a $700 ticket, and losing a customer in...

Place it was very nice looking on the outside and inside. The wait staff was adequately friendly, although our waiter was not very knowledgeable about the menu. The food was a mixed bag. Our appetizer the shrimp was undercook. The shrimp and grits tasted very good but the grits were extremely thin to the point of almost being watery. And the bacon in the dish was not cooked it all, almost raw . I had the oyster sampler which overall tasted pretty good but all of the oysters were overcooked and three of them were extremely tiny. The last disg the shrimp New Orleans which is kind of like a BBQ shrimp dish was actually really good nothing was wrong with that dish shrimp cooked good sauce was great. We did inform our waiter of the issues, he apologized but did not offer to do anyting about it. A manager walked by and asked if everything was okay and we informed her about the issue with the shrimp and grits dish. She offered a new side of the grits, which were like the regular dish tasted good but were very thin. As I said before the waiter was adequately friendly but not very attentive, especially towards the end of the meal. Waited a decent amount of time between receiving the check and him coming back to collect it. At a run of the mill seafood place I may be more inclined to overlook a couple of the issues but at the prices this place charges, everything...

It takes an especially bad restaurant experience for me to leave a review: having said that.... Char grilled oysters were cold and seemed raw in the centers - the shells were cold when we were served. The Caesar salad was soaked in dressing. The lettuce was wilted, and the croutons were soaked through and soggy. It gave the impression that they have a tub of pre-mixed salad that they serve from. The gumbo was decent. The quartered potatoes were overcooked to the point of being mush and were sitting in 3/4" of standing butter. The burger was ordered medium rare and was served VERY rare. The dressing of the burger was skimpy, and it wasn't well-seasoned. The boiled shrimp were very overcooked and tasted and smelled very "off." When the hostess/manager (not sure who she was - the one with the penciled eyebrows) came by and asked how everything was, we told her what was wrong with the shrimp, she asked if we wanted a replacement, we said no thanks, and she took it away. She agreed that they were probably overcooked, but we were still charged for it (we only ate two of the shrimp). My girlfriend said the coco runner drink was good.

Very gross experience - don't waste your money here. I wouldn't pay anything for this food, but the fact that it's on the pricier side makes me wonder how they're...