Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen — Restaurant in Birmingham

It was my first time at this restaurant and I went to celebrate my birthday 🎂! I spent 147 dollars roughly with tip of slightly over 20%. I wished I had the forethought to take pictures but alas I did not. 1. The hostess was lovely! Syniaha was her name I believe. I arrived on time for my reservation, was seated within 15 minutes. The hosted took my cake and placed it in the refrigerator until my meal was completed. 2. My waitress was absolutely the best! My memory is not what it once was but I want to say her name is Emma. She was the right amount of attentive. They were very busy so it took a moment to receive beverages. I gave her grace. I had a mango lemonade and a water no ice😋! It was the best mango lemonade I have ever had anywhere! 3. I ordered three appetizers. Calamari and octopus, crab cake, and house salad. The calamari receives a 2.5 stars out of 5 because some of the hollow rings were perfectly cooked, however, some of the solid pieces were not cleaned properly, as I tasted sand/grit and were over cooked . Tasted like I was chewing rubber. The baby octopi were cooked beautifully. All these items were fried in a light batter. The crab cake was a disappointment. It was cold. I took a couple of bites 2.5/5. The one thing I really loved about it was the extraordinary amount of crab in the cake and very grateful for the absence of egg as a binder. The disappointing part was the lack of flavor. Too much salt, and not enough paprika, garlic, and red or green bell peppers. The salad was lovely 5/5. The only thing I ate completely. The one thing that could be changed is the unnecessary candying of the bacon. Pepper bacon or smoked applewood bacon would have been a nice choice. For my entrée, I ordered the grilled chicken with manchego potatoes and brocolini, I also added red beans and rice and sautéed spinach. The chicken was delicious 😋! It was a magnificently prepared piece of meat. I has 3 bites, the flavor was slap your momma good! Super moist/juicy, even after taking it home and eating it later. The brocolini cooked to perfection and seasoned appropriately. Retaining the beautiful vibrant green in the stalks. 5/5! The sautéed spinach seasoned with fresh onion and garlic was delicious Retaining the beautiful green in the leaves. 5/5! The red beans and rice 4/5. The flavor was perfect until it was ruined by the heavy handed use of cracked black pepper. If not for the pepper over powering the dish it would have been perfect. The manchego mashed potatoes were a complete failure. 0/5 stars. The potatoes were too salty, over boiled, and grainy. The manchego cheese finely grated on top. What I was expecting was properly boiled and salted potatoes, either coarsely mashed or smoothly mashed, with the addtion of cheese mixed in accompanied by sour cream or heavy cream and butter. That is not what I received. What I was served was a salty grainy watery mess. 5. My cake was brought out and I shared it with the wait staff and a few diners. My waitress informed me that I could pick a dessert as it was on the house and I chose banana pudding. When I tell you the level of disappointment I had when I finally tasted it hours after I arrived home....there are no words...however, I will find some. The entire meal was packed up for me and the adorable way they serve the banana pudding in a mason jar is awesome! With a homemade thin vanilla wafer that is too sweet and a very large whole strawberry and whipped cream that was almost butter ... it was very close to being over whipped... but had the right amount of sweet. The pudding was the right amount of sweet, which is refreshing from cloyingly sweet desserts but the texture was a complete failure. It was grainy and thin. Pudding texture is supposed to be smooth and thick. 2/5 stars. Side note. The abomination of combining sweet potato pie and pecan pie is just wrong. Stop it. I will return again to review my next meal there to see if there are any improvements. I'll take pictures...

Disenchanted would be the best description of the female greeter at the host station upon arrival at 8:52PM on a Saturday night.

Before we could state the number in out party the hostess replied there is an hour & half wait to be seated. My son then asked, won't you be closed by that time? She dryly commented, "If we put you on the list we 'HAVE' to seat you"...at which point we decided to stay. I asked if we could sit at b the bar or at a bar table & was informed the bar area is included in the wait.

After 1 hour and 12 minutes we decided to check and see where we were in kine because we noticed a party of TWO walk in and be seated, since they're taking no reservations, I was confused. At this point, I was advised that precious couple accepted the bar area.....hmmm?? Could've sworn I asked that question, but ok we'll wait since there is only one party in front of us.

After being seated at the bar with wet seats. We found the back-up bartender to be social, accommodating, attentive, funny, and a highly motivated server. Je absolutely made what could've been a horrible experience "worth waiting for the outcome"!

By 10:39 PM we finally received our appetizer which I will simply say 'had to be returned to the kitchen". The chef/manager Immediately came out , apologized and expressed a wish to make it better. While we were having a COVID-19 distanced discussion regarding the oversight our entrees came out, so I simply asked for the appetizers to be removed from our ticket. It was at that point, almost two hours since we arrived & we hadn't eaten anything. As we began to eat our meal we noticed a few things were missing, and this time "requested" the manager. After waiting approximately four hungry minutes and no manager, we asked for him/her again, as we watched several employees wind down, and joke around near the bar back area.

This is when we met Jordan Koons, Kitchen Manager. He was a pleasant surprise to a frustrating experience. I eplained what had happened earlier and now we'd been here 2 hours and were yet to eat anything. Jordan was swift, apologetic, kind & professional. Although I waited a minute to speak with him, and it was surprisingly still very busy at that hour, his steps to rectify the situation was worth its weight in crab cakes and shrimp! As you see our order of the Pappadeaux Sampler, crab cake, and calamari was well worth it! Bravo to Jordan and his navigation of an accommodating ship. Thank you for ensuring the end result of our celebratory evening was closed with smiles, GREAT seafood, and an overall satisfying late evening meal. We look forward to eating from your...

The Applebees of Seafood

Wow - what a terrible experience.

Our journey to Pappadeaux Seafood began when we arrived at 6:00pm (the time we made our reservation for). Although the restaurant was nearly empty at this point - they still made us wait 15-20 minutes before being seated.

After sitting at our table for another 10 minutes - our server finally greeted us. When my obviously pregnant wife asked about non-alcoholic beverage options (mock tails, daiquiris, etc.) he looked at us like we were speaking a foreign language.

We both ordered drinks and waited roughly 20 more minutes for them to come out. In the meantime - we went ahead and ordered some appetizers (oysters on the half shell and crab dip). When they finally came out, the oysters were literally buried in ice and covered in pluff mud (see photo below). The server looked at me like I was crazy when I complained. He then insisted he bring out a fresh order instead of comping them off the check.

We went ahead and ordered the entrees - including chicken and rice for our son. When the entrees came out - we received shrimp and rice instead. At this point - it was clear that our server was having a hard time - so we stayed quiet and accepted the incorrect order. 20 minutes later he comes out with the correct order - saying he was “showing us love and doing us a favor by giving it to us for free”. Gee - thanks for giving me what I actually ordered…?

Anyways - during this entire time our drinks were never refilled and dirty dishes were overflowing the table.

As we were completely finished and waiting on the check - the “fresh order” of oysters finally made its way back to the table.

To add insult to injury, the waiter refused to give us a few extra crackers for the crab dip without tacking $0.95 to the check.

Believe it or not - I still tipped this guy 20%. Mostly because I genuinely felt bad for him and it’s obvious he’s been improperly trained.

If you’re craving seafood - do yourself a favor and visit Automatic Seafood in downtown Birmingham. This place is...