Boutin's Cajun Seafood Steakhouse & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Carencro

ETA: One of our guests who had the Corn & Crab Bisque and Crabmeat & Eggplant ended up with food poisoning!!!

One of the worst dining experiences I've ever had. The service was horrible and after waiting over an hour and a half for our food ALL of it was brought out cold! Our server did the best he could under the circumstances (whatever they were) but it still made for a terrible time. We were a party of 14 with a reservation. Beverages came out late, cocktails were even later and our server had to go behind the bar and prepare our drinks. For some reason the bartender just wasn't pouring drinks for the servers. At some point, the owner who was sitting in the dining room scolded her in front of guests and she was upset and crying. I continued to watch the bar area and observed a server rearranging the garnishes on some of the drinks with bare hands and placing her fingers on the straws to stir the drinks. This all occurred between her scratching her head and legs. I thought she would discard the straws before serving the drinks but she didn't. The staff, aside from the server we had, clearly didn't want to be there, had no regard for customer service and did not work as a team to take care of their guests. The food was palatable but cold and that's absolutely unacceptable. When it arrived we requested to go boxes. After being there for over 2 hours we were ready to go. This seemed like more than just an "off" night. It appeared to be business as usual because at no point was there ANY effort to try to make things better. We felt bad for our server and were hesitant to even ask for refills and when we did it took 10 - 15 minutes to get them. There are sooooo many more details that I've left out but Boutins has gotten more than enough of my time so I'll stop here....

I read a couple bad reviews but decided I would give this place a shot anyway. First off let me say that our waitress, Shelby, was very polite and attentive. We started off with appetizers, in which we chose gator bites. They had a good texture but the flavor wasn't up to par, when compared to other restaurants I've visited. The next thing I had was a cup of chicken and sausage gumbo. I must say this particular item was fairly delicious and was the highlight of the night for me. Finally my main course came which was the Catfish Acadiana. The catfish was decent but could have used a little more seasoning, because it was slightly bland in flavor. The Etouffe tasted as if I was solely eating crawfish with a slight hint of something else with it. The side of green beans served more as cosmetic appeal towards the platter, making me wish I had exchanged it for more fries which were probably the best thing on that particular platter. I knew the prices before I ordered so I expected the bill to be around where it came in at, but the complaint comes in after my card was swiped and I noticed I was charged an extra 4% for not using cash. This is a problem for me because nowhere did I see nor was I informed that using a bank card or credit card would result in me paying extra. If my entire order was as good as the cup of chicken and sausage gumbo I probably wouldn't have mind the hidden charges but sadly it wasn't. Shelby was a good waitress so I couldn't leave without rewarding her the tip she deserved. Let's just say that I wouldn't recommend this place unless it was for the gumbo and/or Shelby's hospitality. Otherwise save yourself some disappointment and go somewhere that's...

We decided to give Boutins a try after seeing a couple of good reviews and being in the area. Unfortunately, I can’t say that we will be back.

The hostesses did not speak a word to either of us. One of them grabbed menus and took off walking without speaking to us (expecting us to just follow her) while the other played on her phone. Both of these girls seemed like they did not want to be on the job.

The waitress was great, she is the only reason this review got 2 stars. I have no complaints there.

The food… when it finally arrived, 10 minutes short of an hour later in a nearly empty restaurant… Let me start with saying that the meals cost at -least- $8 more per plate than our usual “date night” spot which is one of the more expensive places to eat and has FANTASTIC food every single time. I was okay with this as long as the food was up to par, or better.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t. For a near $40 filet meal, the cut of meat was terrible and was very small. The previously mentioned restaurants comparable meal comes with 2 filets, both as big or bigger than what I got from Boutins, and costs $8 less. Boutins steak was comparable to the $13-16 sirloin filets you can get rather than a true filet mignon The quality here was unacceptable. The baked potato was the star of the show on a plate with a filet mignon. My wife ordered a pasta she frequents and she ate about 1/3 of it because it was bland and under seasoned.

When we were greeted with the check we were in shock at how much these meals actually added up to. They are charging $3 for a soft drink. It ended up costing us around $25 more (before tip) than a comparable meal at nearly any other restaurant...