Poché's Seafood Shoppe & Restaurant — Restaurant in College Station

I grew up down da bayou in LA and I've been looking for an authentic Cajun restaurant in the BCS area for years to no avail. I heard of this place (Poche is a solid Cajun name) and of course I had to try it out. I ordered the Gumbo flight (4 different gumbos), roast beef po-boy, beignets, and side stuffed crab. I had it delivered so I can't speak to the atmosphere or staff, but strictly on the food. First the bad. The roux for the gumbo was burnt. They either didn't stir it enough and the flour burned giving the gumbo a burnt flavor, or they get their roux pre-packaged from a bad source. They must use the same roux for all of their gumbos cause all 4 gumbos all had the same burnt taste. The roast beef sandwich was just ok. A true Cajun roast beef sandwich should be sloppy from the roast beef gravy. This po-boy was sloppy but the roast beef (although correctly shredded) was dry and the slop came from a mayo dressing mix instead that they heavily added, and the bread was dense and dry. Close but no cigar. Finally the stuffed crab was obviously from frozen and not fresh made. For $8 for a single stuffed crab I expect fresh. Now for the good. Although the gumbo was burnt, I appreciate the variety of gumbo they offer. All of the flavors (even the gumbo) were average and acceptable but nothing to write home about. The star of the show were the beignets. These were true beignets (croissant like) and not the powder sugared donuts other places call "beignets". They were fantastic. I will return to this restaurant again because there are other items on their menu I'd like to try, like their boudin and Natchitoches Meat Pie. Sadly, I have to give them 3 stars for the burnt gumbo roux, the dry roast beef po-boy, and the frozen stuffed crab, but I have to say, so far, this restaurant seems to be more Cajun than other places I have tried in BCS. If they offered other Cajun delicacies like white beans & rice, chicken stew, shrimp boulettes, or frog legs, I think that would put them over the top. If they just bring the quality of food up a bit, then I could easily recommend this place. As it is now, I would only say eat here if you're really hankering some Cajun food but don't...

Came in during lunch and we were seated immediately as they had just opened. Waitress was friendly and informative. We tried the cajun chicken stuffed Jalapeños for our starter. They were really good, and good portions along with a nice homemade ranch for dipping. Since it was our first time we got the full sized Bayou Platter to a try a variety of items at once. Pros- large size, the fried shrimp were large and juicy unlike some places you get small shriveled fried shrimp. The stuffed crab was also tasty and filled to the top. The oysters were fried well and good size as well. On to the bad..... the catfish..although they are not skimpy on the portions, it lacked flavor and the batter was too mealy.. needed flour to bind and fry better. I had to douce it in hot sauce to be able to eat some of it. The hushpuppies were also a disappointment as they were super dry but somehow oily at the same time. I squeezed one between my fingers and it literally crumbled and left my fingers coveted in oil drops. The fries although again they did not skimp on the portion, were super soggy and oily. They definitely should have been fried longer or double fried and drained well. It didn't help that all the other fried food were on top of them. The worst thing to both my husband and I was the cup of chicken gumbo it also came with. It was dark dark and super thick and I mean thicccckkkkkkK broth. It tasted super salty and burned and just not a good flavor overall. Maybe some people like their gumbo this consistency but it was not for us. We've had plenty of gumbo in Louisiana and this one is our all time least favorite gumbo. Nevertheless, there are other items we want to come back to try and give this place another shot. Hopefully they fix some of their items that others have...

Today was our second and last time to visit. Last week, the service was slow (despite them not even being busy). Today's experience was completely unacceptable. No toilet paper whatsoever in the ladies restroom at noon on a Saturday. No extra rolls in sight. Both rolls were empty which leaves people having to flush paper towels down the toilet. Mentioned it to two staff people. I used the restroom again before leaving and they'd added one roll that was halfway full (again, no extra rolls in sight).

Lunch took 90 minutes. Last week was almost as slow. Severely understaffed (waiter admitted he was the only wait staff that showed up to work today and he had four tables to manage). Every single time he approached our table, he said "I'm sorry guys". Every. Single. Time. Part of the apologies were due to the kitchen being so slow (it took 30 minutes to get our boudin) and part of them were due to HIM being scatterbrained. I've been a waitress and four tables isn't that much to manage. Two different waiters asked if they could bring our ticket. Main water that helped us then said there was no way the other guy could even ring up our ticket. We didn't really care- we just wanted to wrap things up as lunch was taking so long. Ticket was brought to us but no credit card as the dude didn't realize the other guy had taken it. So disorganized and made for a horrible experience. If I'm going to spend $140 for lunch (five people)...it better not take 90 minutes and I'd better have way better service. Way too many kinks that need to be worked out to give it a...