Landry's Seafood House — Restaurant in Corpus Christi

Update on this restaurant To my knowledge this restaurant is under new ownership. It's now a reservation only restaurant.. no walk ins. Recipes have changed and they no longer serve certain items. Plus when ordering it's pretty simple. There are no sides to select from. It's literally a plate with the main course inwhich comes with rice and a specific vegetable. I dont think there are substitutions (always double check). Me and my mother had a Reservation at 7:15. We weren't sat until 7:30 about (no big deal to me). I reserved our table online off of Google maps. The baked potatoes that are shown in previous reviews, and the oyster Rockefeller was what originally sold us on choosing this place. When getting sat they sat us on the bottom level due to my mother being on crutches (thank you). Our waitress was Clarissa. She was very informative and updated us on the changes. Sadly they were out of oysters, and she also informed us that they no longer served baked potatoes :( so while waiting on drinks we scanned through more photos from reviews online to get a visual of what to expect... We came across a couple things that we thought we would enjoy. My mom ordered a long Island ice tea and I got a virgin bloody marry because I'm pregnant. It took about 10 minutes for the drinks to come out (not bad). I'm very particular when it comes to bloody marrys.. especially when there's no alcohol in them. It was decent. I've had better from a casual bar. My mom said her drink was great. By the time we were ready to order Clarissa was at our table ready for all of our questions, lol. Me and my mom wanted the red fish with that Cajun crawfish sauce on top (there's there's certain name for this sauce but I can't think of it at the moment). Anyways, I really started losing hope for liking the restaurant when she informed us that they were out of the crawfish sauce. Literally everything we wanted and came for was out or no longer being served. Which is not our waitresses fault, but still, she had been working there before the pandemic and now after so I felt comfortable enough to ask her what she recommended off the menu (what her favorite dish was). She recommended a snapper plate with some sort of sauce so my mom got that one. I didnt want to get the same thing so I asked her what her second meal would be and she recommended another plate that cant recall the name of. I made sure to get pictures of our main ontrees which are attached. I give Clarissa the entire 3 stars of my rating. Her service, attentiveness, and informative skills were on cue!!!! Not to mention the plates she recommended us were so good we made sure to save leftovers so we could enjoy it later that night :) I will go back but I will be calling ahead of time to ask if Clarissa is working. She made the entire experience better for me and my mother on mother's day. I was nervous because normally my mom would have a fit and be ready to leave do to the restaurant not having anything she wanted at first. My rating is 2 stars short due to the restaurant being out of the main items we were there for and for the menu not being precise enough.. it's the reason we had so many questions for Clarissa! Making it harder for her to attend other tables in a timely manner. Being as good as she was I'm sure she managed but that's beside the point. I forgot to get a picture of the new paper menu they had.. so if someone could get that and posy it in your review it would be very helpful to those who review search alot here on Google! I'm going to change my rating to 4 stars just because the the drinks and the food were very delicious. We also ordered appetizers that were very good.. the fried zucchini and some sort of bread that was Cajun style with cheese. Oh and we also orders a bowl of clam Chowder to shear. My mom loved it!!! I wasn't a fan but it was ok. Their house salad was fresh...

This Landry’s was very different than those at which we’ve dined in Kemah, Galveston, and The Woodlands. We were seated at a table in front of the only window that you couldn’t enjoy the sunset through because of the condensation. We were waited on by a gentleman who took our drink orders and thereafter by a polite female server. I ordered the perfect patron margarita and we ordered the fried alligator appetizer. The margarita was so tart I couldn’t enjoy it at all. I tasted none of the Cointreau Orange liqueur that the drink menu indicated it should’ve had. I asked our server to please take it away and remove it from the ticket. She did so gladly and brought the drink menu again so I could choose something else. She suggested a grapefruit drink and I agreed to try it. It may’ve been worse than the margarita, so she offered to take it away as well. Fail #1. The fried alligator was good, but served with a horseradish sauce that was so potent it made our noses run. Fail #2. We ordered the red fish etouffe to share and I asked our server if it could be divided in the kitchen. She responded “I can bring you an extra plate”. Fail #3. She brought us some hard bread but there was no butter. Fail #4. The Caesar salad was good and fresh. Check. When our entree arrived she did bring an extra dinner plate. I slopped the etouffe from one plate to the next with my fork and separated the flesh of the fish from the dark skin. The dirty rice was crunchy on the outside and still had the shape of the pot or other round dish in which it was cooked. The steamed broccoli was undercooked (not tender crisp as is expected) and flavorless. Fail, fail, fail. Our server brought the check and I attempted to pay by scanning the barcode on the bottom of the ticket. It first indicated that my card had been declined, but then said it had been partially paid (all but $15). Our server was nice enough to check the POS system for the payment and she printed a receipt showing that the check was paid in full and there wasn’t actually a remaining balance. This location lacked atmosphere, customer service, and quality that is, in my experience, synonymous with the Landry’s family of brands. If Tillman Fertita had been told to slop his own etouffe from plate to plate with a fork, eat scorched dirty rice in the shape of the pot, drink turpentine, and see the gorgeous marina sunset through a window that needed replacing… 10 out of 10 heads...

So this was my 2nd overnight here in Corpus, and I was so looking forward to trying Landry's cause some of my fellow crew members have had really good things to say. I started off by ordering the Two-Course Lunch Box Special w/ the seafood gumbo as a starter with some fresh garlic bread. It was very tasty, nice temperature to serve. So, I was really looking forward to the rest of the items I ordered. Unfortunately, it must have been an off day for the restaurant and its chef. I ordered the appetizer crab cake. Which was made w/ blue crab. When it was brought to my table, it looked scrumptious, and the waitress addressed the plate being a lil hot. So, looking to take a fork and open it up, I took a bite, and it was cold. Not freezing cold or raw, but jus cool to the touch. After taking the bite, I looked around to get my waitress attention, but she was most likely tending to other customers. Understandable. With that said, the flavor was so good. I jus ended up eating it all, lol. When it came to my main meal, the 2-course lunch special again, this is my own experience and may not be shared by others. Everyone has an off day. My plate again from the first look was very appealing. Unfortunately, everything from the blackened mahi mahi and the added "Melissa" topping was overcooked, dry, and tasteless. The french fries were the only thing I ended up eating on the plate. Long story short, after bringing it to my waitress attention she graciously apologized and insisted on having her manager come by to see what they could do. The manager was very professional, understanding, and agreed that he too could see the food overcooked and offered to not only take it off my bill but remake it personally. I humbly declined but assured him how much I appreciated his immediate response and overall concern for customer satisfaction. This would not be my first and last visit to this restaurant. So all and all the customer service I received was top notch. I was more than impressed with the effort the restaurant management and staff made to improve my experience. I do plan to come back the next time I'm in town, and I look forward to giving Landry's another try. Mahalo (Thank you) Corpus Christi, TX Landry's Seafood House...