Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen — Restaurant in Dallas

05/12/2024 I decided to order food to go instead of eating in on such a busy day as today. This is how my experience goes and why a -0 would have been more fitting than a 1 star. The attendant comes out to the curbside service and asks for payment before bringing my food. That was a surprise, why not bring the food when you get the payment? secondly, I received a cold loaf of bread. I went inside as was told by one of the to go waiters that i needed to select the option for them to toast the bread. Really!!!. I advise them that this was not an option listed for online orders. I asked for the manager. Shabazz comes out the manager on duty, and i advise him of the situation with paying and then waiting for my food to be brought out to the car curbside, no option to add additional dressings for such a large salad mostly lettuce, and the bread situation. Lets just say, he blamed the online 3rd party system for not being able to make certain selections. Again Really. I was offered bread that was toasted, which still came out lukewarm. I never was asked, how can we make this experience better. Where is the customer service for me having to get out of my car in the rain to come into the restaurant? I asked for maybe a bit more seafood for the seafood cobb salad that was already lacking in the seafood dept but had all the eggs and tomatoes that you would want. Also with a hefty price of $32.45. After he left and came back from the kitchen with the salad dressing, he stated he couldn't give more seafood but a dessert. He seemed to dismiss me, very rudely. Well, i declined the offer of the sugar-filled pastry that would have equaled in price to a few ounces of seafood and left. Plus i have dietary restrictions. Pappadeaux, your customer service is really poor and your managers are the worst. After trying to give you another chance after several months, i believe your overpriced establishment is not where i need to spend my funds. Kindness goes a long way, and it doesn't cost...

How do I put this... Tragic? I haven't been here in a decade, and now I'm beginning to think that was a blessing. Service, terrible. I repeat, terrible. Drink order, 20-30 minutes. Mind you, there's four tables in the dining room. Then we're brought half our food because the waitress mistakenly gave away the meal a member of our party of three ordered. Interesting. Another member ordered gumbo... No spoon. When someone finally resurfaced, it wasn't with the lost dish, but news that they were now out of the fish. Now we ask for a spoon again. Fast forward 10 minutes and a spoon arrives for now cold gumbo. Luckily, when the given away fish that's now extinct was reported, more gumbo was ordered to replace the missing fish.

Then...a miracle. A full hour after the original fish order was placed, then given away, the reordered, and reported extinct... IT ARRIVES! Impressive...sort of. Then a hot tub of gumbo also arrives to make up for the now non-extinct fish. Kind, but at this point, we just want out of the restaurant. To make it more entertaining, the waitress (as the lights come on) brings us to go containers for the Olympic sized gumbo. Best part, we ask how she'd advise getting roughly 652 ounces of gumbo into these containers with one little soup spoon. "Iunno, bout that." Thanks 👍

One last little tidbit. A glass fell off the table at some point when trying to move our dishes around the table (never once was an empty plate removed, making us look like 3 people had ordered for 19). It was stepped over by busboys and wait staff alike for a solid 20 minutes before someone cleaned it up. I attached a picture. Exciting, right?

Needless to say, if you're dining here, don't expect much... unless they mess up, at which time you'll receive a kiddy pool of gumbo to take home if you manage to get it into to go containers with a small...

So Pappadeaux has always been a favorite. We had our engagement party at this location, in their wine room, 03/07/2020, shortly before the shut downs happened. We haven't been back since.

In fact, we had reservations for Valentine's Day in 2021, but that's when Snowmageddon happened, so they were canceled. Had reservations for Valentine's Day this year, but we had to cancel due to a conflict at that time.

We finally got to come tonight, but there was an hour wait. They had heaters going and tables and chairs on the patio, so it was a comfortable wait.

I ordered the Salmon, Scallops, and Shrimp Pappadarelle pasta with wine cream sauce. Unfortunately, due to some sensitivities that have recently entered my life, I was unable to eat my dinner (or the calamari appetizer -- pepper is one of my triggers, sadly).

Our server, Malachi, graciously took the dinner and tried to help me find something that wouldn't cause a negative reaction. Ultimately, I decided to skip trying anything else. The manager did order us a new appetizer of calamari without pepper, but it came out with pepper, so I just pulled the better batter off and ate the calamari without the fried part.

The reality is that it's just an unfortunate situation with my recent health developments. But the staff went out of their way to try to make it right. Add in the variable that the staff members are running their butts off due to being short-staffed and it just makes things a little more complicated.

But they did the best they could to help it be a pleasant experience. And I can tell you right now had I not had these health challenges, my dinner would have been BOMB. Was beautiful, smelled wonderful, and would have tasted amazing.

Give this location a try, and if it's a special occasion, ask about their wine room. It made our special occasion two years ago even...