The Free Man Cajun Cafe & Lounge — Restaurant in Dallas

Had the worst New Year's Eve here. Absolutely no plans of coming back.

To set a scene, my fiancée had planned a night to celebrate the 2025 new year with a 1925 throwback, meaning the event was themed after The Great Gatsby! She found a place that would be playing jazz and we would be leaving with time to spare to catch the fireworks by the Reunion Tower.

At around 9:00, we had to park two or three blocks away due to poor parking. I'm not going to blame the city of Dallas on these people, though (trust me, they have plenty of their own problems)

Heading in, we were going for their "small section." The establishment is split off into two separate but neighboring buildings that are linked together by a small hallway in the back. A security guard from the "big section" comes out and waves us over, saying that "this is the entrance" and that we needed to pay a $10 fee per person for the music (a fee that nearby restaurants with live music such as All Good Café on Main Street doesn't have). With our party of currently four, our bill is already more than me and my fiancée would've been paying for a whole dinner date, and that's just to COME IN.

We take a look at the menu, and good lord the prices are absurd. More than 1.5x the price of something of similar portions from Jason's Deli with about half the quality, if not less, and more than 5x the wait! The four of us were waiting for a party of three, and a party of two to also come on in, and those five people were able to come into the small section for free, and they had no plans paying $50 to go into the larger room (not that I can blame them). Instead of getting a refund or some kind of compensation for paying $40 for a service we never even wanted, didn't get to utilize for more than 10 minutes, and were effectively mislead on, we were $40 in the hole and didn't want to waste any more money on this place.

At this point, we were ready to leave and trying to find somewhere else to grab something to eat. Unfortunately, one of us made the grievous mistake of actually placing an order and we were stuck waiting for FIFTY MINUTES. At this point, it became a snowball since one person ordering means we may as well take a few orders.

Then came the billing. My friend ordered a $15 burger that looked about on the same quality as something for $7 from Whataburger that had climbed to an outlandish $22, so I had to step in with my card since he only brought a twenty to pay for it. The reason for the over 46% upcharge is the gratuity fee. There is a 20% gratuity fee for any orders over $150 (not including the $10 they gouge you for to sit down), and any parties over five. Judging by other reviews, I'm also seeing that people who came in with parties of less than five were being charged 20% gratuity, which makes up for the other 20% (with tax and change filling in the rest).

My fiancée and I never received our $17.50 (140% of the initial price tag of $12) side of red beans and rice and small cup of gumbo. Judging by other reviews, it's a good thing too. A lot of the food looks like a safety hazard. It was 11:30 and we needed to leave. My parking meter was over due, and I just told the waitress to cancel our order, readjusted the tip I left on the burger to 0% and will likely never return. We spent the New Year countdown in traffic, and my fiancée fighting tears. This was the worst restaurant experience I have ever had.

Food: 3/10 edible, but not worth the price and not worth the wait.

Service: 0/10 a smile and a kind heart isn't good service, it's a nice lady. I can't in good faith compliment the service if we never got served.

Music: small section: 9/10 The music was outstanding, not my type of jazz, but they were playing well, a little too loud but not deafening. I wish I had the cash to personally tip them.

Big section: 6/10 WAY too loud, stagnant musicians, great music.

Management: 0/10 look at any of the 1 star reviews that they respond to, the person responding to customers is a childish,...

This is not a "Cajun cafe". This is a straight up bar that happens to serve Cajun food, apparently as an afterthought.

I went there with a work colleague November 5, 2024 around 10:00 PM after a work-related conference at The Westin Downtown Dallas at One Main Building.

Parking is a nightmare. You're either going to go to the paid lot and spend $13+ for two hours, or park on the street. Either way, you're spending that just to get in the door, but wait...

You won't get in the door because there's a cover charge for the band. $10 per person. So $20.

We're up to $33 and we're not even seated at a table to eat yet, which is the only reason we even showed up.

We ordered the Hot Crab Dip, Chicken Sandwich, and Crawfish Pasta. Reasonably priced, right? Around $63. Not too shabby for two entrees and an appetizer.

The Hot Crab Dip is just crab mixed up with Philly cream cheese and some melted cheddar on top, served with some bread. It was totally pasasble and nothing at all to be impressed by.

My friend's chicken sandwich was great though. She gave me a bite. The bread was delicious and soft and warm, the chicken was fried to perfection and had good flavor.

Unfortunately, that bring us to the crawfish pasta. Awful. The sauce was broken like a Ming vase in a house full of five-year olds. Just a ton of visible oil. It had clearly separated and the cook - I refuse to use chef, because no chef would countanace that disaster - had no clue how to fix it.

I probably could have dealt with all that, since the band that night was pretty good. ENTIRELY too loud, though. My friend and I had to yell at each other just to talk, and we mostly gave up and just ate in silence instead. Turn the damn volume down to 50% of whatever you guys have it at. People that want to hear the band will move closer to the tables. People that want to eat won't have to scream at each other, but... and here's the massive BUT:

There's a "minimum gratuity" charge of 20.00%, which YOU CAN'T SEE, because the little portable card reader with display doesn't show that. So I ended up tipping our server 25% of our bill - $15 - ON TOP of the 20% they charge.

And let me clue the management in something. "Gratuity" cannot be a "minimum" nor can it be a "requirement". That's called a "SERVICE CHARGE". A "required" tip isn't a tip, it's a fee.

Couple all that together and you have a miserable experience that I caution everyone to avoid.

The only reason to go here is if you want to listen to music and drink. That's it. Do not go here for food. Do not go here to hang out and talk - you will not be doing that at all, because no one will be able to hear you.

If you want actually good Cajun food, get in your car, ride the hour to Boo Ray's of New Orleans. This...

My friend and I went here to eat after Erykah Badu’s birthday bash. Didn’t initially realize there was a $10 cover but there were live performances so no biggie. We get inside and sit at the bar about 12:10. We asked one of the servers going by if we could place a food order and she informed us we could but it’d have to be with the bartender. By 12:20 we hadn’t been able to catch his attention cuz the bar was busy so whn she came bk by again we asked for his name and we were able to ask him if we’d be able to place an order. The bartender, Jared informed us he wasn’t taking any more orders at the bar because he was too swamped to go back and forth to the kitchen to put orders in. We said ok and moved to the other side of the venue where the kitchen is located and waited to order there. A waiter came and took our order around 12:45 or so, two catfish baskets, boudin balls, and peppers. We listened to the musicians while we waited who were actually pretty good, however entirely too loud for the size of the venue. Around 1:15 the waiter comes bk to bring the check/close tabs for other patrons at our table so we took the chance to get an eta on our food. He informed us the order was placed but it’s super busy so they’re backed up and actually the kitchen wouldn’t be able to take any more orders, but he got ours in just in time and he reassured us our food would be coming, it just may take a while because of how busy they were. Fast forward 10-15 minutes later he brings out our boudin balls and peppers and tells us they’ve run out of catfish, but we wouldn’t be charged for it. We’re thinking, of course we won’t be charged for the food we didn’t receive lol but ok. I then ask can I get an order of wings or something else instead and he’s like no they’re not accepting any more orders. While I understand the kitchen closes at 2, our orders were placed well in advance and nothing else was even offered to correct or compensate, no kind of sympathy or helpfulness of any sort, and no replacement order for the order that was placed. We ate our appetizers paid the check and left. On our way out, we walked bk through the other side to their exit and we see the same waitress we had inquired with earlier about the bartender carrying two plates of catfish. I mentioned to her hey are yall out because we weren’t able to get our fish order on the other side. She looks confused, stumbles out a response we couldn’t really hear over the music, and that was that. Total disappointment and waste of time. May as well have just gone to...