Mississippi Boy Catfish & Ribs — Restaurant in Denver

Updated Response: I am very disappointed in the restaurant owner's response and further unprofessionalism. Instead of acknowledging the most pressing issue (very bad, flavorless food), and offering a refund, they are choosing to argue the time that it took to receive the order. After reviewing my call log, I stand corrected...the order took OVER 1 HOUR and 20 MINUTES to receive. Updates regarding the fact that the food was "on its way" does not make up for the excessively long amount of time until completion. Furthermore, the assertion that a "fist bump" made up for the waste of time and money is assinine; my partner was the one who picked up the order. He is a very kind and courteous man, and of course returned the gesture, but in no way did that signify that the taste of the food or the time it took was acceptable.

There are plenty of reviews of this restaurant stating that the food is terrible. Calling or returning to the restaurant after already being inconvenienced is not the same as letting others know to avoid this place. Reviews exist for a reason. So do refunds - so if the owner is so inclined they will not hesitate to return our money for the inedible food, but judging by the argumentative response I doubt they possess such integrity.

Original Post: I wanted to love this place...but no, not at all. I lived in Mississippi for nearly a decade, and my partner is from Mississippi, so we thought we would give it a try. We had the highest expectations and were greatly disappointed by the lack of professionalism and TERRIBLE food. First, the online ordering system didn't work and after waiting about 20 minutes we learned that the restaurant never got our to-go order. So after waiting nearly an hour, we finally got our food. We both ordered jumbo shrimp entrees: the shrimp was large and juicy, but the breading was not good at all. The only seasoning we could taste was black pepper...definitely not delicious. My partner ordered fries, which were seasoned alright but completely soggy (the drive home only took about 5 minutes, so the fries should have remained crisp). He also ordered cornbread, which was soaked in oil...GROSS! I ordered potato salad and macaroni and cheese. The potato salad was totally bland, with very little flavor at all. I had to add sugar to it, but was scared to eat more than a few bites because I feared that the mayo was spoiled. The macaroni and cheese was more like macaroni with a faint suggestion of something resembling cheese. It was not cheesy and had absolutely no flavor other than the salt I was forced to add. We got fried okra to share, which was breaded without any salt whatsoever.

This experience was especially disappointing because we are both familiar with southern food, and have never tasted anything so bland and unenjoyable. As one of Denver's only Black-owned soul food restaurants there is no excuse whatsoever for such a failure.

I suggest that you DO NOT eat here. Do not believe the hype or the favorable reviews that were either created by people who know the owners or do not...

Normally I don't leave negative reviews and always try to give places the benefit of the doubt, but the experience was just disappointing.

We arrived and were accommodated for the size of our party pretty quickly. The owner was passionate about the menu, ordering process, and was willing to work with a few special requests. The atmosphere was really nice. But that was the biggest highlight.

Server seemed very distracted and forgot several things off of our orders, having to go back for missing items 3 times. They did quickly exchange a cornbread when it arrived as a small amount of chunks and crumbs instead of a slice. The server and bartender disappeared several times and left other customers standing upon entry for several minutes waiting for someone to come greet them. Service in general was just slow. Took almost 20 minutes to get checks and pay because of side conversations and them taking other orders, putting our table on hold. Checks were not itemized and included seemingly random 1 cent charges to Special Olympics and "custom charges" with no explanation. My check was about 5-10 dollars too expensive for what I ordered and it was impossible to tell why. I didn't want to wait

Catfish was okay, but tasted bland to me. Po'Boy was a hot dog bun with soggy lettuce shreds and some diced tomatoes. Greens were okay... nice amount of smoked turkey but also several stems. Cornbread was dry and unappealing. Ribs and sauce were actually decent with good smoky flavor/texture, but weren't as juicy as I would have hoped. Fries were probably the best thing I ate. Others who had the brisket said about half of their portion was decent and the other half was just dry. But the food took more than 45 minutes to get to the table, so it felt like it wasn't worth the wait.

Maybe it was a bad night for the server, cooks, and bartender, but previous reviews more or less show this to be a common experience. I would like to come back one day to give the other smoked meats a shot, since they seemed like the best items on the menu. I feel like, with a few tweaks and an emphasis on customer service concepts, the place could be a really cool spot. But that just wasn't our experience. I wish the owner and staff the best...

Decided to support the restaurants that were participating in black restaurant week in Denver. Chose this place…we were aware that the place closed at 8:30. We walked in at 8:05, we were not greeted or even acknowledged. My partner told me he was going to give it a few more minutes before saying anything. We were not aware who the owner was, the whole time after finding out who he was he walked passed us plenty times like we were invisible. Finally after 15 minutes, the owner walks up to our table and blurts out “my kitchen is almost closed”….usually that comes along with “all I have available tonight is x, y and z so I’ll do my best to accommodate you all”…No! He had an attitude and was very short with us. I asked “ok what do you have available?” He just kept repeating “my kitchen is almost closed”.. put some menus in front of us and walked away. We didn’t even get offered or asked for a drink while we waited. Me and my partner hurried up and picked something, we again waited another 15 minutes for him to even come back. Here we are again with this whole tug of war “my kitchen is closing”…..”what do you have available” discussion. Finally, I tell him.. I can’t eat pork or seafood so whatever you have available outside of that. He says “smoked wings” …at this point I’m over it so I say “sure”.. cause he’s really not even asking he’s telling. He asks what side I want. I’m almost afraid to ask, so I pick the most simplest of things “French fries”…he says I can do that. Then tries to apologize for being short with us but even his apology came out rushed Took another 20 minutes. Came to the table and said “I’m ready to ring y’all up”, not even asking if we wanted to dine in..but I get it because we waited so long it was past closed. He offered to bag our food, we get home after starving. My partners said his catfish was good. My smoked wings were bad, no flavor, burnt, not even edible plus the wings had hair which let me know they weren’t cleaned properly. The cornbread was dry and burnt, the potato salad was bland. The French fries were soggy. I am sick today because of that experience. I will never return or suggest this...