Dirty Cajun Seafood Kitchen — Restaurant in Flower Mound

This place is a miss for me.

First Impressions: -- Upon taking our seat, the table was dirty. Had to flag an employee down to wipe it off for us. -- The floor in the entire restaurant is sticky and gross feeling. -- Went to wash my hands before eating and the restrooms were absolutely disgusting.

Staff: -- They are not knowledgeable on the drinks they serve. -- When we got our main courses, 3 people ordered 3 different gumbos with different meat and the staff could not tell which was which. We had to figure that out on our own. -- Staff did not clear appetizer plates before bringing our main courses leaving us to fumble around and move plates out of their way for them. Not professional or ideal. -- Utensil packet did not include a knife to cut our boudin balls in half (we were sharing). Had to flag someone down for a knife. -- Over-all, staff needs some serious training on the restaurant industry. I have restaurant experience and the things we dealt with from a diner point-of-view is not acceptable, especially since we paid a premium on food to dine here.

Drinks: -- Not a deal breaker but if you are coming here to have a "Cajun style cocktail", be prepared to be a little disappointed. This restaurant does not have their liquor license.

Food: -- The food over-all was bland and quite frankly overpriced for what it is. -- $13 for a cup of non-traditional gumbo is pretty steep (taste was just ok). -- The boudin balls were bland. -- Crawfish dip is way too rich, and I like rich food, but this was too much. Lacked seasoning. -- They put sugar on their fries. If you aren't a fan of that, like I am, skip the fries altogether. -- The boil was swimming in juices, swimming. Needed more seasoning.

If you are looking for a traditional Cajun restaurant, this is not it. Next time I am wanting Cajun food, I will make the trip to Nate's Seafood in Addison.

Oh, and the 5-star reviews on here, I would not wholeheartedly trust. Restaurant has a sign at the front that states, "Leave us a 5-star Google Review to receive a free dessert". I believe that's why they have so many 5-star reviews in my humble opinion.

Gave 2 stars because at least the staff...

I ordered delivery, so can only really speak to that experience.

I'm from southwest of New Orleans, so I might be extra hard to please when it comes to Cajun food, especially when I'm spending nearly $50 for some basic dishes in addition to delivery charges.

Food arrived promptly and still quite warm, which was a pleasant surprise.

I ordered the fish & chips and cracklins. By far the best parts of the meal were the hush puppies that came with the fish. Those were pretty much perfect. Somehow, the fried cod was still crispy, too.

Unfortunately that's where the good news ends. Despite picking the spicy option, the cod was woefully under-seasoned. Also, for some reason the tartar sauce was very sweet, which was a bit jarring. I've had a sweet tartar before, but it wasn't at a Cajun place. There wasn't any noticeable flavor to it outside of honey sweetness. Cajun tartar sauce is not sweet typically, but is a zesty and tangy thing. This was neither.

The fries that came with the fish were extremely soggy, which is expected with delivery fries so not a big deal. Those were seasoned well enough, though.

Then there were the cracklins. It seems they were cooked at too high of a temperature before first crack and not high enough of a temp for second crack. This meant the fat wasn't fully rendered and there wasn't much of the iconic crunch.

The fat was basically gelatinous on the inside...which is not ideal. The meat was also basically a hockey puck. Look, I know the meat on the cracklin isn't the main attraction, but it should still be at least a little bit edible.

The worst part is the fish could have been good. The Cajun seasoning mix seemed to hit the right notes, but the execution just seems too far removed from actual Cajun food.

Honestly, I probably had too high of expectations for the fish and tartar sauce for a Cajun place catering to DFW tastes. That said, the cracklins were...

I visited Dirty Cajun for a birthday dinner tonight and had high hopes, especially because the food itself was delicious. Every dish had great flavor—from the appetizers to the main courses, the seafood was fresh and well-seasoned. Unfortunately, the overall dining experience left much to be desired.

Despite the restaurant having several open tables when we arrived, we were oddly asked to wait around 15 minutes while visibly confused staff debated where to seat us. Eventually, a table was cleaned and we were sat, but the delay felt unnecessary and disorganized.

Once seated, the service continued to be inconsistent. Multiple servers brought out our food, but none of them seemed to know what each dish was. Our main courses arrived room temperature—as if they had been sitting under the heat lamp for too long—and despite being delicious, they lacked the warmth you'd expect. One of our dishes was duplicated when we had only ordered one, and another item we specifically asked for was never brought out.

Our server also failed to bring gloves for the crab, meaning some of us had to eat saucy shellfish with bare hands. We weren’t given crab crackers either and had to wait for a while for drink refills. The final appetizer came out piping hot—ironically just moments before the entrées, which were lukewarm.

The most uncomfortable part was when the waitress stood over my mom as she was trying to tip, making her feel pressured and ultimately tip more than she had planned. That alone left a sour taste in what was supposed to be a celebratory evening.

Overall, I would rate the food 4.5/5, but the service 2.5–3/5. I hope they can work on streamlining their front-of-house organization and improving communication between staff. I'd consider giving it another try for the food, but only with...