Half Shell Oyster House — Restaurant in Flowood

First and foremost I would like to say I typically do NOT leave bad reviews. I work in the restaurant and service industry and I understand and have empathy but my visit Sunday night has me considering never patronizing Half shell again…

Let’s get started! My partners birthday was Monday so we decided Sunday evening to go have a nice dinner. Every time I’ve been to half shell it’s been great so I figured it would be the same Sunday…wrong! We were sat at our table and at first everything was fine. We ordered drinks and apps. They took a while but hey we get it. We waited patiently and got our drinks and apps, they all were delicious, the only good thing of the night. It took probably 20 minutes after our apps for our waiter to even take our order. We ordered fairly normal items and just added some sides, no modifications to the menu items. I’ve ordered the same entree I always get, Redfish Orleans. We waited probably about 30-40 minutes for our food and when it FINALLY arrived it was cold. My fish was barely warm and our friends sandwich was cold. My boyfriend’s voodoo shrimp poboy (a menu item!) wasn’t even tossed in the voodoo sauce. They literally didn’t make their own menu item correct. My boyfriend was rightfully upset because we waited so long and if he had it remade, how long would that take?! When our waiter FINALLY came back (15 min after we initially got our food) we asked him to take it back and just off the ticket. He said okay. Then he was gone again for 20+ minutes. I ate my food, it was subpar, very unlike half shell. My sweet potatoes were so cold my butter wouldn’t even melt in them. After seeing our server visit every table but ours we finally asked another server for a manager. Manager came and we told him about the food issues and he honestly just seemed inconvenienced with us and muttered “aight I got you” and disappeared. We then didn’t see anyone again for over 15-20 minutes. We were upset and ready to go! When our waiter finally returned he handed us our tickets and had them all messed up. Still had our sides from my boyfriends meal on there, which he did not eat one bite of. We asked that to be fixed and finally after 2/3 times of going back to the computer it was fixed. We paid…but as we were filling out the tip portion the server literally WATCHED us…I have never felt so awkward or obligated to tip. I left a measly $5. I would have left ZERO if he wasn’t watching. I am a server. I understand the kitchen mistakes is not your mistake but when you are aggravated with us, take 20-30 minutes to revisit us, I am not tipping you. He was very nice to other tables but could care less about us and the manager didn’t even apologize. Again, I hate leaving bad reviews…I prefer to leave good ones but this was unacceptable. I’m not a Karen, I am very nice and understanding….It was just a horrible experience and birthday dinner for my boyfriend. We probably will not...

We were celebrating a family member's birthday. A week before going, my cousin called to verify they could accommodate 20-25 people. She was told yes. We get there Saturday to check in and were put on the wait list. Fine, since it was a pretty big party. After an hour, we were #2 on the wait list. So from 6:40 to 7:40, we waited. My cousin walked in to see when the party could be seated, the hostesses at the front said they didn't know because the people that were sitting at the table had been there "hours" and they didn't know when they would get up. So, we waited until 8:30, thinking we'd eventually be seated. No! Instead, they allowed us to continue waiting knowing they weren't going to accommodate us. Most restaurants close at 11. By 9 p.m., we finally decided to leave, but of course we weren't able to have dinner anywhere. We had family in town from Texas. Older family members who are normally in bed, that drove an hour, just to be there; however, we never got seated or acknowledged. I am very displeased with the inability of the hostesses, who willingly put us on the list, knowing they were NOT going to seat us. After an hour, they could have said, "I'm sorry, we're very busy and it's likely we won't be able to sit everyone together. We weren't given any options.

I was also here during the Christmas break with my girls for lunch. It didn't take long to be seated, however it took a long time to get our food. When I told the waitress to just charge me for the drinks and we were going to leave, the food was magically ready. It was not hot, of course, when we got it.

I'm not sure what kind of operation is being run, but it is obvious that certain customers are not being treated as if you want their business. If you can't service everyone with the same energy and enthusiasm, then maybe you don't need to be in business at all. Flowood can forget about me returning. I'll drive to New Orleans for some authentic New...

Got our name on the wait list online, wait time 52 minutes. We checked in when we got there with 40 minutes still remaining on wait time. And we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Even though the online wait list kept track of how many were in front of us, the number never changed even though over four different parties came in and were seated ahead of us. The management finally asked our name and replied "We have been looking for you. You should have checked in when you got here." We informed him that we did in fact check in upon arrival. We were seated shortly afterwards and the service went from bad to worse from there. Don't be in a hurry or expect good food or good service if you go there. The smoked oysters were gritty, the boiled shrimp was falling apart when we tried to peel them. They were way over cooked. The waitress was never seen after taking our order. We waited over an hour and 15 minutes for our food. We were already eating dinner when we got our drinks. And the finale of the evening was when the check was asked to be spilt. (We were a party of 4, not a large party!) Talk about confused! I mean, come on!! The waitress had charged both parties at the table for the entire bill. When we couldn't find her to bring her attention to the fact that we were paying twice for the same meal, we finally flagged down another manager to ask for help finding our waitress that we had mistakes on our bill, the waitress finally came by. We explained what was wrong with the bills and she blamed it on one of us going to the restroom and confusing her!!! Not one single employee ever apologized or explained why they were so freaking stupid. They really need to keep their jobs. They wouldn't make it anywhere else. Needless to say, I wouldn't go back if they gave me the entire restaurant. Nasty food, horrible service. That is 4 hours and 45 minutes of my life I'll never get...