AJ's Oyster House — Restaurant in Fort Smith

Okay I'm sorry I did not take any photos my phone is out of space. But I guess we will start with the food. Being a heavy eater, I got two entrees. I ended up getting the cod fish and chips which consisted of two pieces of deep fried cod and some fries dusted with parmesan cheese. I noticed a little bit of a fishy taste in my cod but it wasn't horrible. It was definitely deep fried and had some grease seeping out of it. So if you're into that sort of thing, you're in for a treat. It comes with a little cup of coleslaw also which is a unique type of coleslaw I have never had. It had cucumbers in it and I'm not sure what the rest of the ingredients were. Kind of normalish aside from the cucumbers I believe. The fries were pretty magnificent in my opinion, I did order a side of queso and the other three from our party at the table we're all in agreement that the fries and queso were absolutely stellar together. Next we had the fish tacos which generally come with a side of fries with the Parmesan but since I already had an order of those, I opted for the cream corn casserole I believe is what it was called. The cream corn casserole was great, wasn't particularly exciting, but I think that is possibly a me problem. I definitely would not knock it. The fish tacos we're absolutely amazing at first but when I started on the 2nd of the two tacos I got a crazy fishy taste which continued through the whole taco. I'm not sure what causes the fishy taste but I didn't have it in the first one so I'm going to say that probably doesn't happen on every taco... Okay I'm not sure the name of my wife's entree but it looked to be shrimp on cheesy grits and I'm not sure what all came with it but she gave me a bite and I did notice the little bit of fishy taste so I wasn't thrilled with her entree. My brother-in-law got a seafood platter it looked like had a large variety of deep fried goodies ranging from crawfish, oysters, catfish, hush puppies, large helping of fries and I think there was one other thing on there. I tried one of his oysters because I have never had one before, it was pretty amazing. I'm not sure what my sister-in-law got. For some reason I can't recall exactly but I didn't sample anything from her entry. For dessert we got the banana pudding and this was by far my favorite part as well as my wife's. There were two vanilla wafers decoratively sticking out of the center of a square of nicely set up firm pudding with some whipped cream clouds decorating the edges of the plate. This was definitely a nice presentation for this insane dessert. I was a bit sad at first when I thought the two cookies sticking out of the top were the only ones 🤣 But as we got farther down in to the dessert I discovered it had a cookie layer on the bottom with banana slices randomly placed in the pudding. They delivered the plate with four spoons even though I had originally intended on destroying this all to myself. But, it was thoughtful of them to deliver the four spoons and I'm glad we all shared the dessert after all. It was magical and everyone agreed.

Service. I'm pretty sure my sister-in-law arrived and got put on a wait list for a table. We had a 45 minute wait on a Saturday night at 7:00 p.m. But honestly I think it ended up taking a little longer possibly an hour and 5 or 10 minutes. Once we got in we were seated and then absolutely left alone for a good 10 minutes probably before someone took our drink order and it was probably 5 or 10 minutes before the drinks came out and then we were left alone again for at least 10 maybe even 15 minutes before the waitress returned to take our order for an appetizer. Of course by this time we were completely ready to order but they only took the order for the appetizer. The waitress was very polite and knowledgeable and had a good vibe. We probably got the appetizer within 5 minutes. Then we waited around 10 minutes for our order to be taken. After the order was taken it may have been another 10 minutes before our order was ready. Out of space. The atmosphere was crowded pub...

Ok, two very different experiences. First the OK one: We were there on 3/9 a tuesday, for dinner, we are not typically into oysters and crab legs, so, you might want to take this review a bit on the biased side. We were there for someone else that enjoys seafood more than we do. We ordered some Jambalaya and Chicken and rice instead. some crab cakes too. Presentation looks good, Crab cakes were good, the Jambalaya was good to ok, not outstanding, the chicken and rice was sort of bland, felt like having a diet plate somewhere else. Overall, not bad, as I said, probably not the best to judge this place based on what we ordered as most people go here for the crab legs and oysters.

The Bad Experience: So we tried to make reservations the saturday before 3/6, they told us that they were not taking any more reservations that night, but they were still taking walkins. I guess my mistake on this regard, but thought we would try anyways. I was dropped of to get on the wait list as the rest of the party of 4 (including me) was getting ready. I was told it would be about 40min to an hour wait, so, I decided to jump on the first bar spot that became open and have some drinks while we waited on a table. I got there at 6:15, as 7:15 approached I checked the wait list and there were still 3 parties in front of ours, communicated with my party to let them know the status. When 8pm rolled around, we gave up and left, were told a table was just about to open, but at that point we were all hangry and ready to go somewhere else. No place in Fort Smith is worth 1.75hrs wait for food, not even the...

This is the kind of place you know you are going to enjoy when you first open the door. I was greeted with wonderful aromas, sounds of laughter, and warm air (it was cold outside). I was also quickly seated. Another thing quickly noted about this place is the plentiful quantity of service staff and their presence. They were always on the move.

The person taking my order was friendly, helpful, and had a smile on her face. I ordered the boudin balls and Arkansas gumbo. The boudin balls had a nice, crispy outer shell and a warm, soft interior. There was a tasty dipping sauce included with those.

The gumbo was hearty. There were hunks of andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp along with an assortment of vegetables in there. The gumbo was accompanied with a bread-like Mexican cornbread muffin.

The selection of starters allowed me room for a slice of the seasonal pumpkin cheesecake. Such a wonderful presentation that I hated to spoon off a bite, but I overcame that quickly. It had such a smooth texture and good flavor.

There’s an electric selection of art in the restaurant which fits perfect with the atmosphere. I really enjoyed my visit and will plan to...