Dan’s Seafood & Chicken — Restaurant in Fort Worth

RECOMMENDATION: Based on the service I received, I would not recommend Dan's Seafood & Chicken. If you care more about what the food tastes like and not-so-much about the "quality of service," then Dan's Seafood & Chicken might be the place for you.

BOTTOM LINE: AVOID eating in the lobby. Customer service/hospitality is subpar from other restaurants. Based on my experience, management is more concerned about saving-a-buck (tip: read the condiment sign) than taking care of the customer. Stick to the drive-through.

BACKGROUND: According to the sign posted on the exterior, it states that the restaurant closes at 9:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Additionally, there is another posted sign to the left, that says: Dining Room Closed at 8:45; Drive Thru Open till 9. I visited the restaurant (dine-in - a family of five) on Saturday, June 15th, 2019, at approximately 8:20 p.m.

TERRIBLE SERVICE – PART I: We approached the counter and spent a few minutes deciding what to order. With our minds made-up, we gave the order to the woman behind the cash register. After ringing-up all of our orders, she announces, "Ok. These order will be to go." "Wait. What? To go? Why "to go?" The sign outside says, "lobby closes at 8:45." The young woman walks to the kitchen to confer with another employee. Upon returning, she says, "The lobby is closed, sir." I check my watch. It's 8:25 p.m. "But the sign outside says, "lobby closes at 8:45?" She then gave me a smug smile. We cancel our order and decide to take our business over to another restaurant.

TERRIBLE SERVICE – PART II: Noting that the woman behind the counter that night was quite young - too young to be management, I decided to visit Dan's Seafood & Chicken during the day, in hopes that (1) I would get eat there and (2) I would run into a manager/owner. You know?... someone who cares. Boy! What a mistake!

I paid the restaurant a visit on Tuesday, June 18th, sometime after 1 p.m., I believe. When I approached the counter, I noticed that it was a different woman there. I asked her, "Can I speak to a manager? Are you a manager? " "This is a family-run business. Sure! I'm one of the managers. How can I help you?" I explain to her what had transpired on Saturday night. I figured that once she saw it from my point-of-view - the customer, she would be upset and willing to make amends. Nope! That's not even close to what happened. Instead, she says, "8:25 p.m.? Yeah. That's late." "But the sign outside says, "lobby closes at 8:45?" "Yeah. But we've got to cook the food - which takes a while, and then you guys will take several minutes to eat... Didn't she tell you that your order will be "to-go?" "Yeah!... Only AFTER she rung-up the bill." "Hmm... Yeah. Still, she can close the lobby whenever she wants." It was at that point when I realized that the girl I was talking about was probably her daughter. With this in mind, I felt that it didn't matter what I said to her. She was not going to side with me - the customer. I decided to continue the argument, using logic. "Ma'am. Then why have a sign posted outside that says lobby closes at 8:45 p.m.? It was 8:25 p.m. when I placed my order. If you want to close the lobby earlier than 8:45 p.m., maybe you should change the sign to read something else?... Something earlier? If I had read 8:15 p.m., I probably would've turned around and left." Reluctantly, she says, "Ok. Well, sir, we'll consider your suggestion. Are you going to place an order?" It was an awkward moment. Maybe there was a misunderstanding. To show good faith and show that I wasn't just there to cash-in on a complimentary meal, I decided to place an order for myself and my daughter. My wife, which I later found out, refused to place an order based on her observations in how the manager responded to...

I was really craving snow crab legs when a Google search led me to Dan's. Also, is conveniently close by my neighborhood. The biggest draw to the place may have been the prices. I overlooked several other seafood restaurants because they're much higher prices. We can forego the argument of "you get what you pay for." I am landlocked in north Texas. All of the seafood restaurants here are getting their food frozen from a different part of the country. I digress, however. The crabs legs were very delicious, if not, then a little salty. At first glance, I was disappointed in the portions. The pic in their website seemed to offer more. By the time I finished my plate, however, I was content. Not full, but satisfied. The food was seasoned well, aside from the aforementioned slight saltiness, and could be tasted although out the crab. Whatever they boil the food in taste great, as well. It has a heavy garlic taste, which I have come to expect in a crab boil, and even crave. Along with the crab plate, you are given a half cob of corn and a red potatoe. I felt a little cheated here and felt they could have given two of each, at least. The red potatoes are (I bought 2 crab plates and a crab/shrimp combo plate) were all on the small side. I know they typically are "small potatoes," but in both of my plates, they were especially small. Noticeably small. I tasted the shrimp and it's fine. Bare in mind, I am not particularly fond of shrimp, so pardon my "to the point" view of Dan's shrimp. I also bought their chicken fried rice. (my kid is not a fan of seafood...yet.) That was pretty good, too. Better than a lot of other places of similar food. With that said, it is fried rice in the loosest of terms. There was rice, some corn kernels, and chicken in it. So, it's barely fried rice, but it was tasty. My main reason for rating Dan's 4-stars isn't related to their food. It was how long I had to wait for my order. Oh no! An entitled Patron. Their website allows you to order online, which is exactly what I needed. I wanted to order the food as a left work and have it ready for pickup 45 minutes later. After you made you order, the site had you wait for the the restaurant to acknowledge the order. They did not. I had to wait for about 5 minute for it to tell me that no one responded. So, I am it tried again. Again, no one responded. That could have turned me off on the restaurant, but as I stated earlier, I really wanted crab. So, I called I called Dan's and made my order. I was told that it would be ready in 10 minutes. I let them know that to would take me 45 minutes to get there. And 45 later when I got there, I thought my food would be ready. It was not. I ended up waiting 25 after I paid to get my food. They clearly had not prepared it in advance for me. And that, rubbed me the wrong way. I do plan to visit them again and if the service is better, I may increase the rating. That said, I do recommend Dan's...

My family and I are regulars at Dan's, about twice a week. We've always loved that they had fried tilapia. There's not many places that you can go to get it. We DO NOT eat catfish, for religious reasons, under ANY circumstances. Although they served catfish, our family was grateful that they had a non catfish option. My husband pulled up to the speaker in the drive-thru window. He ordered his usual meal- 2 fried tilapia with fries. The young lady over the speaker asked him what number it was and he responds, "I don't know, but I would like the two piece fried tilapia with fries." She sends him to the window. After an expected money exchange( no receipt given- but what the heck, we're regulars) he gets home and opens his plate. Well after driving(some of the products provided to restaurants like Dan's)all night, then going to Dan's and waiting in the parking lot for them to open- he finds CATFISH. He's starving and tired! He can't eat that. I make a quick call to get the order corrected, and to make this LONG story a little shorter, they end up telling my husband that he lied on his order, an order that consistently maked twice a week. First the young lady said that he verbally ordered catfish. Upon our insisted denial, she said that he order fried fish and didn't specify. She continued on. I asked for a manager. Well the managercame to the phone and did his best to make my husband a liar. When we told him that we could not eat catfish for religious reasons, he blew us off by saying, " its just fish." Wow! I was floored. It may have not been a big deal to him but I felt he belittled our belief to avoid correcting their mistake. Great customer service for regular customers. He insisted that my husband tell him what was on the receipt, over and over again, even after my husband told him that the young lady did not give him a receipt, over and over aga. LESSON LEARNED. NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES YOU FREQUENT A PLACE AND FEEL YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED BEING A CUSTOMER, GET YOUR RECEIPT. The manager tried to completely discredit us and avoid correcting his emplyees' error. I wish a transcript of the call could be provided in this. It was so simple to correct that one order. Instead they lost a long time regular customer over a 2 piece fried tilapia meal. We could not help feeling abused and frustrated because he chose to discredit us over an order that we clearly knew my husband ordered. The usual person in the window got it right without my husband saying the number, so he never had to say the number. He always said 2 piece fried tilapia meal with fries. The young lady in the window this time was different, and so was...