Off the Hook — Restaurant in Gonzales

Before I give my review, I must make a plea on bended knee to corporate:

Please open a restaurant in NORTH Bossier City!!!!! PLEASE!!! We need a fast food restaurant like this.

As a displaced New Orleanian, I find it very difficult to find good seafood. Side-note… Currently, the best fried shrimp po-boy in the Shreveport Bossier area is Kim’s Seafood, and that’s because they lost their New Orleans store to Katrina which forced them to set up shop up north. I know the prices would be slightly higher up there for an Off the Hook(OTH) store due to transport cost of fresh golf seafood, but Kim’s Seafood gets their French bread fresh from Gambino’s, so I’m sure OTH could make it happen.

Ok, the review…

One of the only things that eases the pain of having to leave New Orleans and drive back home to Bossier City is knowing that I can stop at OTH. Even though it’s a few miles off of I-10 in Gonzales, I make it a point to grab lunch or dinner there!

The restaurant has a perfect combination of good food and fair pricing. Now, of course, there are brick and mortar restaurants throughout South Louisiana that have the best food known to man. However, in my opinion, there is no other fast food restaurant that has existed in the history of forever that has better food than this place. Their shrimp wrap, to me, is the best driving food because I can safely eat it on the go. Their gumbo and red beans and rice are damn good, and so is there potato salad. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. I guess I could sum it all up by saying, it all just tastes FRESH. Oh, the soda fountain is all Coke products… ‘nuff said there…

The atmosphere of the restaurant is fantastic. They play Louisiana-flavored music at the perfect volume, and there’s plenty of very comfortable seating. Also, I think it’s one of the cleanest restaurants I have ever gone to. Finally, the bathrooms are immaculate.

Now for the service… Every time I have visited the store, the staff has been courteous, helpful, and HAPPY! They ALL seem to be PROUD to work there. They all know and love the food they serve, and they are ready to share their favorites if asked. My server, Jayden, was “clean-cut” and was every bit the professional I would expect at OTH. When I asked about a military discount (which, of course, they gladly give), I found out that another staff member, Lainey, currently serves in the same Air National Guard unit that I did many years ago. So, we all struck up a conversation. I gotta tell ya, Lainey’s parents should be very proud of her, and so should OTH. She’s extremely respectful, and she’s an asset to the company she works for.

Now, Hannah, one of the managers, is a damn good leader. I could tell that she realized Jayden and Lainey we’re doing a great job making their customer (me) very happy, so she gave them absolutely no grief for having a conversation with me. See, I’ve never been accused for being at a loss for words (obviously), and I was having a great conversation with her employees (I was not there during peak hours), and I had everyone smiling and laughing. But, I guess she appreciated me bringing happiness into the restaurant, and she kindly rewarded me with a couple of cards good for some free gumbo!

I know this is a lengthy review, but honestly, I could’ve written much more. I don’t know if there are any negative reviews, and I really don’t care if there are. I think this place is damn good, and I’m sure most people...

My family and I got lunch from here for the first time a few days ago and had a wonderful experience! The drive-thru line was almost to the street with two lanes going at once. We debated whether we wanted to deal with the line, but decided to give it a try. We're so glad we did!

Even though the line was long, the staff really handle the crowd well. Two employees were outside taking orders and payments, so we didn't have to wait to order at the speaker. They even had printed menus so that we could figure out our order before reaching the big menu at the ordering speaker. This made the line move much faster than I expected! Good thing, too, because the smell of the restaurant was making me hungrier by the minute!

Everyone we dealt with was really friendly, too, which isn't necessary but definitely makes the experience nicer! We got our food and brought it back home to eat. Unfortunately, I think this affected our fries and onion rings, because they were a bit soggy. I'm going to have to get some fresh to see if they're crispier then. The fries are lightly seasoned and absolutely delicious, and I was told the onion rings were very tasty.

Otherwise everything we got was incredibly satisfying! My mother got an 8" fried gulf shrimp po'boy ($9.99) and a side of onion rings ($5.49) which she thoroughly enjoyed. I had the 6 inch smothered roast beef debris po'boy ($8.99) with fries ($1.99) which sounded excellent and was exponentially better than it sounded! My son had the bon temps burger ($8.99) and fries ($1.99) and really enjoyed it. Everything was really well seasoned and cooked to perfection.

The food is a bit pricy, but the portions are really big. For example, my son rarely has a meal that's more than he can finish in one sitting, but both of us ended up full with just about half of our food left! (It reheats nicely, by the way.) Even my mom ended up picking the shrimp off the last quarter of her po'boy because she was too full to eat the rest!

Looking at the menu, they seem to have a little something for just about everyone. Although they specialize in seafood, they have salads and wraps, a delicious burger, and even choices for kids (fried shrimp, fried catfish, or chicken fingers). They also have a dessert option I'm dying to try- T-boy Toast: fried bread pudding bites, topped with rum sauce and pecans. Maybe next time...

Finally, they offer rewards for using the Thanx app. You sign up using your email, Facebook, or Google account, register your card with the app, and then start earn progress towards your rewards without even needing to enter your receipts. If you prefer paying with cash (or not registering your card), you can always enter your receipts manually.

So in my opinion, if you're craving a bit of south Louisiana seafood without wanting to break the bank or deal with a fussy sit-down restaurant, you should consider Off the Hook. Friendly people and delicious food...

I have been to OTH Gonzales a total of seven times. The first time was excellent. I enjoyed the plump, crispy fish and the fried green beans were unique and tasty. Since that first month, things have seriously gone downhill in terms of food quality and order accuracy. The staff is friendly and polite.

On the issue of food quality, on multiple occasions I have been served expired, soggy, hours-old fish that had been sitting under a light for who knows how long. OTH Gonzales has failed to deliver a fresh product several times in the last two months. The fish was small, soggy, and yellow in the middle.

Also, more than once, I have ordered and payed for extra fish and never recieved the fish. Other items have been missing from my orders, once it was a missing bread pudding, the other time it was etouffee. It appears that the staff is not paying attention to order details and order accuracy at times.

EDIT: Several weeks after this review, the manager, Keithsha reached out to me to resolve the situation of the six visits with either spoiled and missing food. She not only replaced the missing items from the previous orders, she also threw in a gumbo for me to try, which was delicious. The fish was crispy, hot, juicy and seasoned perfectly. Honorable mention to the kitchen supervisor Sean, who dropped fresh fish for my order and fully exemplified what quality customer service is all about. Thank you Keithsha, Sean, and OTH staff for making things right in this situation. Good job, y'all.

I'll be...