The Steamer Baked Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Gulf Shores

Our family celebrated my daughter’s 40th birthday at the beach. We ordered in a couple nights, but decided to try the Steamer baked oyster house. It was recommended & had something to please everyone. Just one thing, we don’t like our steamed/boiled shrimp hot. I called a few hours before dinner time to ask could they put our shrimp on ice. The girl on the phone ask someone, they said sure. We arrive about 7pm…only place to sit was outside…it was a pleasant evening so that was ok. Our waitress took our drink order and ask about appetizers. We ordered 3 lbs shrimp and 1 dz raw oysters. I told her we wanted the shrimp on ice…I had called earlier to make sure they could do that. She came out in a few minutes to tell us they couldn’t. I pulled up the call to their phone # to confirm the time, I spoke with a lady who ask some man, they said they could. At least 15 minutes went by, she finally brought out drinks out & told us they would put it on ice. She said she was busy, that’s why she hadn’t told us. The shrimp comes…it’s tough, overcooked, the oysters are the tiniest I’ve ever seen with a taste to match the size. My husband ask for extra horseradish, literally the little cup might have had 1/4 tsp in them. This place surely wastes money on containers…we needed about 6 more…maybe 1 TBLS total. I ask for lemons for the 2nd time…she brought a few wedges. Our food comes…she tells us they weren’t prepared, we’d have to share the crab leg crackers & they didn’t have any of the little forks clean, the ones we needed to pick the meat out. We still have no silverware to eat our sides or fish & we need more lemons. I ask for silverware to eat with, honey mustard for my blackened chicken & more lemons. At least 10 mins passed before she came back. She had a big cup of lemons but made sure to tell us her manager told her that was too many lemons (I guess to give to customers)…the honey mustard was so old it was gel…it came out in one big clump. That was ok since I couldn’t eat the blackened chicken it was so tough. But the kicker…the forks were inside paper sleeves…since her hands were full, she had them tucked under her arm…yes…in her armpit. 😳😡 The sides…potatoes, corn, sausage & steamed greens beans were all cool. Someone had a large dog with them…I thought a service dog, but it wasn’t. Next, there’s a gray cat running all over the place. This meal was almost $400. Definitely confident saying we will never EVER eat here again.Typically we leave 20% plus extra tip…except for what was added in…if there was tip added, not sure…this waitress got zero…or nothing extra. Putting ANYTHING u see her arm….anything we will eat, touch or use…cost her tip! I was so grossed by that one...

If we were able to divide the ratings I would have given the food 4 stars, the atmosphere 4 stars and the service one star.

The food was decent. About what you would expect for that type of cuisine. 6 of us ate and, without going into details of each order, we had royal reds, crab legs, etc. Fairly average, nothing special. Each of us has the platter and the sausage and potatoes and all were good. Not spicy or anything, just normal.

We all agreed the green beans with the platter weren’t that great.

Personally I think I was a bit overpriced given that the food was average but it is a tourist area.

The atmosphere was nice. Outdoor seating but given that there was no music or anything it was a little loud and difficult to have a conversation or talk to the waitress.

The service however, that’s a different story. Ordering was straightforward as we ordered nothing special.

I ordered the crab parmesan dip which was supposed to come with crackers. However a different waiter brought it out and didn’t bring crackers or plates or anything to eat from. By the time our waitress came back the dip was starting to get cold. I asked her for the crackers and plates. She brought the crackers but no plates. A few minutes later she returned with 4 plates which were soaking wet. She left three and took one back because it was dirty. When I started to dry the plates I realized I didn’t have any paper towels which they usually put on the tables. I had to chase down a roll at the bar.

Before she brought our order I asked her for a glass of White Zinfandel to have with my shrimp. Pretty easy I thought but I had to tell her 4 times and finally ended up talking slow and loudly so she understood. A few minutes later she returned to the table to ask me yet again what it was I wanted. I told her not to worry about it.

When our food came it seemed everything was fine until we realized that she didn’t bring the Cajun Oysters we ordered. When we asked her about them she was confused and checked our order then said “I’m sorry but a lot of people are ordering oysters tonight” which I thought seemed strange because we didn’t have to wait for a table. When I asked her hour long it would be she said about 10 minutes. The entire interaction seemed like she just forgot to put in the order.

That and a few other things she forgot led us to have a not so great night in regard to service. It was our daughters birthday so I was hoping for a little better experience especially...

Only giving one star because it wouldn't allow me to pick zero...

One of the worst restaurant experiences I have ever had. First of all waited 45 minutes after ordering our appetizers for them to be brought to our table. Asked the server twice to check on them. Then waited another 20 minutes for our meals to be brought to the table. The manager came out and said that our meals were the next to be brought out and it took 10 minutes after that for them to be brought to our table. All of the tables around us that were sat after us had their food before we even received our appetizers. All of the meals were cold when they finally came to the table. One meal was completely left off the order. We had three orders of pasta that were supposed to be topped with asparagus that did not have any. One of the meals was rang in as a kids meal when we did not ask for it to be. We ordered the adult portion. We asked for the server to bring additional food to make it an adult portion and never received it. When we informed the server that we were missing the asparagus she turned and walked away from us without acknowledging our request. The general manager at first offered to comp half of our total bill but then after we informed him of more concerns he decided that we should pay the entire bill. When he brought us the bill it did not have o correct order. He had to bring the bill back twice before it had the correct order and still charged us full price. The manager threatened to call the police because we were causing a scene, and all we were doing was trying to ask him to take off half the bill like he originally said he would.

Would absolutely not recommend this...