Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux - Hattiesburg Restaurant — Restaurant in Hattiesburg

I have eaten at the Walk-on's in New Orleans and had a pretty good experience so I was glad to have a new franchise location open up closer to home. We visited on a Thursday evening. They have been open about 2 weeks so I figured they would have most of the new restaurant issues worked out. It was a football night, and this place clearly is a sports pub. There are probably 100 big screen T.V.s there, including T.V.s in the bathroom. There was a 45 minute wait but we were able to find two seats at the bar. Clearly the bar staff were working hard on a big night, but we were not even recognized for almost 5 minutes. 4 bar tenders walked right in front of us and wouldn't even make eye contact. My girlfriend, who works in the business said if they don't acknowledge us in 1 minute we are leaving. Luckily someone did. We ordered a few Southern Prohibition Crowd control IPA's, props for having local beer on tap! I ordered a Mahi sandwich and she got a oyster po boy. I thought my sandwich was good (the bread was a little soggy) and her oysters were fried perfectly. Normally I like to look at the ticket, but we we were tabbed out they only provided us with the total, not a break down of the meal. I think the beers may be a little pricey, as our overall total was $45 before tip. I might have asked for a breakdown, but like I said, we were lucky to even get an order in. As someone who has worked in the industry as well, I understand they have young and green staff. Management might want to do some customer acknowledgement training or look for some experienced bartenders. Update 2/2019 This was probably our 4th visit to this location and we've had a mixed time of it. As usual we sat at the bar. (Note to management, put some purse hooks under the bar for the ladies.) We were going to go with a tried and true, the oyster po boy, but when we ordered the bartender said "We don't have oysters". You mean, like you are out? No, we don't have them on the menu. The guy is new, and said they've never been on the menu since he has been there. Note to management, why take off one of the best and most consistent things you had? Anyway, we tried the boom boom shrimp po boy and the Jalapeno jack burger. The burger was cooked correctly (not burned like our last visit) and presented well. The Po boy was ok, not anywhere near as good as the discontinued oyster po boy. Now here is where the trip made a turn for the worse. Sitting at the bar and both of us having years of restaurant management experience, we can't help but notice things and normally have a good time talking about the things we notice. A waitress came and borrowed the step ladder from the bar. A few minutes later the bartender needed a bottle from the top shelf, and with no ladder he pulled himself up to stand on the bar. Not the bar actually, but the drip dry rubber mat where they take the glasses our of the bar side dishwasher to dry. So he stood on the place they put freshly sterilized and washed glasses, with his shoes. If you have any doubt how dirty the bottom of his shoes were, you just need to look at the bottom of any of the waitresses shoes. Some of which are white. You'll get the idea. This may have been...

UPDATE: My family and I were able to get back today for a late lunch. There was 9 of us. I have to say that the managers and the staff went above and beyond to ensure that our first visit was everything it was suppose to be.

I cannot thank Eric and Matt and the staff enough for everything! Our waitress Shasmine (I hope I spelled that right!), was amazing!!

Amazing food, service and staff!!

We look forward to coming back. Thank you to everyone at Walk-Ons once again!!

October 5th visit. I called about 3 weeks ago to make a reservation for about 30 people for my daughters sweet 16 dinner. I spoke to the manager Matt, very nice! He got me scheduled and said to call back the day before to confirm and to give a final headcount.

I called back Friday evening (about 26 hrs prior) with a head count and to confirm and the other manager I spoke to said everything was good. Saturday evening we get there 15 minutes early and they tell me since I didn't confirm that morning they just assumed I wasn't coming! So of course the patio was full of people. They were trying to do what they could to move tables but after an hour waiting we finally found somewhere else that would seat us all immediately.

Although everyone was very nice, I am not giving them a very good review for our first visit. I have never reserved at a restaraunt and after confirming the night before, still having to confirm again the morning of. They could have told me when I called that I would need to confirm again. No one mentioned anything other than I was good!

We would still love to go try out their food since we have never had the chance to but as far as booking a party there, I will never again. Very dissappointed and all of our friends and...

I ordered the Craw Fish étouffée's dark brown rue; it tasted burnt. While you should have some of the flavors of the crawdads, the overall taste was very "Fishy," which speaks to the age of the critters. The rice was good, but overall, the entire was disappointing. If I were to guess, it was pre-made and sat for some time before it was served to me, perhaps even refrigerated from days before. I tried the Death ood Valley recommended to me by one of our party of 15, don't understand what's the big deal. A 15.00 drink should give you an excellent alcoholic buzz, and I had a designated driver with the expectation it would get me. The drink had way too much fruit drink and, I'm sure, watered-down shots. I was pretty disappointed. Your "Rib Eye" steak sandwich was full of gristle and hard to eat. We had two beers, two entrees, the death valley drink, and a Popboy. Out of our large group, we asked to be billed separately because we came later. I'm glad I noticed you considered four people a "Large Group" and automatically included the tip. Who are you to decide to add a base 18% tip? What if she gave terrible service, it's the customer's way of letting the waitstaff know what kind of job they did. Timing is not supplementing employees' wages. You do this from us. It was a shame, too, because I would have tipped 25%; she was excellent. I thought your bathrooms were disgusting. Who wants to wash up before a meal when it looks gross in the washroom? We paid for sub-standard food, over 120.00 with a tip, and three people ate, and two had a single beer. You can afford to keep the bathrooms clean, no? I need help seeing what I would return or take my employees for an outing again. You could...