Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Kenner

Horrible experience. I grew up in Kenner and have been going to Fisherman's Wharf for decades. When Harbor first opened, it was amazing. Food, fun, experience, all of it even with the tiny restaurant it was. When they began expanding, I was ecstatic. We frequented often. Unfortunately, we moved to he north shore a few years ago but make the trek whenever we can. Decided to do so Saturday with the MIL and it was AWFUL. The wait for a table was just over an hour which was FINE as we were told this and that wait time is normal here. Once we were seated, it was 10 minutes to get greeted, another 10 minutes for drinks to make it to us, then our waitress disappeared for another 10 minutes and came back to refill some waters. She was walking away when I asked if she could take our order. She turned and said "Oh, I didn't get your order yet?". Floored. She had to find a pen, something to write on and then she was ready. What!?!?!? So, an hour wait, 35 minutes at the table, and our order was just taken. From this point, 25 minutes passed and nothing. Not a word from our waitress who we watched frantically running about the dining area to all her tables. I had enough and asked at the hostess desk for a manager who did come out and state that they are short-handed and that he was in the kitchen cooking to try and keep up. Basically, an is what it is convo which frankly was all I could expect since they can't just make another employee show up. Food hit the table just over 2 hours and 15 minutes of us arriving at the restaurant. I had a grilled shrimp on bun and it was terrible. How do you mess up a grilled shrimp on bun you ask? By using the tiny frozen salad shrimp in south Louisiana, that's how. Unreal. But the best part....... my wife had 5lbs of crawfish that came out cold. Not like sitting out from the boil too long cold, like fridge cold. LIVID. AND WE WEREN'T THE ONLY ONES. When I went towards the kitchen, another tray was headed back and I heard the waitress tell the kitchen "these are all cold". I can't, in good conscious, return to Harbor again. If you've read this far, I know there is a pandemic, I know there are staff shortages (which I believe are directly related to businesses not compensating well enough), and I know supply chains are having issues. What I also know is this has been going on for well over 18 months and it's time for businesses to realize, this is the way. Businesses need to adjust their business plans to the new normal. I hope this post inspires Harbor to make some needed changes as you are part of the fabric of Kenner. An icon of the city. If your prices go up, so should your quality...

Awful experience at Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar

We just had the most awful experience at Harbor Seafood & Oyster Bar. Earlier this afternoon, I walked into market side of the business and bought nearly $50 worth of boiled seafood and sides. Then, I walked to other side of the business, to the restaurant, and ordered an oyster poboy for my mom. I paid the bill, walked through the nearly empty restaurant, past the mostly empty patio, and walked to the car to wait in the car while the poboy was cooked. My mom and I figured, it’s a nice day, why don’t we eat in the patio instead of in the car. So my mom and I walked into the restaurant and asked the hostess if we could eat in the patio—which, again, was jus about empty. “Oh, no, we don’t allow that,” the hostess snapped. I responded, with the most respectful tone: “Why not? We just bought boiled seafood and ordered a poboy. It’s the same business, right?” I was carrying the bag of boiled seafood.

“That don’t matter,” another hostess barked — literally at me, as she walked toward me. I backed up, because I did not want a confrontation. “You eat the poboy at the table in the patio. But if you want to eat the boiled seafood, you can take yourself outside.”

“Excuse me, ma’am,” I said. “We just spent a total of more than $75 on seafood, from the same business. Your restaurant’s just about empty. And you won’t let us eat a full meal at the table?”

“That’s the rules. You can take it or leave it,” she snapped.

“OK,” I said. “Let’s cancel that poboy. You’ve lost our business. Look out for an online review.”

I walked back to the bar and got a refund for the poboy. My mom walked out to the car.

We’d eaten at Harbor Seafood before, with no issues.

I’m executive — and Black, by the way. My mom is nearly 70 years old.

It’s absurd that we weren’t allowed to eat a meal that we’d already paid for inside the restaurant. The tone of the two hostess was absolutely appalling. Their ignorant tone felt like they saw two well-dressed Black people and still assumed we were two thugs they didn’t want in their restaurant. It is hard to believe they would have been so disrespectful to non-Black customers.

Note to management: It’s 2023. Hire better staffers. Teach them Customer Service 101. Insist that they treat all customers — especially Black customers—with respect. Insist that they learn how to watch their tone...

We got here around 5pm (before dinner rush); 7/28/19. The hosts were fast to sit us down (i.e. there was no wait). Once we were sat, we looked over the menu and decided on what we wanted to eat (we usually take about 10mins to look over menu when we visit somewhere new). We put down our menus and waited to be served. Time passed and no one ever offered us drinks, much less take our order (at this point we were probably sitting for about 20mins before we decided to move to the bar where we saw the bartender tending to her customers). We sat down at the bar and she came within mins. She even noticed no one had served us when we were sitting at the regular tables because she asked. She quickly took our drink order and asked if we were ready to order food. We were, so she took our order. Since we ordered 2dz oysters she warned us that her guy was extremely slow because he was new. We still wanted the oysters so we said we could wait. We also asked her to bring out the food as soon as it was ready. She was right! Our food came out before the oysters. Apparently there was a 5dz order before ours so it took longer. To my surprise, the food was extremely delicious. Its hard to find perfectly fried food (very crisp, no burnt bits stuck on the batter, no dripping or excess oil) and all of mine was (i ordered the appetizer platter which more than filled me up). Hubby ordered the boiled shrimp and was happy with it too. He mentioned how it was not over-boiled like restaurants sometimes make them. We were about half-way done with our food when the oysters came out. The oysters were delicious too. They were a bit dirty (bits of black in the oyster liquid and on the outside) but i didnt find any hard shell bits in them. I was pretty pleased with how fresh they were. We did notice that we were only given 11 oysters instead of a dz, which we didnt mention to our server. We figured it would take too long to replace. Lol!! Im glad we were not in a hurry because we wouldve given this restaurant a bad review for not serving us in a timely manner. This is the reason they get a 4-star. Ignoring the initial waiting issue, we had a great time and would definitely try this place again. We do recommend coming here because the food is delicious. You will not be disappointed with the food, although I cannot guarantee their service. Maybe try this place when youre...