Abair's — Restaurant in Kennewick

I got lunch on Saturday after hearing that this restaurant was struggling. After getting food there, I understand why.

Let me start with the good. The prices are reasonable, and the food taste good, and the staff is friendly. The rice was a little more al dente than it should have been in my opinion, but pouring the Gumbo or Étouffée over it like you should cooked it to the proper level so I don't think that is a problem and might have been intentional. It isn't the same flavors as the other Cajun places in town, and I could see people easily choosing to alternate between the different places and including Abair's in that. They also gave me two free desserts that I didn't order, which was very nice.

Now the not so good. I submitted the order on Thursday to be picked up at 1:15PM on Saturday, I wasn't able to pay online, so I selected that I'd pay with a card when picking it up. It was confirmed on the same Thursday, and was labeled as "In Progress" before noon on Saturday. I arrived 5 minutes early, at 1:10pm. There were only half a dozen or so people in front of me.

I stood in line for FORTY-FIVE MINUTES! The cashier had someone working the back of house but nearly every order left the till and cashbox for around five minutes at a time (good thing this area is relatively honest) and it wasn't until 1:50 that I was able to pay.

Then they were out of Dirty rice. Why they didn't have enough when I ordered it days in advance and it was confirmed, I do not know.

Having paid, I now got to wait for my order, and I thankfully knew what to expect by now, so I went out to my car to stop the engine, tell my companion he can come wait with me, and grab my phone so I have something to do for the second wait.

It was 2:45pm when we got our food. For those not doing the math, that's Fifty-Five minutes after I paid, and a total in an out time of one hour and forty minutes.

It was plenty of time to make calls to let everyone know why we were late and re-arrange our schedule and plan the rest of the day.

But what was even the point of pre-ordering? I expect that when I preorder food and have it confirmed to be able to be in and out in 20 minutes or less, ideally more like 5-10 minutes or less. When I order food from other places they give me a time and if I show up at that time the majority of times it is only 1-2 minutes as I pay and they hand me my food.

Nor was this just a bad luck on my part, there were other groups I overheard discussing the same issue of having preordered and still waiting long times or having food they ordered not available.

Gumbo and Étouffée is designed to be hot held in large pots ready to be ladled up. The Cashier shouldn't leave the till so often and for so long when there are people waiting. They should set up separate lines for pre-orders and walk-ins. Scheduled orders should be done within a few minutes of the scheduled pick up time.

I like eating local and the food is good so I want to see them succeed (and that's why I'm giving an overall of 3 stars rather than something less) But they need to fix their process. Even if customers were willing to repeat this kind of experience, it can't be profitable to serve customers at the rate they were going.

I hope Abair's fixes these...

Every time I have gone in, I have been greeted with a smiling face and a warm welcome. The food is incredible! It reminds me of being back home in Tacoma and working at Porter’s Place where we made a lot of the same dishes. The fact that they offer vegans options for some of my favorite Cajun dishes is what sets them apart from a lot of places around here. The quality is the same all...

I've tried five different dishes that Abair's prepared, and they were fantastic. If you want something different and very flavorful try Abair's... I also tried her stuffed green pepper, I don't know the exact title of the green pepper but it was excellant.. It had spice and...