La Bamba SeaFood — Restaurant in Knoxville

A couple of months ago my husband and I tried this new seafood place. We were both super excited but definitely were a little skeptical given the outside and inside appearance of the place. Well, to start the awful night off, I asked the waitress if the tacos we're like american tacos or Mexican tacos (I'm half Mexican and yes there is a huge difference) and she said "it's like however THOSE people make them, they don't even speak English!" So now feeling super awkward about being half Mexican and she kept going on and on about "those" people in such a demeaning tone. So whatever... Food is what I'm here for. So we order chicken tacos for me and this huge seafood platter in a pineapple thing for my other half and raw oysters for appetizer. Oysters came out and my husband said they tasted funny. He eats a second, still tastes weird, eats a third and spits it back up and says "it's rotten!" So he starts touching the oysters and says they feel cool not cold and tells the waitress that he suspected the oysters may have gone bad. So she takes them away. We eat the rest of our food and I loved my chicken tacos. They were great! (Mexican style in case your wondering) My other half liked what he ordered even if it was a bit too spicy for him. In the middle of dinner our waitress asks if we would mind if she ran up to the store to get some cigarettes real quick. I thought it was an odd thing to say but not knowing what else to do we said it was okay. When she said "run" she meant walk....to Walgreens. An HR later we are done with our meal and are tired of waiting for her to come back so we ask another waitress to bill us out. They wouldn't remove the charges for the entire oyster appetizer even though they were bad and he sent them back. But haven't such a horrible night already we just paid and left. We get to the truck just in time for our server to walk up and ask us to leave a good review bc the owner says the service is the only reason why it isn't a busy restaurant and she thinks it's the horrible cooks fault. How rediculous, the whole night and situation! It was so weird and that wasn't the worst of it. Within 45-60 minutes of leaving the restaurant my husband is heaving his guts out for the rest of the night. I ended up taking him to the ER for food poisoning.

So we complained to the health department which is when I find out that two days prior to this, they had an inspection which found their coolers were too high temp

So not only did I pay for oysters tray that he didn't eat, but then got the added pleasure of paying for an ER visit too. We won't be making that mistake again. Which is a shame because those chicken tacos were good... I vowed to wait a few months to post a review, one so that I would calm down and give a logical and fair review and two so maybe I could convince my other half to give them a second chance. But I'll never convince my other half to go back and he constantly tells people to stay away. So, two stars for really good chicken tacos but a very awful night of...

Great seafood experience! This place is a missing link between seafood and Mexican restaurants. There is a lack of real fish restaurants in Knox area and La Bamba is great for adding a lot of flavor. First of all this is a seafood restaurant, so if you want burrito and cheese deep this is a wrong place. But they will offer great variety of Seafood Mexican dishes. There are tasty soups full of shell fish flavors (some shrimps still have heads and tails and look very cute) and Mexican species (hot but not overwhelming). They offer fish plates with whole grilled fish. They have lobster tails with wonderful mushroom sauce. And guacamole is with fresh avocados. Salsa is flavorful and spicy. Stuff is very helpful and bilingual. They have menus on both languages. La Bamba is located in former night club so it gives it some rustic look, but it also means that they are spacious, have separate bar areas and even pool tables. I have seen several families with kids there who seems to enjoy it a lot, however they serve some of their food as it is (whole fish with head and tail, or shrimps with cute eyes). So if your child thinks that chicken is a breaded brick food here could be quite surprising. I will recommend for all who wants great flavor and seafood experience. One of a very few places in Knoxville that...

I DONT RECOMMEND GOING UNLESS YOU WANNA GET SCAMMED!!

Let me start off by saying the food was totally amazing, the problem I’m having is with the owner and his shady behavior. We are a family of 4, I order an appetizer, a grilled shrimp plate and a mixed seafood. The prices that the menu I was provided were perfect for me and my family, until I was handed out the check and they added an extra $30 on my order! I told them why the increase since the prices on the menu are not the same, the waitress explained that since the prices have gone up they have to do it as well(which I don’t mind) but I told her that the prices on the menu don’t match. She responded well the owner changed it on my computer so that’s what I have to charge and she proceeded to tell me if I checked online I would see the updated prices(I did) online they increase the prices only by $2 on each of the items. On my check they added between $4-$10 on each item! I was not pleased, I loved the food but definitely will NEVER be back!...