Mandez's Seafood Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Lafayette

Let me begin by saying this: I really wanted to like this place but unfortunately I didn't. There is no way this place is worth the premium prices...the food is poorly prepared, the quality of product is sub-par and the service is mediocre at best. We wanted a place where we could get some fried seafood being Lent and all so we passed on the fast food place and some of the sit down type restaurants and bars because we had heard good things about this place. The first indicator was when the server greeted us from her conversation in the kitchen. I swear it felt like a scene from the movie Waiting. I ordered a cucumber mule cocktail ($9) which was pretty good but severely overpriced; and a few minutes later I ordered a fried shrimp platter (17.99) for my wife and a combo platter ($19.99) for myself. Now "platter" is a little bit deceiving since it is a 10" long oval plastic plate filled with a soup cup of coleslaw (which was ok to me but needed a bit of seasoning) and a 1 oz plastic cup for tarter sauce covering the far 1/3 of the plate and the other was an underwhelming layer of fried food. We got into a debate on whether the shrimp were prebreaded seapack type shrimp or in house dusted with fish fry...we (wife and I) decided that they were in fact brick frozen shrimp dusted inhouse with what we believe is Fish Fry. The flavor was a little salty but decent...the same for the oysters. The oysters were large and not overcooked BUT and it is a big one, the corn meal tasted raw and the liquid from them prohibited the corn meal from sticking to the oyster making it soggy. Either the oil was turned off earlier and not up to the proper temperature before cooking or they didn't double fry but either way, I more or less ate a half fried oyster. The shrimp were about the same only slightly more pleasant to eat. I ate all 4 oysters and the 6 or so shrimp...I was hungry and really just wanted it to end so I could leave. The kitchen had started to close up so I was nervous to ask for a re-cook. The website says open till 10p but at 845p they were pulling things off of the tables and clearing down so no way in hell I was asking for anything. Side note, the service is completely inattentive to customer needs and they fail to disclose the fee for a non-cash transaction. The $2 is no big deal but I choose not to do business with a place that adds this surcharge. Bank fees are a cost of doing business and slipping it in on the backside seems dishonest to me. What's next, divvy up the utility bill for each customer that sits down...

Was super excited to try this place as I've had an inkling for fried oysters since moving to the area and had researched this place pre-move! The food itself was ok. We went for a late lunch and finally settled on my oysters, BBQ nachos and crawfish egg rolls. The BBQ nachos were tasty but more chips than anything else. My oysters and fries were done well enough.

Unfortunately Im knocking stars on business ethics as I was gravely disappointed after getting our bill and seeing a difference in prices from the menu. My one plate alone of oysters and fries was $30! Mind you, I don't mind paying for good food, the issue was the the menu had the item as $23.99. When I pointed out the differences in prices from the menu to the waitress she apologized and told me there was usually a sign up about the increase in prices (although there was nothing pointed out to us preorder, and we had to dig to find it). I don't feel it was 100% the waitress fault, but management for not putting it on the menus, so I sucked it up, paid the $80 for our bill and just vowed to never go here again. I honestly felt robbed leaving here! Had I only carried cash on me, we might have been in an embarrassing predicament.

If you're thinking of eating here just be forewarned (since I wasn't) there's a 20% increase or so on the menu prices that's NOT actually on the menu itself and a surcharge for using...

Food is great , service is hit or miss. So a group of friends come her for lunch from time to time and recently we came and they moved the big table from outside that would accommodate our group and we were not allowed to move two small tables together so we had to sit at three different tables. When the bill comes guess what , we are all charged automatic gratuity for a party of over 6. How is this legal you made us sit at three different tables but charges us as one and when we asked the rude waitress replied well once I put in an order with over 6 orders it's automatic. But it's three different tables !!!! Scammers! Doesn't seem right and then one of the Group told the waitress she wasn't happy with the explanation of the added gratuity and the waitress just turned around went back inside and never came back out . So advice if you come here as a group and you can't sit at same table make sure you either know that you will be charged as 1 group or you need to make sure they don't treat you as one group if you don't think you should be charge as one group when you aren't...