Olde Tyme Grocery — Restaurant in Lafayette

Food quality is WAY DOWN so much so that I have to finally quit visiting this place. I think the original owner's daughter has taken over or is in the process of taking over and it is severely destroying the brand and food at this place. No longer can this place demand premium pricing when they are now selling a subpar product. The shrimp poboy was at one time the BEST ever now it is subpar at best. They have changed something with the shrimp and the batter and oil they use is different than in years past as the breading used to be somewhat crunchy and stick to the shrimp where now it is soggy and basically falls off the shrimp. Terrible and not very pleasant to look at. Please go back to the roots or your business will go by the wayside. I am done with this place and have eaten here for 30+ years and have bought 2 party trays for Christmas parties every year for 10 plus years. Last year was my last time purchasing those. Every food place in Lafayette seems to always cuts quality and raises prices and in turn kills what made them great in the first place. I also disagree with how little they pay their employees and how bad they really treat them. Pay them a better wage and treat them like humans and not like animals. They are learning how to work and need money for school. Good bye Olde Time Grocery! You were once the best in the business now you are just blah. Hopefully his daughter will see sales slump and pivot but doubt she will do so. I made this same comment on Chris' Poboys downtown 20 years ago and about 3 years after I said they would close down, they did. You can raise prices but do NOT do so and cut quality as it will kill...

We got an assorted poboy tray, tray of fries and a tray of salad delivered for lunch today. I hadn’t eaten at Old Tyme grocery in probably 10 years (just never get around to that end of town as I live kind of far away from there). I was excited when they said we were getting from there! I remembered their nice, soft poboy buns, just the right amount of fixings on a poboy, the big fat, fried to perfection French fries, etc. But?!😳 what we got today was not great at all! The fries were kind of but kind of not ok- cooked too long?, the fried shrimp was awesome (only reason why I’m giving a 3 star review) but the poboys themselves?! Must not be the same owners- or cooks- or next generation owners…. What the heck? And if so- you have to go back to the recipes that built that place! Bread was so dry and was there mayo???? Not even sure. Back to the bread… why on earth would you go from being the best poboys ever to having the hardest, driest, broken up bread, just such a mediocre poboy? Who thought that was a great idea? Guess I’m not going to break down and go back there…. The old owners must not have passed on their wonderful, scrumptious recipes to the new owners?...

MUST VISIT. This place is incredible. The food—the shrimp and oyster po' boy—was top notch, easily better than any I had in NOLA. And the service? Absolutely outstanding. I would’ve rated it 10/5 if I could, especially for what the owner (or one of the staff) did to return an AirPod I accidentally left behind—all the way back to where I live.

Long story short: My wife and I were visiting Lafayette for the Cajun food but decided to stop by for a quick po' boy after seeing great Google reviews. Unfortunately, one of my AirPods slipped out of my bag and was left behind, unnoticed until I realized it was missing a few days later (yes, I was very clumsy). What genuinely surprised me wasn’t just how responsive and communicative the owner was—keeping my AirPod safe in their office—but that they offered to ship it back to me FREE OF CHARGE.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the warmth and hospitality I experienced throughout this whole situation. I told myself I had to leave an excellent review—not just for the food, but for the incredible people behind...