Fat Pat's Bar and Grill Lake Charles — Restaurant in Lake Charles

Kind of a weird experience, honestly. We came in and were sat immediately, which was nice. Waitress came up and asked what we wanted to drink and if we wanted any appetizers. Told her what we wanted, and they were out of one of the drinks, which isn’t the waitress’ fault, but sucked nonetheless. Got something else and ordered boudin balls for an appetizer. It came out about 5-10 minutes later, took a bite of one and they were cold in the middle. Waitress took them back, somewhat unhappy, and let us know about 5 minutes later that they were remaking them. 2nd time around they were okay. Got time to actually order, I got a poboy and specifically asked for no tomatoes. Waitress doubled checked with me to make sure of what I said. Person who was with me ordered a salad.

Food came out and we realized a couple things: 1. We had no napkins. 2. We had no utensils. 3. Our drinks were empty. 4. There were tomatoes on my poboy.

Tried waving the waitress down for a second and she either ignored us or somehow didn't see us while she was looking directly at us. She was talking with a coworker and playing on the computer system (or her phone?). Regardless, finally got her attention when we said “ma’am!” in a raised voice. She brought one set of utensils, didn’t ask about drink refills or anything, and went on her way. I could tell she was frustrated having to deal with us so I apologized for just noticing we didn’t have any utensils. She didn’t say anything. I didn’t bother to mention the tomatoes on my food because she was already being short and somewhat rude.

Got about half way through the meal, and she asked if we were ready for our ticket. I said yes and went ahead and paid because I wanted to gtfo of there.

Overall, not sure if the kitchen staff was pissing her off and it was just getting taken out on us or if she just had a bad attitude for some reason.

Will not be...

This was, without a doubt, the worst experience we’ve ever had at a restaurant—and that’s saying a lot coming from our group. We were a party of 7, including 3 kids, and every single adult at the table has worked in this industry. Two are bartenders, one is a server, and another is a former restaurant manager with years of experience. We know how this business works, and we’re always the kind of guests who extend grace, give the benefit of the doubt, and avoid leaving negative reviews unless it’s absolutely necessary.

That said, this was bad—like, bad bad.

We were seated right away, but then it took 20 minutes just to be acknowledged. Still, we waited patiently and finally got to order drinks… which were just waters and one root beer. Another 20 minutes passed before they arrived.

We placed our full order—appetizers and entrées all at once—and then watched three different tables that were seated after us get their food, eat, pay, and leave. Meanwhile, an hour went by, and still nothing. No apps, no entrees, not even updates.

We finally asked the blonde woman behind the bar what was going on, and instead of helping, she brushed us off with attitude and said, “Well, those tables were smaller.” No apology. No attempt to make it right. Just total dismissal.

After sitting there for TWO HOURS, with hungry kids and zero food on our table, we had no choice but to leave. And the response we got was, “Well, okay!” No concern, no accountability, no effort to fix anything.

We honestly believe if Demi had been the one we spoke to, the situation would’ve been handled differently. But unfortunately, it wasn’t, and we left feeling extremely disappointed. We’ve loved this place in the past, but after this experience, it’s hard to imagine coming back.

We don’t enjoy leaving reviews like this—but when the service is this far gone and nobody seems to care, people...

Not sure if it’s good because no one would wait on us and we sat there 20 minutes.

We first saw Fat Pat’s in Lafayette and, laughing about the tag line, said “we should eat there”. After looking at reviews, especially about the nachos, we decided we should definitely stop, and on our way back to Texas we drove out of our way to visit the Lake Charles location.

We were seated in the area with the astroturf and shuffle board. And we waited. My kids made friends with other kids playing shuffleboard. The other kids left with their family. My wife went over to teach our kids how to play shuffle board.

I didn’t realize how much time had passed as I had emails to check. My wife came back and said “has no one come by yet?” They hadn’t.

Shortly after, a woman, I believe she said her name was Sierra, said (from completely behind me) “My name is Sierra, I need to go give those people their food and I’ll be right with you.”

We continued to wait. We never saw her again.

Approximately 5 minutes later two other waitresses came to the area to put together tables for another party. They walked right past us, didn’t acknowledge us, and talked to each other about tables.

At this point I stood and said “what, you don’t serve people here?” And we began walking out. The waitresses just stood there, one with her mouth hanging open, the other saying “what? No…?”, and I said “what, just ** us then?”

I took this picture as we entered at 2:41. I believe we left at 3:02.

Such a bummer. Guess we’ll never know if those nachos really are big enough to feed a...