Johnny Sánchez — Restaurant in Lake Charles

The disappointment in my family and I’s visit was so heavy that when I wrote this review, it was the first weekend this spot opened up in Lauberge and I posted this review on the google page of the one in New Orleans. Two months have now passed and this spot finally has a google page so I feel the need to put this on here.

Johnny Sanchez just opened up a new location inside L’auberge Casino Resort in Lake Charles. It replaced a staple brunch spot that although wasn’t the best brunch spot, was still ten times better than the experience my family and I had at the new Johnny Sanchez location. Looking at the reviews for New Orleans, I can see that our experience wasn’t an isolated one. Ours seemed to be worse as apparently the new location at Lake Charles has been open for only less than a week. With more training, maybe those in the kitchen at Lake Charles can line up to the subpar reviews this New Orleans location has.

I’d like to say that service was great, and at no point did the staff ever disrespect our family. This experience is solely on the taste Johnny Sanchez has to offer which I would say is the most important thing.

Some positives: the queso fondido. The cheese was gooey, the meat and veggies underneath were flavorful and paired well with the tortillas, a bite would melt in your mouth and left you wanting for more. The other dish worth your time and money is the papas bravas. Topped with pickled onions and a tangy sauce, the crispy potatoes paired well with any of the entrees.

Then the underwhelming: the Wagyu was $46 for less than 6 oz. of meat. The ribeye was a decent portion for the price but did not taste fresh and was very poorly seasoned. You could get a better steak at Texas Roadhouse. The mexican rice was bland, not seasoned, similar to the mexican rice Chili’s has to offer, and Chili’s might even be better. The chicken flautas, also under seasoned, chicken was also not fresh, as if it had been sitting in the fridge for a few days before they finally fried and served it. The salsa in the chips and dip appetizer, was also bland, it lacked flavor and depth. The street corn, again, corn wasn’t fresh, and was lacking seasoning. I personally ordered the roasted half chicken which about 50% of the way I was actually pleased with, forgiving the under seasoning of the chicken as under seasoned seems to be the theme in our experience. I was pleased with the texture of the chicken. It was juicy, even the breast. Yet as I got closer to the bone, I realized the texture and juiciness was the way that it was because it was still pink inside. Had the chicken gone for a couple more minutes it would have actually been fairly good. Overall, we were disappointed to say the least. My sister was so infuriated with the taste of the food that she got up and left.

I was surprised to see that Aaron Sanchez is a TV star/MasterChef judge. I had no idea who this man was until I read these reviews. It makes it even more disappointing to see the owner is a supposed culinary star. It’s honestly a joke, and opening a location in Lake Charles where 90% of customers are coming from Texas, home of delicious tex-mex, was such a bad mistake.

The only positive thing I can say is that presentation and service are great. Otherwise there is so much to work on in this franchise.

I honestly would’ve never made this review if at the very least, the prices were fair. Yet for 9 people total, we spent upward of $400. For that price we could have gone to a nice steakhouse or a decent Mexican restaurant for a 1/3 of the price and enjoyed our food.

I hope that this business takes these reviews into account, otherwise you are doing people a dishonor by serving this type of food at the price...

We were looking forward to eating here because we had seen the construction going on for a few months. We have watched Johnny Sanchez on the Food Network and thought it would be so great to have a real Mexican Food restaurant in Lake Charles, LA. We looked over the menu at the front and could see that prices were a little high but you are in a casino so that is expected honestly. We were seated quickly, but 15 to 20 minutes later we had to flag down the hostess to ask if we had a server because no one had helped us. They sent over a bartender to take our drink orders. We asked about a couple of food items but she said she didn’t know much as she was a bartender, even though they serve food at the very large bar area. A waitress finally came to take our order. We asked about ordering the tamale appetizer and she said they no longer serve that. What, you have only been open a little more than a few weeks! Apparently it was only 1 tamale for $12 and people complained so they stopped serving it along with a few other items she told us we couldn’t order. We decided to order the chips and salsa, not free but cost $6. By now we weren’t that hungry so we ordered chicken tortilla soup since the other items we wanted they didn’t have. Guess what, it was iced cold so we sent it back asking for it to be heated up. The table next to us said the same happened to them. On the second bowl of soup that was maybe lukewarm, we decided to send it back and say never mind. While we were waiting, we heard another table ask about the pork enchiladas because the man didn’t eat pork. He asked if they could be made with another meat. They said no because they were pre-made, not made there. Also, there were no homemade tortillas. In Texas even our fast food Mexican restaurants make homemade flour tortillas and free chips and salsa! My mother ordered the key lime pie at the same time we ordered our food but she didn’t get it until they went to Florida to pick the key limes and we were ready to leave even though she asked for it to come with our food. She asked for it to go so we could go eat at the bar and grill, which by the way is very good with huge portions. The waitress continued to apologize for everything because it all went very bad. They were understaffed and many people were waiting for servers or food. I sure hope they get all the kinks worked out at this restaurant or it will not last. We talked to 4 other tables that were as disappointed as we were. We will give it one more try because it was newly opened. I see they have redone the menu already, hopefully for the better. We think everyone deserves a second chance but at the high prices and small serving sizes we will be expecting a whole lot more when we go back. I will give an...

So sad to post this because it's our favorite place and it's a must for us everytime we come. Everything is good so we wanted to try a ribeye steak cooked by a chef sounded amazing! The plate came out and we were truly amazed! HUGE, it looked delicious, we took videos, pictures, so excited. 1st bite was so bad all fat! So I literally had to spit it out, so I started touching it and it was all fat! I didn't want to say anything but my whole appetite was just gone. The rest of the food was amazing like always, but the steak was truly 90% fat.

I didn't want to complain or even say anything but the waitress came and asked how it was and I didn't really react but we were so excited when we got there she can tell so she asked was I sure. I told her the steak was all fat, I believe a steak should have fat makes it better but NO ALL FAT, I showed her and later the manager came apologized, offered a free dessert I very kindly denied because I didn't want to make a big deal. I ate MAYBE 1% of the potatoes which were perfect but my appetite from having to spit food out in front of people was just gone. We had no attitude, smiled and told them no problem! No biggie! It's okay, no need to keep apologize.

I sent back 99% of the plate, they charged me 50% of the meal, that's when I had an issue. I sent back the whole plate! I didn't take a picture because it wasn't a big deal things happen, I took a snap chat video and that's where I got a screen shot from. I didn't complain, didn't say anything, paid and left still thanking them because every one was kind. But to charge me for food I didn't eat. That was horrible. We will go back and just order what we usually get, lesson learned to try new things there. (The Picture is exactly how I sent the plate back) all that in the picture is fat, you can tell just from...