Pujo St Cafe — Restaurant in Lake Charles

04/05/2024 Breakfast. My wife and I shared our breakfast today. We had the small order (4) of Beignets, I had a breakfast sandwich, and we shared an order of the Pain Perdu & Chicken.

Before talking about the food, I would like to say that I really enjoy restaurants that display artwork for the customers to enjoy (and buy). I've never purchased any, I'm just saying that many times, the artwork enhances the meal. I enjoyed viewing the artwork here at the Pujo St. Cafe.

The beignets this morning were beautifully made. But when I think of beignets, I think of ones that are light, somewhat crispy, and delicate, almost like the soft, inviting nature of a well-made croissant. These were a bit spongier and more dense and were more like an enjoyable dinner roll. It wasn't what I was expecting.

The breakfast sandwich was enjoyable (just ok). Not much else to say.

The magic in this meal today was in the Pain Perdue Chicken. The breading was delicious and crunchy. The chicken was thin, moist, and the dish left me wanting more!

The french toast was so well made - it reminded me of what I had when my mother made it for breakfast as a kid. There is something to be said for french toast that is made by actually soaking the bread in the egg batter. Many times, one is served it where the egg has been "applied" to the bread and not given a chance to soak in. Here the two slices were moist, flavorful, and excellently made. They use the word "dredged" in the menu, and that captures the point I was trying to make.

One final note. See what looks like a chocolate syrup in the pictures of the french toast? It's actually a blueberry and ghost pepper reduction that was the highlight of an already outstanding entrée. I wanted to buy some to take home and forgot to ask about it before we left. The blueberry flavor paired with a hint of ghost pepper made for a delicious (not hot) taste that offered a shadow of the ghost pepper flavor but without the eye watering heat. This entrée was uniquely satisfying and the first time I've ever had that blueberry ghost pepper reduction. Amazing!

Our server, Sheila, was wonderful. She was a delight for us to talk with, and we felt more like we were in her home than at a restaurant.

Excellent: Uniquely satisfying. A special place. Very Good: Better than expected. Average: An everyday experience. Just OK. Fair: Below par. Dirty smells....

Worst restaurant experience of my life! The cook burned my steak on purpose!

Let me start with this. I am allergic to meat protein, in short I can eat meat it just must be cooked well done. I will be very sick if I eat anything not cooked well enough.

That said, I was part of a large party (30 people with a limited menu if 4 entrie choices). I ordered the filet, well done. Even told them it was okay to butterfly it. It came out cooked closer to "medium" so I had no choice but to send it back. When it came back out, it was so burned it was SOLID BLACK on the outside. Curious, I cut it open. Can you believe it was still pink inside! The cook must have littleraly put it on top of the fire and let it burn!

It gets much worse! Half of the steaks that came out were wrong. And 3 of our guests never even got their meal! Oh, and they even burned grilled vegetables and chicken!

In an attempt to appease us, they didn't charge us for 5 entries, but did charge us for all of the appetizers, cups of soup, salads and deserts. Here is where they added insult to injury. The wait staff was AMAZING (minus the GM on duty that was useless)! They sent the waitress in to tell us they were taking off the 20% standard gratuity. It is not the wait staffs fault that the cook (yes, cook! No REAL chef would act like this) was acting like a pissed off 2 year old, nor should the wait staff have to pay for his childish behavior!

Here is what we did in a effort to make sure dinner went a smoothly as possible: Made reservations at least 1 week out. Gave a final head count at least 24hrs out. Finalized the limited menu at least 24hrs out. Arrived early 4 hours the day of. To introduce ourselves and confirm the room preparation. All 30 were on the same ticket.

Oh did I mention the person that paid the bill NEVER did get her entire!

30 people will NEVER...

I'm a semi regular to this restaurant/cafe eating her once every few weeks with my co-worker(s) for lunch. Tuesday was hands down the worst service i had anywhere. When we walked in the waitress simply looked at us grabbed menus and uttered "follow me". We weren't to happy to have her as our waitress because she has always been slow but oh well. She took out drink order, and the guy following her got them and things went on as usual. After a lengthy time she finally come to us and rudely ask "what do y'all want?". She takes out order and we wait...and wait...and wait. During this wait, as we watch her treat her other customer's as rudely and carefree as she treated us, we start, hearing the kitchen call "Shannon....shannon" for about 10 minutes before she slinked into the kitchen and returned with out food. No surprise we all found our food cold. We flagged her down and asked to speak with her manager and she replied hastily "I am the manager", we then asked to speak to the owner to which she didn't waste a second to say "he's not here" like she was trained to say it and walkes off. We decided to eat out our food and leave. Food was good like always which is why we come here but the service said a lot about the restaurant. What kind of owner allows such a horrible server work for them. It was service i expected for waffle house. And there apparently is no use to try to talk to a higher up because they either will prevent you from talking with them or he doesn't want to talk to customer's. And if the guy that was following her around was being trained by her, it doesn't spell well for this restaurant. If this is the kind of standard we can expect from the servers/management/owners I don't I'll be eating here...