The Jay Cafe — Restaurant in Lake Jackson

Visited on a Saturday night just before 8:00 for dinner. Only 2 other tables occupied in the restaurant. I went there for a decent Chicken Fried Steak and it was good, fresh and served very hot. That was the only positive.

It was a bit warm in the restaurant and the table we sat at was wobbly, there were some torn napkins shoved under the base but that was not helping. We tried for about 5 minutes to get it steady and no luck. We decided to just laugh it off we were determined to enjoy ourselves since we were out on a date night.

My husband ordered a 12 oz Ribeye and we both ordered salads as sides. After about 10 minutes we had to ask for our salads, server had an excuse that the salad guy wasn’t there so it would probably just come out all at once. She then asked the kitchen if the 2 salads sitting up there were hers. So she asked us if we both had salads. We were her only table. The salads were warm and just lettuce and tomato wedges. Not what I would think of as a dinner salad that would be 4.99 if bought as a side. It was sad.

Then the entrees came out and the Ribeye was served on a wonky hot plate that you can’t cut steak on. There was about 5 ounces of edible meat on it there was so much fat. Pitiful. The server never checked on us after the entree was delivered to even refill our drinks. We overheard her telling a table behind us about a daily special and no we didn’t know about that. She then stopped by and asked if we wanted pie and said she’d check us out at the register up front. My husband was still hungry but dissatisfied so he just went to the car while I checked out.

I decided to respectfully let the server know what all went wrong as I was paying out. All I got was I’m so sorry about that. The other server there smirked and made a face as she walked by I guess she thought it was funny. Working as a server and giving terrible inattentive service is not funny. I have never not tipped before but this one was deserved. So much for trying local, bad service and bad food. It’s pricey everywhere to dine out so wasting $45 was...

I’ll start by saying that the was pretty good and the pie was great. But I have to give a few honest critiques in the hope that this place will improve and especially because Lake Jackson is a town that is very hard on new restaurants. You will alienate people and lose customers easily here if you are not on point. I do understand that this place is new and they are probably still working out the kinks also.

Atmosphere and vibe: First off it was humid and uncomfortable inside. I also don’t really understand the set up here. If you have girls bringing out drinks and food, they might as well come and take peoples orders. The whole thing with seating yourself and then having to get back up and wait in a long line or order is not efficient and it’s inconvenient to patrons. Might need to rethink this concept. I also think there is a lot of wasted space in here and the super long padded bench thing is weird. Basically one half of your party gets to be comfortable in the booth-like seat and the other half has to sit in chairs. Would make more sense to have actual booths going along this wall. You could fit probably ten or more from what I could tell. At least several times I said to my party “there are multiple things here that Gordon Ramsay would flip out over”.

Wait time: Was with a party of five. They brought out my food first, and the rest of my table was waiting over ten minutes for the rest of the food, including my 3 year old who was not happy about waiting for his food while I had mine. When they brought his burger out it was stone cold had no fries and I had to go back up and tell them and then he had to wait even longer for fries. Need to make sure a tables food is coming out at the same time.

Aside from these issues, the food was great. The chicken fried steak is the best in the area and the chocolate pie is out of this world. I hope they stick around, I just hope they work some of these...

I want to start this review by saying that I am a firm believer of supporting local businesses. It's with a pained heart that I leave this review. For families who are like mine, who only go out 2-3 times a month to eat, you need to read this before coming here. Note: we came during the dinner shift.

This place is having a troubled start. Long line to order food. People were giving up and leaving. Should have been my sign to follow. At this place, you order food first and pay, then you find a place to sit.

Where do I begin....

The A/C wasn't working. Had at least 5 big screen TVs hanging on the walls, not turned on. There was no ice for the drinks. When they finally did get ice, they didn't bring my drinks to the table. I had to go get them. Didn't receive dinnerware until after the food came, it had to be requested. Asked for butter for all the dinner rolls, server brought us the smallest tab of butter. Not enough for one roll. I should've taken a picture. Had to get up and get our own refills for our drinks and get up again for "to go" boxes for our left overs. What's worse, we didn't get all the food we paid for. They didn't bring the dinner salads that were ordered.

I didn't complain about it at that point, what would be the point. Our meals were already there and we weren't going to sit and wait for salads.

This location is a far cry from the original in Needville that the area knows and loves. For the $100 I spent here tonight for my family, I expected more. And I feel ripped off for the $20 tip I left for them on my card at the counter when I paid for my food. Service didn't match the tip.

I don't know if it's a management issue, if the employees just don't care, or if the employees are just overworked. There was plenty of staff there but the place wasn't friendly.

Maybe they'll get the hang of it. Maybe they won't. Price vs service received, I don't know if...