Voodoo Brothers Cajun Creole — Restaurant in Manassas

I sat with this for a few days before I decided to write this review of mine and my family's experience at Voodoo Brothers due to knowing the power of words. On Father's Day my family and I took my Father to Voodoo Brothers and expected a good time. The food was subpar, but my dad enjoyed himself and the service seemed to be pretty good so we all considered it a win. It was when we paid and left that the experience took a hard left. After we paid for our food and tipped, we talked for about 5 minutes and left. As we were walking up the street back to our respective vehicles our waiter Lewis C., came out of the building and let my sister know that she had left her additional food she had ordered and that he needed her to come back to the restaurant. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but when he came outside to get her he had her food in carryout containers in and her receipt as well. My sister followed him back into the restaurant where he proceeded to ask if my sister, "Are you really going to leave a tip under 10%?". Mind you, we are a black family, and the stigma for black people is we do not tip. Ironically, our waiter, Lewis C. is an African American male and I am pretty sure he is aware of this stigma as well. For this reason, as well as rewarding a waiter/waitress for good service, our family actually does tip well. We had split the bill up and my wife and I tipped him $35 for our half of the bill (which was over 15%) and my sister tipped him $10 for a bill for 5 people. When she came out and walked up the sidewalk toward me I could see she was visibly shaking. I asked her what happened and she told me what I explained above. I asked her if this was overheard by any of the other patrons and she said she doesn't know but that he took her back to the table we sat at, which is dead center in the middle of the restaurant, and said this to her. I have worked in the service industry for about 3-4 years and my wife has worked at least double that in the industry (Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory, etc.) and we know to never do that to someone about what they left for a tip. In this case, my sister ended up adding an additional $5 to the tip and left. So you embarrass someone, whose culture you are a part of, and understand the negative stigma there is about us and not tipping at all, and you harass her for $3.66?! I waited until I got home and called the establishment to speak to the owner. The gentleman I spoke to was the owner Luke and I told him about what happened and he apologized for the actions of Lewis C and told me they educate their staff to never do that and he will be addressed about the issue and reprimanded. I expressed to Luke how unprofessional and distasteful this action was but also how as black people that stigma of not tipping is already heavy on us and I couldn't understand why he would do this. I also expressed that he took her back to the restaurant to do this instead of addressing it outside, as if he wanted to show off/make a scene. We were not rude to him, we were friendly and so was he until he thought he wasn't getting the tip he felt he deserved. Tips arent owed to any waiter/waitress but are earned by the ability they possess to take care of the customer. The interaction made my family feel as if his service was nothing but an act, and that Lewis C has no goodwill to his customers if they don't pay him what he wants. I suggest that anyone who visits takes the time to read this and takes heed to it. IF you decide to go to this restaurant, protect the people you go with. Do NOT let them get bullied into tipping more because your waiter/waitress feels as if they are ENTITLED TO YOUR MONEY! We all choose what occupational paths we want to take, and customers do not pay your salary/income, your employer does. If you are not content with the pay you are receiving, ask for more and prove you are worth more, find another location or do like what my wife, my sister, and I did and choose another career and do...

TLDR: great service, great drinks, not coming back for the food though.

Came in on the 13th for Valentine’s Day. customer service was great! Vanessa is a great server. We started with the alligator bites which were delicious! My partner had two drinks and he said he loved them!

I ended up ordering the buttercup gnocchi, and it looked beautiful but was bland with the chicken over cooked. I put it to the side and Vanessa was extremely invested in making sure I had a great experience so I ordered the small plate Gumbo. Sadly… flavors in the gumbo were boiled out and the consistency of the sausage made me wonder how old the gumbo was.

My partner ordered the jambalaya which was gorgeous, and had some Cajun and cayenne to hit but it also was missing depth to the flavors.

I didn’t have any drinks, but my partner ordered two and swears he’d come again for the drinks and I’d come back for the alligator bites.

In the end we had beignets, my partner enjoyed, to me it just tasted like a few day old Hawaiian rolls deep fried.

When the check came, I was extremely thankful they took the buttercup gnocchi off as the price of the food there (butter gnocchi was $24) made me hesitant to want to order another entree and at the time of ordering we weren’t aware they were going to take it off. Thank you lots

I hate leaving reviews in general, but it’s been on my mind for days and I felt passionate about letting the owners know about...

Ordered the fried oyster sliders, corn bread, fried okra, shrimp po boy, the white fish salad and a catfish dish over rice, a signature drink and gin and pineapple. The ambiance was decent, drinks were crafted well. The waiter/ bartender did a very good job of pumping up the food and I expected a flavorful Cajun treat. It took quite a bit for the food to come out, almost 45 mins. However the food was the worst that I’ve ever had at a restaurant. The shrimp were poorly cleaned, the catfish very very fishy and none of the dishes had any flavor, I mean any. Nothing was home made. Each time that I bit, I bit further and further into disappointment. The plates stank as they sat at our table. The waiter seemed shocked that I didn’t want boxes to take home leftovers. He did ask me what my opinion was about the food and I was honest that it had no flavor and the seafood did not seem fresh. He said that he gave us a 50% discount but the bill was still over $85. I was so disappointed to spend this amount of money on tasteless absolutely nowhere near Cancun food. Not sure how it’s possible for this place to have 4.6 stars. I based the decision to visit solely on that. Super disappointed and thinking that the reviews were...