Hooked Boil House — Restaurant in Mesa

I didn't have a awful experience by any means but I would say that the quality, service, and atmosphere are not representative or proportionate of the price that you pay. I took a family of 5 adults here for dinner and our bill was ~$150 before tip.

The quality of the food is 6/10: alright but a little high on the salt. It could be fresher for the price. They were also out of several flavors of the soft drinks for their fountain machine. The chicken wings were surprisingly good, I think a very fair amount of chicken and good flavor for the price.

The portions are 1/10: you receive an incredibly small amount of food for most of the dishes relative to the price that you pay. We ordered a variety of seafood dishes, chicken wings, and a couple appetizers. The gumbo is INCREDIBLY small, we ordered the "Bowl" which is the larger size than the "Cup" for $12 and the bowl that we received was comically small, a serving for literally one person (we weren't the only table to raise the same question, the table next to us was aghast at how small the portions were when their "Bowl" of gumbo arrived). When we asked the waitress if this was the "Cup" or "Bowl" she grinned sheepishly and said "Yeah, that's the bowl size...." and then she kind of awkwardly walked away LOL. A single boudin (pronounced BOO-DAN) sausage link was $7! The shrimp fried rice is good in flavor but the portion is small. It was $13 for the fried rice but the portion is enough for maybe one person or two small children.

The service was 1/10; pretty bad to be honest. Our assigned waitress could not answer any of our questions and seemed distracted? We ordered two of the same dish and they only brought out one, we asked about it and they brought over the (manager or hostess?) who told us some weird story about how they had to make a new batch (even though other tables near us ordered the same noodles and received theirs?). They could have simply apologized for forgetting, I totally get it. We didn't give them grief about it but they said it would come out "very soon", but it arrived close to when everyone else was done eating 30 minutes later.

When it comes time to tip, they hold the portable card reader tablet in front of you making you feel rushed. I elected to leave 10% and when I finished signing, the waitress quickly turned the tablet around to see how much of a tip I left and she gave an exasperated sigh before storming off to the kitchen. Okay? Wow. We had to ask another waitress nearby for a to-go box for the noodles they brought out very late.

I would not recommend anyone go here. You will be disappointed with the portion sizes relative to the price and the customer service was...

TL;DR My wife has wanted to come here for ages - I'm from the Cajun side of Mississippi, and there aren't many good places here.

To begin: we are told 20-30 minutes wait (no problem). 35 minutes roll by and we are 8th in line per Yelp app, and the entire time, larger tables had been empty (that's right, everyone in line was 2-4 people and thus weren't seated). We made friends with a family and combined teams and got seated. Making great new friends was the high point of the night!

The service: everyone was nice and displeasure was never openly shown, but we rarely saw our server. That seemed to be a problem with every table, but they didn't seem to be understaffed.

The food: both a colossal failure and also a delightful experience. The shrimp starters were great, as was my crawfish bag. The sauce is delicious. The gumbo was perfect. Our okra and crawfish poboy were so under seasoned if it had been served in my hometown, you'd have had a riot. To top it all off, none of the food was brought out together. They completely forgot about the poboy, and we had all finished our meals before they brought it out, without the fries, and it tasted like... well you get it. We took her fries home because it took so long. The kitchen has a series difficulty in delivering consistent food at appropriate intervals.

Our server was nice but I don't think he understood how ridiculous this is in a restaurant context.

Would I come back? No. If I'm going to wait an hour for a restaurant that acts like it should be Michelin starred only to be wildly disappointed despite the hefty price tag, I'm going to pass and go to Joe's Crab Shack. I understand it's a new place so hopefully others don't have this experience, which is why I'm reviewing it, because I see the management reads them and seems to want to deliver a great experience.

Oh and we did make great new friends, so THAT did make it...

Three of us ate here, all first-timers, so we all ordered different dishes to get a feel for the place. First, a special shoutout to our server named Sang. She was helpful, enthusiastic, and genuinely cared about our dining experience. She's truly wonderful and made our first visit an amazing experience!

On to the food. Fried okra: batter was perfectly light and crisp and the okra was juicy and tender. I give this an A+.

Wings: Good texture and sauce. Welp, they're wings. Solidly executed and hard to mess up. I give this an A.

Shrimp Po' Boy: You get plenty of shrimp, which is great. Bread was light and just the right thickness. Only disappointment was the sauce, which needed more seafood flavor. I give this a B+.

We ordered a side of garlic fried rice. I love garlic, and this dish didn't disappoint. Tasty! A+

Shrimp Etouffee: This was the only disappointment of the night, because it did not look or taste authentic at all and could have been spicier. The sauce was pretty thin and bland. Overall, this seemed more like a Southwest interpretation of Etouffee rather than a real Cajun dish. Sadly I have to give this a C-.

Shrimp Gumbo: This dish was spot-on. Taste, texture, and ingredients were great and reminiscent of the gumbos I've had in New Orleans. This gets a solid A.

Lastly, the surprise breakout hit of the night was the fresh-squeezed orange juice. We liked it so much we ordered two! Hands-down the best and most flavorful orange juice I've had in a long time and offered at a good price, too. A+++

Overall, a great place with excellent service and food! We'll...