Dempsey's Seafood & Steak — Restaurant in Mississippi

If I was rating this place on food and the server we had I would rate it a five, but I am throwing in the pre-dinner service and reception upon arrival for a large group, which I found lacking.

The good is that our server did an excellent job. The food was very good, everything came out it a timely manner and was great.

The negative:

I phoned about a month in advance to explain that I was looking for a reservation for 25 to 40 people with questions about them being able to accommodate and the logistics. I was assured it was no problem. I phoned with a reservation for 25 two weeks prior to the date and said I would let them know if that changed. Four days before the reservation I phoned with an updated number of 30; I had to leave a message on voicemail. The day of, about four hours in advance, I phoned to make sure they knew that there would be 30 and that the voicemail had been received. I was told yes it had.

We arrived at the restaurant, I told the hostess our group and number of guests. She said the reservation was for 25. She acted a bit put out that it was a larger number. The reservation was for 6pm and of course there was part of the group that got there early, not more than 15 minutes. We didn't really expect to be seated early, but it was 6:20 before we did get seated, so we had senior citizens standing outside for 30 minutes. They had a set of tables for twenty that was ready when we arrived and the other tables they were waiting for diners to finish.

I mentioned to the hostess that I was surprised with our group size that they didn't sit us in a separate room. The response was, well you would have had to give us a deposit. This was the first that I had even heard that this was an option. Giving a deposit would not have been an issue. I'm not sure why when I made the original inquiry about booking that I wasn't given this option.

I felt like they should have seated the tables they had for twenty and let them order drinks while they waited for the other tables to be available. We had people with canes standing outside for 30 minutes while those tables sat empty. We had someone in the group request to go to the bar and get drinks while they waited and the hostess told them that if they did, they might have to get up if they needed the seating for a diner at the bar without a reservation.

I never saw the hostess smile once or make eye contact with a single person, not to anyone in our group, or several people that showed up and were seated while we waited. Maybe she was having a rough night, but as a business owner, I sure wouldn't want that the first interaction my guests got. Several in our party thought she was just to the point of being rude.

As I said in the beginning, the server and the food were very good, but it would behoove them to have all of their employees on the same page when it comes to what they have available to accommodate groups and to share that when people...

Wait Time: Party of two 1st time there this past Friday around 6:15 or so, people out of the wazoo. They told us the wait would be 25/30 minutes so we grabbed a menu and started to look it over. 1st impression was that it was a bit *pricey, more about that later. Bam! our table was ready, so maybe a 10-15 minute wait.

Appetizers: Started with crab cakes and a doz raw, both were excellent. Have to admit that the crab-cakes were, well different than the usual, but in a good way. Crispy on the outside but almost creamy inside. The oysters were great Louisiana Salty, chilled to perfection and shucked perfectly without any shell fragments and cut from the shell perfectly.

Entrees: Wife ordered small fried shrimp platter I had the large veal platter and again with clients packed in every corner of the building the food was out in a very timely manner. Oh yes, *pricey . . . when I saw the portion sizes and quality of the food that was not only on my table, but flying by me to other tables I forgot all about price. In fact the order of veal was so generous that I actually took enough home to make lunch the next day.

Side Note: This was especially appreciated as just a week ago I was in a local Italian restaurant (I won't name here) who was passing off rather “tough” round steak for veal. The veal at Dempsey's, well, is veal and the portions are very generous.

Waitstaff: Keep in mind I have been fortunate enough to have dined in restaurants on many places around the globe, and I have never witnessed a waitstaff work together like this one, in little old Kiln Ms.. Everyone helps each other from busing, to food service and dinner interaction. Heck that is why our table was ready so quickly, they know how to turn them over, and all without a hint of rushing/hurrying their dinners.

Our Waitress, Lisa: Was wonderful in every-way, if our eyes came up from our plates she would check on us. And all the while handling a 20 top table right next to us.

I also know this does not happen by accident, so kudos to management for training their waitstaff to make them successful.

Cleanliness: My wife was seated facing the kitchen and as soon as we sat she mentioned to me how clean the kitchen looked and I did not think much of it. That is until I overheard this gentlemen telling his wife the same thing as they walked past our table as he looked into the kitchen as well.

Summary: Good Lord willing while this was our 1st visit to Dempsey's it won't be our last, as all it took was one visit for the employees and management to make us feel like long time friends. From the front door host, to Lisa and the rest of the waitstaff to our goodbye chat with the owner we have fell in love...

I'm not sure what happened because I've read so many positive reviews about this place, but my experience here was terrible. Not only did we have to wait 30 plus minutes for a table after I called ahead hours before and asked if I could make a reservation and was told no, but I ordered a $50 steak that looked like it came out of the $17 bin at Walmart. Seriously I've cooked better steaks at home than the one that I had here. And then they had the option for steak toppers and I asked for sauteed mushrooms and onions and there was more mushroom and onion on my plate than there was steak it was a mountain of sauteed mushroom and onion. And the crazy part is is some of the onions weren't even actually cooked. The cheese sticks which I ordered on the recommendation of somebody else's review were a huge letdown, and the potato salad was definitely wanting. They were understaffed and it was very evident as we were there for 2 hours and probably saw our waitress a total of three times and it took them 5 to 10 minutes to take our drink order We had to flag the girl down to ask her if we could order an appetizer and then somebody else brought the appetizer out and it took our waitress another 30 minutes to come back and ask if we were ready to order. I hope everybody else is visit is better than mine but I won't be back here again My total bill for two people was over $100 for a steak and a shrimp salad two beers and two margaritas. For that kind of money I could have gone to an upscale restaurant and gotten the exact same food except it would have been delicious and the atmosphere would have been better at this place I felt like I was sitting in a loud children's cafeteria lunchroom. Oh and despite the size of the restaurant the bathroom is only big enough to fit one person at a time. As far as I'm concerned of this place is a dump, an overrated...