Cap't Loui — Restaurant in Montclair

This was one of the most disappointing experiences I've had in months, made especially negative by the unethical business practices I saw with my own eyes.

My chum and I stopped here for lunch yesterday around 1PM on a very rainy/chilly day. The place was pretty empty save one or two tables, and didn't fill up too much while we were there - the weather definitely kept a lot of potential customers away. The interior is VERY cool; understandably there's a crab shack/sea shanty vibe to this place, and I liked that the market prices for the seafood boil options were prominently displayed in multiple locations to allow for informed decisions in that regard.

I ordered the 1-pound crawfish boil option ($16 or $17). For the portion, I thought the price was pretty reasonable - I've personally attended multiple crawfish boils in Louisiana, and I always forget that the crawfish are significantly smaller up here. I probably wouldn't get this option again, but I certainly don't think the restaurant did anything "wrong" with this - it's just a lot of effort for a minimal amount of tail meat. I DID think they skimped a bit on the boil ingredients. You were offered additional potatoes, corn, etc. for an extra few dollars, but the potato/corn that were part of the underlying boil consisted of literally one piece of potato and one tiny piece of corn on the cob. I can do without corn on the cob personally, but it would have been nice to see multiple pieces of potato, especially with a boil that by definition doesn't have a lot of meat involved. We did order the garlic noodles as an add-on to the boils (about $7), which was a good choice. It was recommended by the waitress and helped add a few calories to a meal that didn't have a lot, beyond the fact that it was tasty and paired well with the boil. I got the Cap't Loui sauce, which was good but most of the flavor predictably was at the bottom of the bag. In hindsight, I would have been more proactive about mixing the sauce in more on my end.

The negatives unfortunately significantly outweigh the positives. When we placed two Beignet orders, the waitress swiveled around the napkin dispenser, revealing a "deal" for us to take advantage of - in exchange for a Yelp and/or Google review on the spot, the restaurant would give us a free dessert. There's no way to categorize this other than out-and-out bribery and they should be ashamed of themselves, as should anyone who not only took advantage of this, but didn't disclose the free dessert within the context of their review. Absolutely shameful and disgusting, and 100% calls into question the higher average rating for this place. Of course they ended up in the Yelp Top 100 for 2022 - they literally bought off people to write reviews. And who on earth would write a negative review in those circumstances, knowing that a) the waitress needs to look at the review to verify the deal and b) the review hinges on free food? At the very least, Yelp should be removing them from whatever algorithm they're using to gauge the popularity of businesses. Beyond that, how self-defeating is this? If you're a credible restaurant trying to utilize constructive feedback, you're certainly not getting it here.

On principle, I wouldn't come back. And if you're seriously looking at their reviews to determine whether you should frequent Cap't Loui's, I wouldn't even bother wasting your time on the two- or three- sentence 5-star reviews - they were written by people with no integrity who thought it was more important to save $4 on a beignet than provide informative commentary for future patrons....

I had a disappointing experience with my Uber Eats order. Due to a default address error, my meal was sent to the wrong store. When I tried to cancel, it was already marked as picked up. Calling the restaurant, I encountered a disrespectful employee who dismissed my concerns and even hung up on me when I requested to speak to a manager. Despite speaking to the manager, Teddy, who promised a refund through Uber, the ordeal left me frustrated. The lack of accountability for falsely marking the order as picked up was concerning. While offered credit as compensation, it was not a practical solution given the distance. Overall, the experience was marred by poor customer service and a failure to rectify their mistake. How can I cancel an order that shows that it was picked up by someone ? How can I use a credit in a store I will never travel to due to distance ? I lost $78. I am overly frustrated and I will not stop until I get my money back . Someone needs to Coach KAY on how to be respectful and understanding and lead with empathy when a customer is Irate and Teddy when you call a customer back don’t tell the customer what the employee said Vs what the customer said . We just want a Solution not a recap of the issue and not justification of...

This place got such great reviews that my wife and I wanted to try it for our anniversary lunch(dinner wasn’t an option for us). Anyway, I’ll start with the positives: raw oysters were delicious and the clam chowder was pretty good. Luke warm, but the taste was a 4/5. The food came out well spaced between drinks, apps, and main course and we didn’t feel rushed. Cool vibe inside. Now for the cons: the boil. We ordered 1/2lb of clams, 1/2lb crawfish, and a lobster tail. All overcooked and what a disappointment! The clams were inedible and I tried every one and each one went in the tiny discard bucket. Lobster tail was heartbreakingly tough and chewy. Crawfish were surprising the best in terms of being cooked but still over-cooked nonetheless. They offered us a free dessert but we declined. Coleslaw was a 2/5. Our server was very apologetic and seemed like she genuinely felt bad for our experience. So she gets a 5/5. I’m not sure if I’d go here again, but I definitely would NOT go for lunch during a week day. For context there was only 2 parties in the restaurant including us. I wanted to like this place so bad b/c my wife and i share a love...