Mama's Oyster House — Restaurant in Natchitoches

We just moved to the Natchitoches parish area and we have tried many restaurants. We ate here tonight, and it was by far the worse food and customer service in the whole entire area. I ordered the loaded baked potato with bacon and butter, and ask for the Fried shrimp To come on the side. The waitress said it was not a problem. When the food came out, it was all on top of the potato, she said oh I can bring you a plate. She then brought a plate and a little bowl that had cold pieces of bacon in it to put on top of my Potato. After trying a bite of what was supposed to be shrimp (my thoughts were maybe it is popcorn shrimp or cut pieces of shrimp) I found out it was not shrimp at all. It was tougher than chicken, so I’m assuming it was gator. She said oh they probably got it mixed up. I can get you some shrimp, I refused because at this point I lost my appetite for multiple reasons. Especially not even knowing what I’m eating. The grilled oysters my husband ordered was suppose to be an appetizer and came 10 mins after the rest of the food. He was not impressed and they did not taste very good. It really was shocking to see that on our receipt I was charged 16.99 for a loaded potato that was obviously sent out to me wrong and I couldn’t even eat it after realizing I was eating something I did not order. I would have been happier had she just charged 9.99 for the potato and took the so called shrimp off. I ordered pineapple juice w/ Malibu and it looked like watered down lemonade and tasted horrible. I get this drink every where I go and this is the worse. Bartenders need some direction. We will not be back. We did check the reviews before coming and should have listened to them instead of going anyways. If you are thinking of eating...

This solidly falls into the tourist trap restaurant genre. I was there alone midweek in late summer at lunchtime - not too many other people (tourists) wandering around.

I had my pick of tables, but somehow got the one with crumbs still on it. Server was quick to get the drink order and menus out. Someone had recommended this place, so I wanted to give stuff a try. Ordered the oysters Rockefeller as an app and the catfish/oyster combo plate. Server returned, saying they were out of spinach, so asked for grilled oysters with butter and garlic.

They came out hot, but the main plate followed before I'd eaten my first oyster. Server blamed it on the "oyster oven" being finicky. (Former server here - it's on her for not alerting the kitchen). Grilled oysters were bland ... no garlic as requested, or not enough.

At this point I'm trying to get anyone's attention to get a tea refill.

Main plate was okay. Fried oysters were okay. I didn't like the catfish - too much flour mixed with the cornmeal. Fries were good, but seemed Sysco standard.

Atmosphere was fine. Nice mix of at the bar seating, high tops, and standard tables. Lots of TVs (tuned to NFL Network). Music on, but not too loud. If you're looking to get food in your belly, this place is...

Man I hate to write this... For YEARS we have enjoyed mamas oysters. Many times planning our visits to natchitoches exclusively around eating at mamas. But this is unfortunately coming to an end. Their prices have just become OUTRAGEOUS in general, but specifically considering what you're actually getting. For a simple lunch for 2 people, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 sweet teas and a 20% tip, our total came to a whopping $105 !!! For LUNCH! And we were far from ordering the most expensive items on the menu. The waitresses, who were probably college-aged girls, were extremely unpleasant, never once even smiling, just in bad moods, which wasn't a huge issue, but considering the enormous expense of simply having lunch there, you'd think at least you'd get service with a smile. The "fried pickles" were a single 50 cent cucumber, sliced into spears and deep fried which somehow merited a price of $11... the catfish was 90% breading with a paper thin piece of meat inside.... etc. Just not worth it anymore. And it's sad. I don't buy for a second that there is any "inflation" related cause for this, it's clear that someone has just decided to jack up the prices "just because". Very sad. We will be taking a break from mamas for the...