Butler's Fish and Steak — Restaurant in New Albany

Horrible first experience. I have been wanting to try Butler's Fish and Seafood for a couple months now. They offered a All You Can Eat (AYCE) Seafood Buffet and AYCE Snow Crab Legs. The AYCE Crab Legs are advertised for $49.99. I thought well with today's prices I will try it out. My wife and I made the one hour and forty five minute 112 miles drive to arrived at a packed parking lot. At first I thought this was a good thing. I put my name on the list and was told forty five min wait. Well and hour and thirty five minutes went by and I noticed people who signed in after me were being seated. I inquired about this and was told I was next so I didn't say anything else. Once we arrived to the table it took the waitress about 5 minutes to stop and get drink orders, I thought not bad for them being so busy. When we began giving our orders I was told I couldn't order the AYCE Crab Legs. That I could order up to 6 clusters. This would have cost nearly $62. I was told supplies were limited even thought the menu still advertised AYCE. There were no signs anywhere stating no AYCE was available. Well I wasn't happy but I settled for the Seafood Buffet. Most of the seafood is basic frozen seafood. The catfish was good, and overall not a bad buffet if you are hungry for $29.99 worth of Buffet food. It wasn't until I had my first plate of food that I noticed people that were seated after me were eating the AYCE Crab Legs. Not sure what the problem was. Our waitress just kept saying I can't sell you the AYCE Crab Legs. So we finished paid and left. I definitely will not make that trip again for a basic Seafood Buffet. The Crab Legs others were eating looked very good but I can't honestly say if they were or not. If you live in the area this may be a great option for you but do not make a special trip for Butler's. Edit So after committing several times on FB about what Happen Butler's finally responded to my comments. I thanked them for finally responding and made a suggestion and they blocked me from their Page on FACEBOOK before I could even post the response. This shows you they were wrong do not waste your time and money at this place on frozen seafood and box deserts. They even went up on the AYCE Crab Legs to $59.99 the next week. If you like basic food nothing special this place is for you but if you like fresh seafood then don't...

On arrival (a Saturday at 5:45 pm) we put our name (2 of us) on the seating list. Were told the wait was about 20-30 minutes. People arriving after us did the same as we did and were told the same. ★Ok with that..... fairness to all.

Watching the activity of the staff moving to serve customers is common while waiting. Then I heard my companion's tummy growl. I looked at my watch. Fifteen minutes had passed. Standing close enough to the sign in sheet I could see our name as # 2 on the list. ★Ok with that.

A group of people arrived and were seated quickly. They must have called ahead of time was my thought. Folks leaving made me think that we would be seated as soon as a table was ready.

But that did not happen 😕. A staff member said the buffet would not be replenished and they were closing it. That's why we were there to begin with. And it was only a bit passed 6:00 pm.

Noticed others being seated who arrived long after we did. Asked about this and were asked if our name was on the list. Told them 'yes' and pointed to our name on the list. It had been passed over. No reason stated. No apology. ★Not ok with that but within a minute we were seated. Ahh..... gonna have a glass of tea and place our order.

Forty five minutes has passed since our arrival. The buffet is closed. Salad bar is being replenished. The waitress said, while passing with drinks for a table close by, that she would be right back. ★Ok with that.

Ten minutes later she had not stopped at our table. Still serving others but not us. Hmm..... ★Really not ok with that at all.

Understanding, consideration, kindness and patience. Necessary for people to have. But ours had faded after more than an hour.

We chose to leave along with a few others who, while walking towards their cars, began discussing their experience and dissatisfaction.

After some time passes maybe we'll go there...

Hostess Seated us quickly(speaking to waitress on the way to our table, to be sure it was ok to seat us in her station). before waitress made her way to the table( we had already looked the menu over and knew exactly what we wanted). She took our drink and food order at the same time. My husband ordered the seafood buffet with 2 claws crablegs, i ordered med. steak ,salad and baked sweet potatoe. They was out of my drink preference(should have taken that as my que and left. We fixed our salad and his seafood platter, waited a few min still no drinks. She passed by and said oh your drinks.. sweet tea and what did you want. We said no, unsweet tea with lemon, and coke please. We began eating, he was half way finished with his meal before i even recieved mine. He was already unpleased with majority of his food(over cooked frog legs,oysters,whole catfish) when mine arrived i had a regular baked potatoe, steak looked charred on one end and maybe ok on the other. I didn't complain about the mix up with the potatoe, steak had alot of gristle, over seasoned, half was undercook half over cooked. She came to give us our ticket and ask how was my steak i told her not very good, gristley,over seasoned undercook one end overcook otherend that my dogs would be getting a treat. she said she would be sure to let them know. Went to pay cashier ask the same i told her, hmm is what she said, repeated my total again and said hope you have good night, i said you too.. $87...