Ernie's Seafood Restaurant — Restaurant in North Richland Hills

This is quite possibly the worst dinner I have ever eaten, and therefore will be the most lengthy review.

The Short Version: Everything was bad. It is objectively gross, bland, overpriced slop.

The only things that were redeemable, was the service (my waitress was absolutely stellar), and the hush puppies.

To start, this is not the place to get a meal if you have been around or eaten seafood most of your life, especially if you are not older. I looked around the restaurant and saw that at 33, I was the youngest person there... by far. Not a big deal, I was also eating dinner early so maybe it was a coincidence, rather than a red flag.

The food:

I ordered a crab cake as an app, and the stuffed salmon with side salad and steamed vegetables. A piece of key lime pie for dessert. A truly classic seafood dinner and finisher.

The first thing to come out was the crab cake, with two hush puppies as company. Those were great. The crab cake was this thin, over-fried, messy and mushy, and most importantly, IMITATION crab meat 'cake'. My waitress removed this from my bill.

The outside was extremely crispy, and the inside was molten mush. 2/10

After the crab cake, was the salad. This was the wettest salad I have ever eaten. It tasted like the greens were rinsed in a colander and then tossed onto a chilled plate. The raspberry vinaigrette dressing was thick, and had the consistency and look of cough syrup. 3/10

The main: The 'delicious' and 'hidden gem' that the other reviews claim...

This poor salmon lived its life just to be disrespected. I believe that the cut was around 6 oz, and it was quite thin for $23. This salmon wasn't so much 'stuffed' as it was cut at the back end to make a flap, which was lazily draped over this messy and sticky ball of what I can only refer to as 'stove top boxed' style stuffing. The sauce was gloopy and bland, and tasted like it came from a jar, and that the only two ingredients were thickening agent and 'cream color.' It tasted like Thanksgiving dinner. This is no complement, because all I could taste was meat, stuffing, and gravy. There wasn't a lick of seasoning on the fish, and the small flick of herbs in the sauce hadn't yet begun to process the idea of flavor. If that wasn't enough, it was wildly overcooked and so hot that I had to confirm with the waitress that it wasn't microwaved. 2/10

The steamed vegetables were actually horrid. I understand that the typical customer here might not have teeth, but these veggies were dead, any natural flavor found in the flesh of them was boiled out and sent to heaven. I have never went to cut a piece of vegetable with my fork and have it just buckle and squish under the pressure. The meat of the zucchini and squash was like literal baby food. I purposefully kept half a zucchini slice so I could show my waitress just how inconceivably mushy this vegetable was. Also, no seasoning. It's like this place is afraid of salt and pepper. 'There is no number low enough'/10

I asked, sadly, a defeated man, for a dessert menu. I asked the waitress if the Key Lime Pie was made in house, and she confirmed it was purchased in. My face lit up, something not made here! Thank goodness. Something might redeem this entire experience.

NOPE. It was old. Not unsafe, but certainly not fresh. Tasted like your typical pie you'd buy from Sam's Club and forget about in the fridge for a couple days. There was a skin on the top of the pie, the graham cracker crust was beginning to stale, and it stuck to the roof of my mouth and bitterly cold, all signs of 3 day old pie. 6/10

Everything, and I mean everything, that wasn't a hush puppy or my waitress, was just gross. It was all bad food. Do not eat here unless you are already accustomed to eating at a hospice cafeteria, or are already on your way to heaven, as the man with the pile of cracker wrappers and glass of water who seemed to not know where he was at that moment seemed to be.

I left a massive tip for my waitress, because someone's day...

Father’s Day Experience – Disappointing and Unwelcoming

Today, my children and I took my husband out to celebrate Father’s Day—an incredibly special occasion for our family, especially since my husband is a two-time open heart surgery survivor. We chose this restaurant through a Groupon special and came with open hearts, ready to celebrate. Unfortunately, our experience was deeply disappointing.

From the moment we walked in, the owner’s wife, who was seating guests, showed no signs of hospitality. She didn’t greet us, smile, or even offer a simple “Happy Father’s Day.” Instead, she seemed more focused on scanning the room than acknowledging us. Her cold demeanor set the tone for the rest of our visit.

Our server was also less than welcoming. He asked my husband—who has a muscle disease and uses accessible seating—to move his leg under the table, citing that “last week two FAT customers had their legs in the aisle.” Not only was that statement wildly inappropriate and offensive (body shaming is never okay), but it also lacked all empathy, especially toward a customer with a disability.

Several items from our order were forgotten, including hush puppies, a salad, and a baked potato. And when we tried to leave, the owner’s wife squeezed past without a simple “excuse me.” The atmosphere felt dismissive, rude, and frankly, biased. We were the only Black family in the restaurant, and while I won’t rush to say it was racially motivated, I will say we felt othered and unwelcome.

What’s even more surprising? We still spent over $80 plus our Groupon specials, and we tipped 20%—not out of obligation, but because that’s who we are. I’m a flight attendant, and I treat every passenger with dignity and kindness, no matter what seat they’re in. Everyone deserves respect.

To the owner—who was kind when we briefly interacted: you deserve a staff that reflects your hospitality. Unfortunately, today, your team failed to do that.

I’m also a social media influencer with over 125K followers on Instagram and 375K on TikTok. I’ve helped many small businesses grow with honest reviews. This isn’t about tearing someone down—it’s about accountability and the reminder that how you treat people matters. Food needed more seasoning! We took most of the food and left! I’ll be doing my social media reviews and definitely not recommend due to...

I would have given a 4 star review if it was not for the waiter (Michael). Short story is most of the food was good or ok. The price of the food was reasonable. Everyones friendly except for Michael.

Time for the long story. We always say please and thank you to the service staff. I think it was the manager who seated us. He took our drink orders and brought it to us. Then he took our order for dinner. Later a waitress brought us our appetizer and salads. The fried cheese and salad was ok. The potato crusted cod was good but my blacken Mahi Mahi was over cooked. The hostess refilled our drinks and brought us some ketchup. Once we where done our waiter, Michael, who was responsible for table came up much later to ask us if we wanted desert. We ask for the key lime cheesecake which was also good. He than came back a dropped the check on our table before the desert came out. We waited a long time before he came back to ask if we wanted the key lime cheesecake to go. We said no, it was for here please. Then we waited a long time before he came back. Michael than looked over to the corner table to pick up the key lime cheesecake and dropped it on our table. My wife later ask tried to stop him for a glass of water. On the second try he stopped and came back later to dropped the glass of water on our table. The only time he smiled was when he came back after taking charging my card credit. I still left a tip thinking of the other people who...