Pier 101 — Restaurant in Rockwall

The French fries were good and the water was the best I've ever tasted here in Rockwall. Unfortunately, that's about it.

I've been looking for local restaurants that serves good seafood and catfish since Cajun Catfish closed. I was hopeful, what with the plethora fast food and Mexican restaurants we have here in Rockwall, that this would be a winner. Sadly, it was not for me and my group.

The service was slooooow. Waited about 10 minutes after being seated before our drink order was taken. I ordered a margarita. It was the equivalent of watering down a store bought mix to the point of no taste, throwing in a splash of tequila (at least I think they put tequila in it) and garnishing with a sad little bit of lime.

Food came fairly quickly. The seafood gumbo looked good, but tasted dirty, as if the seafood wasn't cleaned properly. The house salad was impressive looking, and would have been if not for the croutons, which were soft, leaning towards soggy. It was as if the salad was pre-made and sat for hours in the refrigerator, croutons and all.

The catfish portions were not skimpy. However, the filets came without any lemon slices. I had to ask three times before I was brought a plate with three of the tiniest, thinnest sliced lemons that looked like they're already been squeezed. Enough for about half of a filet.

It didn't matter because all the lemon in the world couldn't make the fish taste better. Much like the gumbo, the filets also tasted dirty. Not fatty, but stringy and dirty. The breading, appeared to be traditional cornbread style, but had a strange, thick, chewy, texture. All at the table agreed it was as if the breading was stale or the filets fried in old grease.

I think the place has potential, which is why I gave it 2 stars. Good location and seemed to do a good business when we were there. Market prices are a bit high, easpecially since I can go to Tasty Tails and pay less for shrimp...

Folks: Nice people, nice waitress. Not overly friendly however. It was transactional only.

Atmosphere: Building was hot…uncomfortably hot. The door was broken and not shutting so perhaps give them some slack here. Yall gotta get it fixed. Floors were clean.

Drinks: CO2 not running on the coke machine…so nothing refreshing to wash the heat away! We don’t drink alcohol but they seemed to have large selections of spirits for those looking to drink.

Food: this is where it fell apart for us. Hush puppies: they were dry on the inside and overly spiced. Overcooked, as they came out dark dark brown. Experiment in the kitchen with adding small amounts of creamed corn/heavy cream to your recipe. You’ll be surprised what this can do.

Catfish: was a clean fish. Tasted relatively fresh. The batter would not stick to the fish at all..much of the filet would slide out. It was also overcooked. The batter wasn’t really seasoned. Too dark, not enough cornmeal for my tastes in the batter.

3: shrimp: overcooked…they were rubbery. Not good.

4: cole slaw: It was good. Needed more vinegar in my opinion to cut through fried foods. But I’m sure many would like it. Overly sweet for me.

Food was, in my opinion overall, just prepared carelessly. The oil appears to have been used a lot, it tasted like it has been thru many cycles of frying. Place has potential but it has to turn it around for people to continue to spend money to eat here. We are new to town, transplants from Waxahachie. Was hoping for better as we love a good seafood place. Might give it another go for some of their Cajun stuff but not sure.

I’d love to see...

This place is a joke, The Asian lady behind the bar asked how many we told her two she asked if the table IN FRONT OF THE BAR was okay, we said yes it is. So we sat there and waited for a waiter or waitress someone that works at this place to get us menus. We sat and waited as servers passed us in front of us behind us next to us to the next room in front of the bar and yet not one single server approached us and presented us with a menu. So we waited longer and waited and waited. Saw people next to us. Get refills and waited and waited with an empty table. The last straw was when a party of two came in behind us and the Asian lady behind the bar again pointed to a table and asked if it was okay but this time she told somebody to give them menus. At this point it was 15 minutes of waiting to be acknowledged at a table in front of the bar from the Asian lady behind the bar. That didn't do a damn thing. So we make the decision to leave and as we leave the Asian lady behind the bar said thank you for coming.

The question is why the hell are you telling people where to say it? If you're not going to give them a menu and you're behind the bar, you weren't busy. It was 6:40 on a Saturday evening and he had five open tables so come on. There's no excuse for that. This is ridiculous, I wouldn't recommend coming to this place because the lady behind the bar will probably tell you if that table was okay and not give you a menu and you're going to have to wait 15 minutes and walk out and then she says thank you for coming. My response is thank you for not letting me pay you any money for giving me...