Louisiana Charlie's San Diego — Restaurant in San Diego

Drinks 🍹 are on point and let me tell you the Po’boys are definitely for the big boys lol. They are so massive and filled which we loved. I ordered the bbq brisket sandwhich and let me tell you that, that alone is filling, no skimping on the meat here no sir! I told my husband it was so delicious that “when” not if ,but when we come back it’s gonna be hard for me to order something different 😂. My husband got the catfish po boy and that catfish was cooked and seasoned perfectly (not dried out at all and nice and flaky.) we order two sides to share Mac and cheese which was seasoned good & creamy , and a side of potato salad (it was okay, just not my style. It was more sweet than savory.) weekends of course are gonna be busy (so seating can be a bit tight or held up ,but it’s seaport village after all & the establishment utilizes seating the best way it can given the room it has.) However you can order to go and with the beautiful view of the bay / water you can literally sit on the wall & enjoy your meal! We definitely ordered a lightbulb slushy and I believe you can pick your flavors , they do have some ready to order on their menu. Highly recommend getting one of the slushy drinks you can order it in a regular cup or a lightbulb which I believe it’s $3 charge (let me just say it’s summertime so the nice slushy ice drink was perfect 👍🏾.) Don’t worry the alcohol hits right and enough so you’re not gonna be drunk walking around lol. If you’ve never been to seaport village just google it and see how it looks ,but it’s pretty much a beautiful place to visit and hang out, grab a bite to eat, shop around and some weekends they have live entertainment. It’s a shared plaza with multiple establishments in one area , right by the sea! Perfect for pictures. You do have to have pay for parking 🅿️, I believe it’s $5 for under two hours but if you purchase from any of the merchants there they can validate your parking ticket and you pay less for your parking fee. Back to the restaurant though, I really liked it and will definitely be back. Truly a yummy...

If you're looking for good BBQ food, avoid this place. I ordered a $19 Brisket sandwich, which took 31 minutes to come out. The place was packed, so, somewhat understandable. But it did not taste like good smoked BBQ food. It was regularly cooked meat with BBQ sauce slathered on to "fool" you. The Mac and cheese came out first, but the guy had a hard time finding us I guess. We moved closer right before he came out. He saw our number, and went back in for some reason. Then we had to wait another 5 minutes for it to come out. The mac and cheese was too peppery in my opinion. My wife ordered gumbo fries, but in my not so expert opinion, it looked like regular gumbo, like a soup, not like the photos I saw on here. We also ordered 3 hot beignets, but they forgot to bring those out. Getting them to bring those out was no easy task and probably took another 10 minutes. I talked to 2 people, because the first person didn't seem like she was going to do anything. The second person wanted my table number stand. I mistakenly thought it was 74, but it was 75. Then I found my receipt, and he verified the order. He would not take my word for it and give me the beignets until he saw I really ordered them. I tipped when I paid for my meal, but really wish I hadn't since the service was subpar.

The beignets were actually pretty good, but not as good as the ones at Disneyland.

The only reasonably priced item at this place was the bottled Coke at $3.50.

I'm sure most of their customers are tourists. I would recommend Malibu Farms over this place. Good view also, and GREAT service. Food was also great too. If you are local, you should consider Grand Ole BBQ in Flynn Springs (opposite direction, East of El Cajon,) but TRUST me, well worth the drive. Rather than serve you "fake" smoked meat, they just run out and stop serving it. There is also Grand Ole BBQ in North Park, but we haven't tried that yet.

For just a little bit more (but NO views) you can go to Fogo De Chao and get top notch service AND meat.

We will...

I'm giving this place 4 stars because the food is the only good thing about it.

My guess is that this place has very confused management and a very strong chef. We had a crab boil and it was phenomenal. Whoever is in charge of the menu does a fantastic job.

To order here, you must be let in through a velvet rope, which seems very fancy, but you are led to a counter and told you will get no table service. You cannot even order food at the table. So you have to order up front and then sit down and wait for your food to arrive. You can order drinks and sides from the table on your phone (wait staff refuses to take orders), but you cannot order everything at the table. Dishes must be ordered at the front desk. It was very confusing and was incredibly inefficient.

They don't have a bathroom and point you instead to the public one down the street. Also, they have a sign that says guests shouldn't stay for more than 75 minutes. It was very disappointing considering how much the food costs. I've gotten far better service at places 5x less expensive.

Talk about expensive: I understand the food cost and will not debate how much snow crab and shrimp cost. What I can debate is the price they charge for drinks. I'm not talking alcohol (they only carry bottled beer). They charge $3.75 for a soda. When my wife ordered a Pepsi, it arrived in a can with a glass of ice. It was a regular can, the kind you can get for $1 out of a vending machine, and I'm sure that they buy them wholesale for far less.

All in all, if I were to come here again (which I might!), I would stick to ordering water since nothing else is remotely worth what they charge for them, and I would recommend the seafood, Cajun fries, and brisket. Our family ordered brisket and had nothing left to take home. I'll let that...