Middendorf's Slidell — Restaurant in Slidell

My sisters, mom, and I were traveling home from a weekend trip. We were in town for the memorial of a loved one lost. We figured we would stop at Middendorf’s for a wonderful meal before heading home. We had heard great things about this restaurant and were excited to get our minds off of what was going on. Boy oh boy, we should’ve just hit a fast food place and stayed on the road. Let me start out by saying the server, Bell, was the sweetest, most attentive server I’ve had in a while. She was perfect and in no way at fault for our unfortunate experience. The restaurant looked so good walking in. Decor was perfect. Greeting was fresh and friendly. We were truly feeling that we made the right decision in stopping. Sadly, we were wrong. I ordered the frog legs, fried. The one leg I tried was a little fishier than frog legs I’ve enjoyed in the past. I was so polite, never rude or pushy. I asked Bell if I could maybe try them broiled, the only other way they’re offer. She suggested that I get something else if I didn’t like them fried. I ordered something else. While ordering something else the manager walks up and starts lecturing me about sending them back. “There’s no way you don’t like them. They are the best in town.” I was taken aback by her response. She was quite aggressive and obviously upset by my decision to send them back. Instead of getting upset and arguing I just let her blow off some steam and that be that. “Just so you know, frog legs are generally fishy.” she says as she pats me on the shoulder a couple times then walks away. Her putting her hands on me like I’m a child really, really crossed a line. Still, I remained calm and simply decided to tell the server that I didn’t need to order that other plate of food. The manager came to our table for a 2nd time just to lecture me on how frog legs normally taste, again. I just smiled and nodded hoping she would get over it. Nope, she couldn’t let it go. A few minutes later she walked up to the server right behind us and started lecturing her, saying she needed to make sure she tells people ordering frog legs that they are generally a little fishy. She knew that she was saying it loudly enough to hear. Checks came. The manager made sure that the server charged me for my side of veggies that came with my frog legs. I kindly told the server that the veggies were untouched on the other side of the table with the other dishes we were done with. Everyone paid their bills, I was writing a note the the manager that stated, “Never under any circumstances should you put your hands on a guest. Even if it is a simple condescending pat on the shoulder.” I guess she was watching me from across the dining room. She was so happy to run to my table, “Oh! Is that for me?”, she joyfully says while reaching for the note. I tell her, “Yes ma’am it is.”. Before I can walk away this woman aggressively say, “Just let me tell you how it is..”. She reaches to grab my arm. I jerk away and sternly tell her not to touch me again. I walked out before she could tell me “how it is”.

Yes, the frog legs were a little ‘extra’ fishy. They were also coated in the thickest better I’ve ever seen on frog legs. They were completely flavorless.. maybe that’s why the fishyness was so strong. My family member’s food wasn’t any better. Oysters, stuffed crab, shrimp.. all flavorless. The catfish is advertised as thin catfish but it was so thin that most of the breading was hollow, no catfish. The french fries were not salted at all and definitely not fresh. When the gumbo was ordered we were warned that it contained tomatoes and okra to which our response was, “PERFECT!!”. No okra was found. It must’ve run away with all the flavor.. I hope they’re happy together. All of these flaws could’ve been overlooked had it not been for the repeated mistreatment of the manager, pretty sure she was the...

Middendorf's has long been one of the most famous and best seafood restaurants in the area, and the fact that it was in such an "out-of-the-way" place in Manchac, LA did nothing to deter folks from driving such a long distance to get what is arguably the best thin, or thick, fried catfish anywhere around.

So it was with great delight when I found out that Middendorf's was opening in the Slidell area, and even more ecstatic when I learned it would be close to my own neighborhood. For a Southern seafood lover like me, that was a dream come true!

Opening on July 4th of this year, I was one of the early arrivers with my wife and 11 year old grandson, and we sat down to an early dinner of thick and thin-fried catfish, and fried shrimp for my grandson. Dinners normally come with a side of fries and coleslaw, but in our case I substituted spicy new potatoes for the fries, and my wife chose potato salad over the slaw.

Let me preface what I'm about to say by stating up front I have been a Middendorf fan for more than 45 years. But that was before the Slidell location opened up. Maybe the Manchac location still has the same great food and reasonable prices that has always set my mouth a-watering, but Slidell - very regrettably - does not.

My thick fried fish was done perfectly, but the new potatoes, while tasty, were seriously dried out, and coleslaw that was swimming in dressing is not my idea of fun. Nor was the $13.95 price for the small dinner of 2 filets. My wife's thin-fried fish was so thin, it was mostly batter, and definitely not very tasty. I have seldom seen potato salad in the New Orleans-area that looked "runny", but this one did. And the lack of flavor matched its looks. Needless to say, my wife left most of her meal untouched. At $6.75 for the child's plate of shrimp, I wouldn't have been too upset, had there been a decent quantity of shrimp, or even decent sized, but again, someone at Middendorf's think their name alone deserves the higher prices.

I figured when Middendorf's opened, our favorite seafood place - Phil's Marina Grill, also located in the Eden Isles subdivision on the opposite side of the interstate - would suffer. If it has, you'd never know it by the crowds that continue to show up. To give you an example, Phil's has a 24 Shrimp Special (and these are generous sized shrimp) with fries for $12.95. Their boiled shrimp are about half of what Middendorf's charges, and are way more tasty.

And when did restaurants start thinking that charging almost $3.00 was iced tea or soft drinks was acceptable? No wonder more people are drinking "water with lemon" these days.

I have heard over and over since Middendorf's opened here in Slidell, that the food is just not as consistently good as people find in the Manchac location. And most of those same people are more than a bit surprised when they get their check and it is so much more expensive than Phil's Marina Grill, The Dock, Kenney's Seafood, or Peck's. All of which are consistently good, flavorful, and much more reasonably priced, while still giving you a hearty helping of food.

So, from a long time fan of the original Middendorf's, my humble advice to the owners and managers of the Slidell location is either add more quantity to your portions, or come down a bit on your prices; get more consistent on getting folks better tasting food, served properly (meaning not runny or dried out) on the plate, and get back to your roots. I do not want to see y'all settle for less than the best, and I'd like Slidell to be a great new home for y'all for a long...

Sigh…They got us. They really did. Now, to be fair, it IS a chain, so we weren’t expecting authentic Cajun seafood, HOWEVER, I did FAFO that you can’t spell Middendorf’s without “Midd”(with two D’s for a double dose of disappointment) because that’s exactly what it was. I should have aborted mission when they brought out the crab “gumbo” and it was basically a vegetable soup (no detectable roux) with large chunks of celery, onion and…tomato🤢in it. They put a teaspoon of rice in it, along with 1/2 a blue crab. I guess that was the “gumbo” part.🥴It was ten dollars. The bread was literally a cold, stale six inch poboy bun. Against my better judgement, we ordered the seafood platter, and I use the term platter VERY loosely as it consisted of a grand total of 4 shrimp, 3 oysters, a handful of fries, what I assume were supposed to be catfish filets, and one bland stuffed crab. Portion size aside, the “catfish filets” were literally just crust. Everything, and I cannot stress this enough, EVERYTHING was ultra bland! Peppery but no salt or seasoning at all on the stuffed crab. I called the waitress over and asked if those were really what they served as “catfish filets”. She said it’s their “thin fried catfish” which they are known for. Well they certainly are known for it by me because there was absolutely NO fish in the “filets”! Paper thin curls of batter is what they were. After I crumbled one of their filets to dust in front of the waitress she looked shocked and told us that normally to get a real actual catfish filet (which they don’t tell you about) it would be three dollars more. So you can get a plate of catfish dust for $25 bucks, OR you can get a real catfish filet for…more money? The waitress was nice and the service was good as she did bring us two actual filets out, (which literally had no seasoning. No salt, no pepper, just a bland piece of catfish cooked in an unseasoned batter) but the food was egregious! I can’t believe that place serves “seafood” to people and is still open! The only thing I can think of is that they cater to people from other states that have no idea what southern fried seafood or Cajun food is supposed to taste like and they think they’re getting the real deal? Either way, never again. Nopen-dorf’s will NEEEEEVER get me another time. Like Bush said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice and…well, you’re not gonna fool me again.”

Edit: It’s terrible food regardless of whether it is “Cajun” or not, which gumbo is arguably a dish specific to that region. 😒In addition, I’ve eaten “fried seafood” all my life being from this region, and actually COOK it as well and there is absolutely no good reason for fried seafood to be that bland. Salt? You think salt is causing issues with your oil? If it’s affecting your oil that bad, you’re doing something wrong and need to change your oil...