Southside Cafe — Restaurant in Slidell

Starting with the food:

French Onion dip soup - they brought this in the cutest ceramic bowl. This soup was cooked perfectly, with the bubbly cheese melting down the sides of this cute little bowl. Cherry on top was that it was one of the best French onion soups either of us have ever had! It actually has onions in it!

Combo seafood platter - fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried catfish, and sweet potato fries. (The onion soup was my husbands 2nd side) All seafood plump, seasoned, and fried to perfection. My husband says it's the best seafood basket he's ever had. Now, this is saying something because we are from Biloxi, and we know how this is supposed to taste! The sweet potato fries were perfect. We noticed that the platter was layered with toast on the bottom, fries next, then the seafood. Do you know what that means? It means you can eat your seafood and your fries aren't cold when you get to them! And that toast is also a great insulator. Very nice!

Brisket hamburger steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, and steamed veggies - I'm going up start with the veggies. Y'all, this is the first time I have ordered veggies from a restaurant and did NOT have to add salt! It shocked me! The veggies tasted like the ones I make at home! The meat was cooked perfectly to my request of medium and just melts in your mouth. This is the beefest beef I've ever tasted. That's the way it's supposed to taste! The gravy was thick and not over salted.

Country fried steak with French fries and Mac & cheese - The country fried steak was cooked and seasoned beautifully. My son said it was the best white gravy he's ever had. The fries were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They were not full of grease. Y'all he said they tasted better than checkers fries. IYKYK. When he took a bite out of his macaroni, it reminded me of the way grandma used to make it. Yet again, the presentation was on point! The cheese was melting down the sides of his bowl. When he lifted up his fork, the cheese actually strung out. Maybe this isn't a big deal to most, but it's a big deal to me. That was real cheese right there.

On to the service and particulars:

The portions were huge and the price was very low for the quality of the food and service we received. We noticed the fine attention to details that this restaurant provides and their prices don't match those said finer attentions to details. Yea Southside, I seen the bright sprinkles of parsley on our dishes! Some of us notice that small detail and appreciate the extra effort. Especially with how busy y'all are. Almost every table was full the entire time we were there! We did not feel ignored. Not once. The service we received was 5-star. Even though we live in Biloxi, we will be back.

I want to touch base on some of the negative reviews on here that I read. Yes, they are busy. A good place to eat should be. Yes, it is loud, a good place to eat should be. None of our food was cold. We did not wait over an hour for our food. If we would have had to, it would have been worth it to us. We've waited longer at other places that don't hold a candle to this place. Oh, and I did not witness any one-legged bullies. Not saying one doesn't exist, or what that person said didn't happen, but everyone there seemed to be really nice and genuinely wanted you to have a pleasant experience.

P.S. as a business owner, the fact that an acknowledgement happens on every review given here means they actually do care. I did not see one response that got ugly. All I see is taking ownership when mistakes happen (they happen to everyone) and a sincere and thought out response to every review. That's AMAZING! Thank you! I'm so glad we...

I made an online order August 30, 2024 as was requested by the restaurant. I had originally tried calling in the order, but was told by staff they were too busy to take my order by phone and it needed to be done online so that it could be accurately completed.

Online order completed and the response from the restaurant was please give them 30 minutes to complete. I arrived at the restaurant 25 minutes after submission with my payment already placed.

Inside, the place was empty except for a couple of tables and a few people scattered around the bar. The tables were clean with only one table waiting to be bussed. This did not look like an extremely busy place, rather slow as the google "busy" schedule showed before the order was ever placed. This was Labor Day weekend and it appeared many usual patrons had made other plans as is customary for the not usual get away places and home cookouts with families.

The order was not completed until 50 minutes after it was placed. No "I'm sorry but we have been really busy can I get you a soft drink or something while you wait?" but I was left waiting for an order that was quickly bagged and handed to me. When I tried to confirm that everything for the order was in the bag. I was literally pushed out of the door.

I got home, my daughter's meal was not present. I called the restaurant about the missing order and told me they would "drop" the order right now and it should be ready in 10 minutes. I got back in the car, drove the 5 minutes back to the restaurant expecting the order to be ready soon after I got there. But NO, I had to wait another 10 minutes before the person who had packed the order incorrectly to determine if the order had not been packed (she never marked it off on the receipt she was in such a hurry to get the order out) before she told the cook what was needed. I had to wait another 15 minutes without the staff saying how sorry they were about the miss, here is an appetizer on us for the mistake before I got the missing meal.

My wife and I had gotten up at 0500 Detroit time to fly down to see our new granddaughter, daughter and son-in-law. The order was placed at 2000 CST on a barely busy night for mediocre food that was highly recommended to us. Once I finally got the meal back to my daughter, my meal was cold and I was so upset I threw mine away.

Is this how this operation is usually run? I don't care if it is a holiday weekend and everyone in the building wants to get out of the place to go party with friends, but you have chosen this job and you need to perform it with care. Now don't think I don't know what it is to work a service job, I spent 34 years working as a nurse on weekends, holidays and midnights without a service tip or a special meal. This is the type of service I expect from Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King and others, but not for a long established eatery.

It's a good thing you have your regular crowd who think this is acceptable service that is equal to Taco Bell. I will not be back and my local family is rethinking this establishment and notifying their friends to look else where for their dining experience. We have eaten at other Slidell restaurants and have never experienced such disregard for a patron.

May...

Maybe we came on an off night but we're from Houston working on a project and seen the killer reviews on trip advisor. I had the seafood plate and bean and turkey soup and my wife had the stuffed shrimp and side salad with ranch, homemade croutons. Her side salad was the best thing we ate, second was her stuffed shrimp. She gave her meal 3⭐. Mine 2⭐. My shrimp tasted like they were frozen and deep fried. Not fresh at all. We have a place in Houston that has the best shrimp around called "the boat" and it's fresh shrimp. You can tell the difference. I was disappointed cause it wasn't cheap. Mine was 17.99 and you get to sides. High even for hand breaded shrimp and fish. I got gumbo and turkey bean soup for my sides.The turkey bean soup was good not killer. It was hot. Nice on a cold evening. The gumbo was not good. It wasn't even hot and was watered down tasting.. I didn't eat all of it. The big hit was my wife's simple side salad. It tasted fresh and ranch dressing tasted homemade! and the croutons were the bomb. They were the real deal and tasted definitely homemade. If I came back to this place I'd order a big salad, no gumbo and no shrimp. Sorry guys go back to hand breading shrimp school with fresh local shrimp. Maybe even advertise it as such! I do have to say they were packed. We had to sit at the bar to eat. It was a Sat night. Just don't order the seafood platter if you know what good cooking tastes like. To be fair, I'm sure they have some other things that are homemade on the menu that are great and this was my first time here, but I can go to Denny's to get frozen shrimp deep fried. But, why when you're so close to shrimp capital of the world don't you make it home...