John E's Restaurant — Restaurant in Texas

We wanted crawfish, and having a family member that does not each Crawfish this was our local choice.

Originally we were headed to the Crawfish Shack, but lines were super long. Two little ones would not enjoy the wait.

We get to John E's based on menu that was loaded on 1/20/20. It had great options, and seemed fair on price. One review even had the crawfish was better than the Crawfish Shack.

Upon entering atmosphere was nice, no worrying about the weather and seating. We were sat in Katelynn's section. We were in the far corner, where the floor was visibly filthy from previous guests. Fries and food were very present.

After glancing over the menu, we noticed what was posted just a few weeks prior was not correct. I was dumbfounded that a simple kids meal was priced at $8.00. Especially when I dine out several times a week, I think the last time I've seen prices remotely close were at Roadhouse for a kids steak, not corn dogs, or chicken nuggets. My sister wanted pistolettes, but opted out since they were $3.00 a piece in three piece set not as priced at $1.99 with individual option for purchase.

When Katelynn began to take our order, I told her their kids menu prices were ridiculous. Mind you, I have a three year old, and picky six year old. If they don't like one aspect of the food from the breading, bread, cheese, or taste it will be wasted. She didn't even seem to think it was a big deal, and never even sent a manager to hear my thoughts on it.

I opted to buy the kids the slider meal for $9.00 to share that had three sliders, as in the photo, with fries. My brother in law did the same because he was in shock at the nearly $15.00 per burger options. They were tasty, but overall just a burger. The fries were not overcooked, but just your basic fries.

Onto the crawfish, first I can not stand dusted crawfish to make it "spicy." The spice comes from the water & allowing it to soak. Katelynn, asked my sister and myself how we wanted ours cooked. She opted for medium, me spicy. They both lacked genuine flavor unless you call licking the dust off your fingers. I will say it arrived warm, was cooked perfectly, and no dead ones were in my batch. The mushrooms I opted for were not cooked in the sane water, probably just boiled with their potatoes separately as well. They had no spice, no flavor at all. They did give a generous amount for the price though. Overall the crawfish is not better than the Crawfish Shack. It is okay, but next time we will skip this one. MudBugs, which was my preferred choice as well was still renovating.

Onto overall service, as stated Katelynn was our server. I guess after I told her that I thought $8.00 was ridiculous for a kids meal, she thought lousy service was acceptable. We waited for almost 10 minutes after being seated (8 to be exact,) before we were greeted to take a drink order. This was after I already said how dirty the floor was. We waited another near 10 minutes for drinks to arrive. The place had 7 tables, us being one. We had two waters, two kids drinks, and a tea. No alcohol, and there were plenty of staff around waiting for the dinner rush. I have no clue why the long delay. We placed our order, at which time I asked for a second plate to share the meal. When the food arrived, it all looked great, even if they opted to toast the buns. My son, the picky kid, ate it. Katelynn was quick to have someone bring us the second plate. After she placed the food, she vanished. My glass sat empty 14 minutes. 14 minutes of not one single member of staff, or Katelynn checking on us after they placed the meal. When she did come back, I asked for a refill. She asked sweet tea, and I corrected her saying unsweet. She dropped sweet tea, and vanished again. I just made due eating my ice from the unsweet tea. She never came back, and my sister even went to find someone so we could pay our check which after 15 minutes of being visibly done eating, we still had not been checked on or given the option for our check.

10% tip was given, and I never tip...

We came here Sunday around 2:30. Family of 6. Nobody was in front or behind us for the first 5minutes. There were plenty of tables to push together. Hostess has poor/lack of communication skills. She left and went around the corner and then came back and had her head down the whole time “acting” as if she was busy. She then went and pushed 2 tables together. Then she came back and still acted like she was “busy”. Only until I turned my back on her and told my husband and kids that we should go eat at Charming, that she did Finally have a table for us. It wasn’t busy. A group of 4 came in right as we are walking to get seated. They get seated automatically and their waitress already took their drinks orders while we are still waiting to meet our waitress. It seems like they are all in back talking because they all at once came out from somewhere, like 4-6 servers and they were only carrying drinks. Our server finally came over and took our drink orders. I was getting ticked off by how slow the servers were with how NOT BUSY it was at this time. We walked out without ordering. I came here years ago and service was great. I don’t live in the area anymore. I wish I would’ve looked at the reviews like I usually do. We ate in the next town over and within 10mins of being at this restaurant (which had as many patrons in it as John Es) we were seated, had drinks, salsa and queso. Do better John E’s! I would be ashamed. Obviously something needs to be fixed. Maybe some better training with the...

It feels like the owner and Management have checked out. Even the generic responses that are given on all the recent negative reviews shows a lack of effort. Not to mention the inconsistent times they open for business.

My wife and I met a few other couples that we hangout with for dinner and drinks June 14, 2025

The first drink order came out wrong, not a good sign!

Then we did not see our waitress for some time. Finally we get our food order in... after so much time had passed and we didn't see any of the staff a friend actually had to go in the back to find someone to refill drinks and ask them about our food.

Once the food was served we noticed that the majority of the food was cold.

We waited again to see our waitress and eventually had to speak to a bar tender who could've cared less about the food being cold or our issues with our waitress.

The next time we saw our waitress she brought the 4 couples each of their tickets that were $150+ and she had added gratuity to each ticket, I have no problem with added gratuity for a large table but she had to know that she didn't deserve a gratuity with the kind of service she provided.

John E's has all the potential to be the go to establishment in a small town like Crosby but it's owner management and staff are failing the town of Crosby to say the least and I hope the owner starts over and makes it all right before...