Sam's Seafood and Steak — Restaurant in Texas

I started with the fried pickles. Large portion of lightly breaded and fresh from the fryer dill pickle chips ($3.99). They were not oily and were quite tasty.

I then ordered the bowl of seafood gumbo with 2 pieces of fried catfish off their lunch menu for $8.49. It had a thinner style roux with okra, but I thought it was tasty. My daughter tried it and she thought it was too thin and not spicy enough, but I still enjoyed it. The gumbo had blue crab (also a couple pieces of shell in the last bites so be careful) and a suitable portion of shrimp. The most surprising part of the meal was the two pieces of catfish! Instead of receiving a couple of catfish nuggets, I got two half fillets of catfish (which was actually a meal itself). It was fresh fried with a crisp cornmeal coating outside but moist on the inside. I know what you are thinking . . . the moist description is not always good in describing catfish. . . but no, it was not moist due to the skin and flesh being undercooked and fishy. The moistness was from the properly cooked fillet and the flaky meat of fresh tasting catfish. As far as value and quality, I rate this as a 5 star item. Since this order only comes with rice for the gumbo, I ordered a side of coleslaw. For $2.99, it comes in the same size as a cup of gumbo. Nothing thrilling about this, but I think it was more of a cabbage and mayo salad. I think a good blend of mayo, vinegar and sugar mixture for the dressing would have been better. Looking at the salads served to the others in my party, I think they are a better value at the same price. It was served on an oblong plate with mostly romaine and leaf lettuce with cheese on top.

So far, so good . . .

The next step was to try my wife's dish. She ordered the lunch special bowl of crawfish etouffee and salad (not on the menu but only upcharged $2 for the bowl instead of the cup for at least 50% more- I encouraged her to do this due to my anticipation that she would share with me). The etouffee was a creamy bisque style instead of roux based, and I thought it was very tasty but very rich. It also had a good portion of crawfish. A dash of sherry would have made it complete. ($7.99 with upgrade). Again, a great value.

The others in the party ordered etouffee and salad combo, except one ordered the burger with an upgrade to to onion rings. When the burger was brought in, I noticed that the meat extended beyond the bun. It makes sense since the menu indicated it was a half-pound ($7.99 including fries with an upgrade option for onion rings). He said it was a great burger with good quality ground beef (not too much gristle). However, I was envious when I saw the onion rings come out. On a long dish, with about ten golden browned, batter-dipped fried onion rings neatly arranged sushi roll style made my mouth water. Although I am not sure if it was available, I envisioned a great romoulade sauce to complement this side dish. (Hint!) I will definitely come back for this item alone.

Time for dessert. The pecan pie was very rich and flavorful and certainly met my expectations. The Italian Cream cake had a delicious frosting but was a little bit on the dry side (I remembered the waiter indicating that I got the last piece - which I now think it was more of a curse than a blessing since it had two sides exposed the the refrigerated air). However, the German chocolate cake was probably the best I have had at a restaurant. I could not say if it was Lawler's or made in a bakery, but it was very moist with an appropriate amount of coconut and chocolate frostings. I detected a nice overtone of deliciousness (maybe a rum flavor) that really elevated it. Nevertheless, the desserts were about $5 each and certainly a good value for the portions.

Great prices, good portions and great quality, how can you...

Overall the food was very well cooked and seasoned well. The service was good overall, friendly, courteous, and welcoming. The online menu needs updating. We went there thinking we were going to get lunch special options on a Sunday after reviewing the online menu only to find out that lunch prices and specials are only applicable Mon - Fri. Wasn’t expecting to spend $$75 on two plates of 1 filet of fried catfish and 6 fried shrimp with fries and coleslaw. We switched out the fries for onion rings at an upcharge and ended up buying a side of hush puppies a la cart. This was one of the first places ai’ve ever been too that doesn’t have hush puppies as included on a fried seafood plate? But I’m from Louisiana and that’s just the way they do it there. Even though it was more than I wanted to spend on lunch the food was really good and we will definitely go back. The place filled up fast too and there were only three servers so at times it felt like our servers were too busy to get to our table. They were working as hard as they could just got slammed by the after church rush and a lot of big groups came in all around the same time. Again they were working fast, it was just a lot for 3 people. When we were cashed out I did see someone come from the back and start sitting people and taking drink orders, So they recognized that they needed more...

I'm a bit hesitant to write this review because I'd like to keep this hidden gem to myself but Cypress deserves to know. We found the service and the food to be top notch from beginning to end. We were seated by a very pleasant young lady that immediately took our drink order. I'd like to say that the young man that waited on us was fantastic, but that would not be completely true because we had a least 5 young men and at least two young ladies that took part in making sure that we had a wonderful experience. It was our experience that we didn't just have a wait-person, we had an entire wait-staff bringing us drinks, appetizers, food, refills, and picking up used dinner ware. The owner stopped by to check on our table at least twice, even though they were obviously having a busy night. There were three people in our party and we had grilled salmon, fried catfish, and fried shrimp. The salmon was grilled to perfection, the catfish was right on point, and the shrimp were large and perfectly fried. Our grilled veggies and fries were fantastic. The menu has a wide variety of offerings beyond steak and seafood that will appeal to just about anyone. If you're looking for a pleasant dining experience and really good food I would highly encourage you to give this hidden gem a try on your next day or...