Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop — Restaurant in Thornton Township

I have eaten there twice over the past 3 weeks. Prior to that, it's been well over a decade, back when they were located on Torrence Ave. north of 80/94. I and my family loved it back then and we were frequent diners. I thought they went out of business and didn't realize until recently that they relocated on Torrence Ave. south of the expressway.

I paid them a revisit a few weeks ago, looking forward to their Southern Sampler (gumbo, jambalaya, and beans & rice), which is the only dish I ever got before. The Gumbo was tasty, as was the jambalaya, along with the beans & rice. My server was friendly as well; enough that I wanted to go again soon, once it could work for my friend to join me, as he too had been a satisfied customer at the old location.

We went tonight 5/24, and we both got the Southern Sampler. While it was all satisfactory in flavor, we independently noted how the gumbo (our favorite part of the trio) was small in portion with 2/3 of the small cup being rice and only 1/3 being gumbo. The service was unsatisfactory and we had to keep flagging down our server. We asked for additional Johnny Cakes and when the check later arrived, we saw that he added an additional charge. I was not charged for them in my previous visit a few weeks prior, just as I was never charged for them in all my times in the past. I mentioned this to my server and he said that they're supposed to come at an extra charge. After he walked away, I observed a server at a table next to ours tell his customers that they are complimentary. I chose to let it go because by this time I was becoming increasingly disillusioned about Dixie Kitchen resuming as my go-to Cajun cuisine place of choice. First thing I did when I got home was to research other places near me and found several with as good or better reviews, which I plan to check out.

All that said, and in an effort to be fair, I will personally reach out to management to make them aware of my experience and critique. They deserve that along with an opportunity to respond. I will reserve comment on whether they will receive my business in the future, until after I've checked out area competition. I can say that I do know good, authentic Cajun cooking, particularly when it comes to gumbo, jambalaya, and beans and rice. My kinfolk are Cajun from Houma, Louisiana about 40 miles south of New Orleans (or N'or-lins, as we are often...

I guess my previous review was deleted… however I will post again. I used to come to Dixie Kitchen every Sunday after church. I have been going there for the past 5 years. Never had an issue. However one particular Sunday… I went and I had called in my order ahead of time as I always do. I was told my order would be ready in 20 minutes. However when I got there I waited and waited. I saw multiple people who had ordered via phone get their orders. I then saw people come in and place an order and get their food before mine. I then got up and asked what the hold up was. The Caucasian lady who usually works the register was very rude and she told me “Have a seat your order is not ready yet.” I then explained to her that I think something is wrong because I’ve been sitting here for almost an hour. She rolled her eyes and said “Please have a seat”. Finally my order was ready. I was livid. I chose not to support there anymore but decided to give it another chance a couple of months later. When I came in there the same Caucasian woman was at the register she calls my name with an attitude, looks at me, rolls her eyes, and rudely says “I read your review. You know what you wrote was not true…you really hurt my feelings you know we have been good to you” I replied to her stating “Well it is no reason my order should not have been ready and I had to wait for 1 hour that is unacceptable. It seems my order was forgotten and wasn’t put in.” She replied “Well that happens however you did not have to leave your review.” She then rolled her eyes and said “Have a good holiday” she said this in front of other customers. I was very offended. As a customer the customer is ALWAYS right and it is unprofessional to say things of that nature in front of people! What I should’ve done is went live on Facebook and showed people her unprofessional behavior. The purpose of reviews is to REVIEW YOUR SERVICE!!!! If you are foul… I WILL let people know! I will never support this establishment again unless she is not there. She is very unprofessional and rude. I will never come there again and I also have been telling people not to support that...

I have always loved Dixie Kitchen! I would always eat at the old Lansing location as often as I could, this was my first time eating there since they moved locations. My son and I went there on a Thursday evening around 6:30 and they close at 7:30. As soon as I walked in I noticed a piece of paper stating Please read our policies before being seated. It was a whole page of their rules!!! One check per table, one form of payment per table, 4% fee for using a debit or credit card, but it must have a chip because they will not swipe any cards. There is an 18% tip added no matter if it is 1 person or 10! There were several more but a man appeared before me and started asking questions before I could finish reading. He said, " Hi, are you familiar with our polices?" I said I was trying to read all of them. He then rattles off a whole bunch of rules and I was like fine whatever. We are seated and waited 10 minutes for someone to bring us water and tell us our waitress will be with us soon. I proceed to look at the menu which had even more policies and rules. No refills on lemonade and if you are caught drinking out of someone's glass you will be charged. First Johhny cakes are free if you want more it will be $1.50. The menu came off as aggressive and was really thinking about leaving at this point. Waitress came 16 minutes after being seated, didn't see her again until we waited over 10 minutes to get our check. Never once was soda or water refill offered. The food was very bland, no seasoning what so ever. Red beans and rice were ok, black eyed peas were not good, even after adding a ton of salt and pepper to give it some kind of flavor, still no flavor. The sausage in the Jambalaya was awful. Once she brought the check it took her 12 minutes to return to pick up the check, I see that her mandatory tip was there and then a line for an additional tip!!! The service wasn't good!! But I was forced to give her a tip that wasn't earned or deserved. The establishment made me feel uncomfortable from start to finish. I was so excited to eat here and I will...