Crawdaddy's in Visalia

[glazebrookgirl]

Crawdaddy’s
333 E. Main Street
Visalia, CA
559-625-5300

Had a chance to go to Crawdaddy’s this past weekend down in Visalia. Hubby and I met family down there and had a late lunch. Lunch menu looked good with a large selection of salads, sandwiches, po’ boys, pasta, and a few lunch sized entrees. The restaurant has two floors; the first floor is casual style with paper napkins and such. The second floor isn’t open yet and is the more fancy restaurant with tablecloth and wine service.

We sat in the first floor, which had nice floor to ceiling windows and a comfortable seating arrangement. We were given lunch menus and ordered ice teas all around. Here is where some service kinks began. When our server came back around to take our orders for food, we began ordering off the lunch menu and he had to go check with the kitchen to see if we could still order lunch. It was a quarter until 4pm, but if ordering lunch was a problem, we shouldn’t have been given a lunch menu. Anyway, we were able to order from the lunch menu and thus began our wait.

It was 30-35 minutes from time of order until we received our entrees. I think that is a little much, especially since the restaurant was not full when we ordered. Fortunately, we had a lot of catching up to do, so we were able to visit with each other without becoming too frustrated. We finally received our entrees.

I ordered the “peacemaker”, a half fried oyster, fried shrimp po’boy and seasoned fries. My fries had clearly been sitting for awhile and had cooled. My sandwich was okay, but nothing spectacular. The fried shrimp were better than the oysters. In fact, the oysters were not good at all. They were slightly fishy. The sandwich came on a French roll with Creole mayonnaise, cabbage, and tomato. The sandwich was over-dressed with mayonnaise which made the fried shrimp really slippery.

Hubby had the bowl of red beans and rice served with boudin sausage. He said the sausage was really good, but the beans lacked the essential “porkiness” found in traditional New Orleans fare. One slight problem with hubby’s dish was that the menu described it as being served on wilted greens and it came with no greens, unless you count the bay leaves he found in the beans.

The other couple split a Caesar salad and a hot sausage sandwich. The Caesar salad was pretty garlicky. The hot sausage sandwich ended up being the boudin sausage on a French roll. The sausage was the saving grace, but wasn’t special enough to carry the sandwich.

We decided to all split a dessert and chose the Gateau au Sirop, a spice cake made with sugar cane syrup and served with a bourbon cream sauce. Once again we waited awhile, about 15-20 minutes. Very strange. The dessert was truly the highlight of the meal; the cake had just the right amount of spice and sweetness. Our only complaint was they were really stingy with the cream sauce and the cake really needed the sauce to work.

We ended up waiting again to pay the bill. Maybe they are having a staffing shortage, but there seemed to be enough staff. All of us felt that the meal was nothing really special to go out of your way for. Which is really too bad because it is in a nice building. We snuck up to the second floor for a look. The upstairs looks really nice, especially since they have a nice balcony area and a space for live music. They also have a wine room that can seat 10 and will be served a special chef’s menu.

Overall, not really what hubby and I were hoping for. We noticed other people having to wait awhile for their food or one person would be served on the table while others were still waiting up to 15 minutes for theirs. The service issues could be fixed, but not so sure about the food.

[toodie jane]

is this a chain?

[glazebrookgirl]

No, it is not chain. There are many places around the country called Crawdaddy's, but this is a locally owned restaurant.

[FresnoFacts]

It is a new local place in Visalia.

I believe the casual area did a soft open just 2 weeks ago. The official grand opening was Oct 19.

Too bad it sounds like they did not work out kinks before they started. Hopefully they can pull it together.

[oneprimalscream]

I just posted a review of Crawdaddy's. I ended up having a great experience there, but thanks for the head's up on the cream sauce on the dessert - we ordered it with extra sauce and it still wasn't very much.

[cravincajun]

I ate at Crawdaddy's on the opening night of the first floor, and the service was excellent at that time. The food was good, but not much of it. I had the chicken and sausage gumbo which was way too little for the price. I also expected to see some original cajun type meals on the menu such as jambalya, but when I asked about it, the floor manager didn't seem to know what I was referring to. The desert I had, a creme brulee was very good and a good portion served as well. An order of the spicy wings as an appetizer was a very small order and could be improved upon in the portion area to make it go with the prize.

[oneprimalscream]

I wrote about my experience in a new topic, but in case you didn't see it, one of my complaints was about the portion size. I really loved the food that I got, and what my boyfriend got. Only problem was the price was too high for that small of a portion.

I also just updated in the other topic about what my sister said.

It sounds like the fried oysters are a bad deal there - two people have said how bad they were. My brother-in-law said the Jambalaya was awful.

[jensimms]

We went to Crawdaddys last night. The food is way to exspensive ant not very authentic. the Service was not very good either.
We went upstairs to hear the band. The emplyees were kind of rude.
The space is far too small for the venue they are trying to acheieve. The stairs are a danger factor concidering the drinking going on there. The bar area in narrow and very uncomfortable.
It's a real shame since Visalia really could use a nice place for live music.

[littleoleme]

You should give them a try now. Kinks are worked out and food is amazing. Prices are not at all out of line for what you're getting. I just had Chicken Gumbo and Hubby had Jambalya both were excellent. Keep in mind the first floor is family dining the second floor is fine dining. Both are fantastic! We frequent the second floor and service is always great, friendly attentive servers.