I hope this was an isolated incident, because I really love Pappadeaux's. It's not someplace I go regularly, rather reserved for special occasions. It's a little on the pricey side but certainly in line with the usual value they offer. The food, service and ambiance have always been top-notch and I've been saying for weeks now that it's where I wanted to go for my birthday dinner.\n \nDespite the fact that they're a chain (huge in Texas and elsewhere, but only 1 single location in Phoenix), I feel like they operate like an indie and get it right on most fronts. My favorite dish is the Crawfish Platter (a ginormous platter piled high with authentic dirty rice in the middle, flanked by breaded, fried crawfish on one side and thick, savory crawfish \u00e9touff\u00e9e on the other side).\n\nLast night's birthday dinner was unfortunately an absolute bust. I was excited to show my boyfriend the amazing wonder of Pappadeaux's, as he'd never been there before and I'd been talking it up for weeks. We were seated right away (which was atypical because they're always packed), but we did get an annoying end table right on the corner so there were constantly people pushing past us and bumping into my chair. Whatever, luck of the draw, and I was happy to be seated right away.\n\nOur server Erich came over and took our drink order. I ordered a Coke and water. I got Diet Coke, which tastes like poison. Waited a few minutes trying to flag him down (admittedly this guy had at least 2 other tables he was waiting on) and I pointed that out to him and he launched into some weird back and forth about how it should be Coke. You're tellin' me buddy, that's WHAT I ordered. He took it away and a different server brought me a regular Coke with a smile. Very nice. Thank you. Then Erich returned and babbled awkwardly about the mishap. It's fine. This happens a lot. Most people drink Diet Poison - I get it. He took our orders and said he'd be back with some bread.\n\nThe bread and butter was dropped off pretty quickly, which is when we realized we had no set-ups. It's kinda hard to spread butter on your bread without a knife. We waited a few more minutes looking for him to flag him down again. He grabbed set-ups for us and said something about \"I wish we could assure that all tables could have set-ups when they're bussed but that's nearly impossible...\" Ok, whatever, I just want utensils and a napkin. Thank you.\n\nThe food this time was OK. Normally it's stellar. Maybe I was already annoyed by what I considered \"Strike 1\" and \"Strike 2\". Both crawfish entr\u00e9es were great. The dirty rice was definitely subpar --undercooked and very dried out/chewy. Erich asked us if we needed anything. I asked for an extra tartar sauce and a spoon for my \u00e9touff\u00e9e. He brought them right over. At that point, at the beginning of the meal my Coke was still full. Like most people, I drank it intermittently while I chewed and ate and it was soon gone, but I still had half a plate of food to eat. No sign of Erich. No Coke in my glass. So I just continued eating and finished my plate.\n \nAt the end of the meal, Erich re-appeared and asked if we needed anything. My other half motioned at my glass but at that point my food was gone and I just wanted to leave. Erich then realized that maybe I wanted a refill and asked if I did. I said don't worry about it and asked for the check. Then we waited some more. The check came and I swear to you the fastest thing I saw the waiter do all night was process the check and get us out of there.\n\nWhat bugged me was that I could see many other tables around us being served and having a great time with their servers, lots of smiles, hospitality and ambiance. I felt like we got the shaft.\n\nI have to say that in the past I've always had impeccable service, amazingly fresh food and a top-notch experience at Pappadeaux's. Perhaps this was an off night. Perhaps Erich had too many tables. Perhaps we shouldn't have even left him 10% gratuity. Three dings on service, one on food and one on the crappy table. I'll have to think long and hard before spending my money there again.
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