text: I have been in Charlotte for over three years and had never been to Cajun Queen, but I have been listening to Jazz a lot lately and got in the mood for some live Jazz. From what I have been able to find, this is the only place in Charlotte that even has live Jazz, so I booked a reservation (through OpenTable) for my girlfriend and I on a Saturday night.\n\nNo problems with the reservation or getting us seated as soon as we got there, but I was immediately disappointed to find out that the music was only upstairs and there would be a \"20-30 minute wait\" for seating upstairs. We were seated downstairs, right next to the entrance--it's not great seeing everyone come and go, as well as the staff milling about the hostess stand.\n\nOur dinner started with no live Jazz (from downstairs it sounded like pots/pans being banged together) and less than ideal seating. Then came the food. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't anything special. Certainly not good enough to warrant all of the rave reviews here or the prices they charge. It was seasoned, but still tasted very bland to me, especially the crawfish, which I thought was overcooked. The seasoning certainly did not taste Cajun to me. (I got the crawfish Creole and my girlfriend had the chicken Etouffee.)\n\nI was definitely not pleased with my first--and last--experience at Cajun Queen, and left $60 poorer and hungry for better food, although I was full. Given that \"Live Jazz 7 nights a week\" is prominently touted on their website header, they really need to specify that it is only upstairs. I would have requested upstairs seating when I made the reservation, if I had known that was the only place to hear the music. Either that, or they need to remodel that old, bland house to open it up more.\n\nBottom line: I will not be going back.