We stopped in hoping to get some dinner but luckily the waitress told us that the kitchen was 40 minutes behind. I could see 2 tables nearby that were totally annoyed that there food was no where to be seen.
This is what I would consider a dive bar and the inside is not very clean.
We grabbed a drink and left.
My wife, and two other couples, ate here and we really enjoyed it. Â Food was great! Â
I had the Jambalaya and it was probably the best I've ever had. Â My wife had the Italian shrimp scampi. Â She said it was the best meal of our trip. Â While it is not a fancy place the food and service we had was outstanding. I heartily recommend it.
I have consistently read in the reviews that the Jambalaya was very good, along with a few other dishes; I did not order them so I could not tell you.
A friend in I stopped in Savannah on our way home from Florida (it's about half-way along the trip to South Carolina.) We were walking along the river and everything was packed, lines that were simply ridiculous. We literally walked back and forth along the river for 45 minutes, in hopes that the lines would shorten. They didn't, of course. We finally see a place that wasn't crowded, the Bayou Cafe...We would soon find out why they had no crowd.
We were going to have a meal, then order drinks at the bar. We ordered pasta dishes, chicken alfredo and my friend ordered some type of fish served over a bed of rice. I will have to agree with the reviews saying that this was by far the worst food I've ever let pass my throat. The pasta was sour, and there was no alfredo sauce; doesn't Chicken Alfredo have alfredo sauce? Not at the Bayou Cafe. My dish had sour pasta, a few chicken cubes, celery bits, and carrots. I might have mislead you, there was an element resembling sauce; the undrained water of my pasta. Absolutely disgusting.
I truly hope the drinks were more impressive, we left before I allowed myself to find out. Just stay away from the pasta dishes. I hate to be this derogatory to such a quaint little cafe, so I'll tell you that my water from the Bayou Cafe earned my approval...And earned the 1 star that I gave this place.
The rest of Savannah was awesome, though. I would really advise you to spend a few extra dollars and go somewhere nicer for a meal, maybe Churchill's Pub; their British food and beer was incredible!
We went here as per a suggestion from the desk clerk at our hotel. The food was amazing!!! It's like they kidnapped a true new Orleans resident and put them in the kitchen. It's absolutely nothing fancy but great food and the secret home made hot sauce is the best!! I buy a bottle every time I pass thru savannah
Review Source:The Bayou Cafe, as the name implies, a grime filled sty of an establishment comprised of both grody townsfolk and wide-eyed tourists from Middle America...
As you ascend the staircase of this split-level pub/restaurant your be greeted by the first in a series of checkpoints where a bouncer will examine your ID and make some generic comment alluding to his distaste for the Northeast. Once through the gauntlet of security, which is reminiscent of post 9-11 airport checkpoints. You make your way towards the "U" shaped bar which is staffed by a lanky bartender with some sort of spinal condition. This hunchbacked man goes by "Adam" he was wearing a "winning " tee-shirt tucked into a pair of 90's era white jeans. His mobility was very limited due to his noticeably torqued spine, he doesn't seem like an ideal candidate to be anchoring a high capacity pub. Perhaps Adam would be more suited for desk-work or literally anything outside the realm of food service, but that's neither here nor there. I ordered a mixed drink and watched uncomfortably as he maneuvered around clumsily with a certain determination to combine rum and coke. I remembering feeling actual guilt for not having requested a beer.
Once that adventure was through my buds and I wandered up to the second level, the far more impressive area in the Bayou Cafe.
 The back corner plays host to a karaoke section. The most entertaining moments came watching the obligatory karaoke try-hards(middle-aged women with caked on makeup and cheesy clothing purchased at "Ross")  belting out country ballads and groups of frat boys embracing one-another while chanting Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me". The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves. The bartender upstairs, a stout little fireball of jail-bait, was very warmly received after the previous encounter of our good friend "Adam". She was sassy little rebellious type possibly fresh out of high school.A weak relationship with her father, who is probably absent altogether,coupled with the instability of a heavy drinking mother, seems to have driven her to act out with facial piercings and an appetite for the mindless profession of serving alcohol. She was fairly efficient, a stark contrast between Adam's ineptitude.
Those who seek to be entertained on a night out and are equipped with a good sense of humor, will not be disappointed with the Bayou Cafe. Â I encourage anyone who is visiting the downtown Savannah area to at the very least experience what this deep-south establishment has to offer.
The food here is okay but bar service is by far the worst I've ever had. There were only five people in the place when we came in and it still took the bartender 15 minutes to acknowledge us, since he was too busy trying to impress the two skanks that came in right after we did. Getting refills was ridiculous- 30 frickin' minutes for some water?! Are you kidding me? We had a large group of friends join us and they fared even worse as far as having to sit for 20 minutes before their orders were taken. The staff here doesn't even try. This was definitely one of the rare times I did not leave a 15+% tip, and I definitely won't be back.
Review Source:I've been to many restaurants thoughout savannah and I've never had anything quite like the Bayou.
Although it's a small place the food is absolutely amazing.
The first time I went, I had the Entree Sampler which included the Etoufee, Jambalaya and Gumbo and it was amazing! I thought I wouldn't like it, but it was great.
I've gone there multiple times and my favorites are: the Jamabalaya, Crab chowder and BBQ sandwhich.
If you go there you MUST at least try a cup of the Jambalaya I cannot tell you how good it is!
They also have this special where you can buy a pitcher of beer and a pound of peel and eat shrimp for like 17 bucks. It's GREATT! The shrimp is THE best I've had down south.
The food is cheap and the service is great. They also are equipped with their own signature hot sauce (which you can buy) and it's fantastic!
If you want flavorful food go here!
kitchen nightmares...maybe they should write in and get on it!
Man if I would have just read all of the reviews before I went I wouldn't have wasted my time, or money on our <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Frestaurant.com&s=c5fe485af4df376130bee54f875814d79c4d7913e1258123b1206d2bdbf4873b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://restaurant.com</a> certificate. Â No wonder! Ugh...the soup had no flavor, tasted like cream of mushroom..with some crab in it..(my sister did like it tho) and the cajan catfish had no cajan on it..they just freaken fried it, so we had to dry off the extra grease and put hot sauce on it (which was ok). And don't even get me started with the shrimp po boy..that came out dry with no sauce, and 5-6 shrimp :( Â slaw was good tho.
Overall...don't get fried...it's overly greasy.
Total dive bar not to be missed!!! Stopped for lunch and had a 1lb. of fresh shrimp & 1lb of crawfish with 2 pitchers of beer!! $19 ea. doesnt get better than this. Unless its NOLA!! Food was made to order staff was great!!
As to the other not so "step off the curb reviewers" who the hell goes to hole in the wall, shot and a beer joint and order a martini??? and if you are stopping in a bar for dinner after 9pm dont expect to get the royal treatment. They are going into bar mode and closing the kitchen you are going to get the leftovers.!!!! Lets not get the panties in an uproar and take it for what it is. Try it during regular lunch and dinner hours you wont be disappointed! Â By the way if you dont like something send the shit back! What so hard about that!!!???
The Bayou hot sauce is homemade and is awesome!!!
I came here recently with a group of 10 friends and the food was terrible! This is a place to come for a drink and listen to some tunes but do not eat the food! We all left a ton of food on our plates because it was disgusting! Savannah has some AMAZING places and this is not one of them. The next day some of us felt sick and it wasn't the alchohol!
BARF!
On the advice of fellow Yelpers, we didn't try any of the food. Â Seeing what other patrons got, I'm glad.
However, the atmosphere can't be beat. Â We wandered in here looking for some happy hour drinks and this place hit the spot. Â Small but decent tap selection and strong drinks. Â Plus 2 for 1 wells during happy hour!
We ended up back here later on a Friday night to grab some more drinks before a ghost tour. Â They had a musician playing, which based on the small stage, seemed like a regular thing. Â I wouldn't say he was good, but he was entertaining. Â Friendly bartenders. Â
If I lived closer, I could easily see myself being a regular.
Nice atmosphere, the guy playing guitar was fun, and good. Â The food was mediocre at best. Â I don't drink, but wife had a glass of wine, I didn't hear any complaints. Â My big problem here was that I had a salad and the Red Beans & Rice, a Southern Specialty - or so I thought. Â
There was a hair in my salad, and two hairs (long ones!) in my RB&R. Â I'm not easily put off my chow, but when I found the 3rd hair, that was it. Â Very disappointed. Â =( Â The only thing that's pulling them up from the lowest rating was the waitress was sweet, the entertainment was good and the place has atmosphere PLUS!
Maybe we got lucky, but the meal we had was great. The beans and rice were very good, the beer was cold, and the wait staff was friendly and prompt. I find it hard to believe it could be as bad as some of the others said, I Â really enjoyed my meal and will return the next time I'm in Savannah.
Review Source:Call Gordon Ramsey! This place is a kitchen nightmare.... I can't stress enough how really bad the food is at this place!!!  It's really disgusting.  If it were possible, my rating for this place would be zero stars.  Someone in my party ordered the étouffée, a heaping gelatinous mound piled onto a bed of rice.  It literally looked like vomit and tasted like alpo.  We complained to the waitress that it just didn't taste right.  Her response was that the rice had too much sauce on it.  The problem wasn't the amount of sauce.  The problem was the fact that the sauce was even there.
My hysband's seafood gumbo tasted nothing like gumbo and it contained fake crabmeat. Â Who put's fake crabmeat in gumbo?
I am surprised by the positive impressions of this place. Â It's probably the WORST RESTAURANT in the United States.
I have dined at many places in my culinary travels and this is by far "THE WORST" place on the map. It's a blatant rip-off! There should be a law against places such as this existing and remaining in business. If there was such a thing as "The Food Police", it should not only be closed but flattened by a bulldozer. If you do go here, enter at your own risk and bring a tube of KY, because you will be screwed out of your hard-earned dollars in more ways than one.
We arrived late from a long day of traveling and were hungry as bastards! We headed to the waterfront of Savannah hoping to hit a spot for some decent dinner. We saw this spot Bayou Cafe and decided to enter through the doors. And we did most certainly enter at our own risk. Upon arriving through the door of this low-rent, dingy spot there was a live band performing on the ground floor. We asked if they were still serving food and the hostess mentioned they still were and to proceed upstairs. After climbing upstairs, we noticed the surroundings being more of a bar area which included pool and foosball tables with no actual dining tables available. The bartender said "not to worry", they pulled out a table reminiscent of a picnic table and some lawn chairs.
We asked for a round of drinks. I made the mistake of ordering a Martini. The bartender had to embark on a challenging search for vermouth. Obviously they didn't have any at the bar, which in itself should have been a warning. Once he returned with it, he made the Martini and delivered it to us along with some beers. The Martini was poured in a plastic dixie cup and was horribly mixed. I am not sure if there was more vermouth or vodka. It was horrible beyond belief. It would have been more preferable to drink Robitussin cough syrup. I decided to switch out to beers after my dismay.
Looking at the menu, we decided to order some appetizers. We decided to shoot for 2 orders of crab-claw apps. We also decided to order dinners. Upon recommendation from our server as "being the best East of Louisiana, I ordered the Jambalaya. When the appetizers arrived, they were served on plastic plates! Plus, they were of the frozen variety you can purchase at any grocery store.
This was quite the disappointment!
My Jambalaya also arrived in a plastic plate. It was covered over rice which resembled quite closely to the consistency of Minute Rice. This was without question the worst jambalaya I have ever ingested. You can forget about tasting any shrimp, peppers or whatever in the hell was in it because the blandness overtook any flavors. This sorry ass excuse of Jambalaya was definitely out of the tin-can because it wreaked "canned soup"! In fact, I have had far better Campbells Chunky Soup. Also, it was nuked, the reason being, there were bits and pieces of this dish which were "hot and cold". By this time I was ready to hit Wendy's or McDonald's. All I could think was "How in the hell could people get away with this atrocity of a dining experience?". I am bewildered by the lack of dining sophistication of people to even allow a place such as Bayou Cafe to remain open.
At all costs, stay away from this place. The building is about ready to fall apart, I am certain there are rats and roaches infesting in the kitchen as well.
Oh, did I mention how clueless the wait-staff-bartender was?
I ordered a Reuben. It was delicious they made it a triple stack where literally it was like Reuben three Reuben's of what you typically get in a "normal" Restaurant. It was a decent price too as I only paid 7.99 and I got sandwich and fries, not bad for a restaurant that is in a heavy tourist area and could charge whatever they want. Also they make their own hot sauce that's delicious so if your making tybee beach your spring break destination, make sure to stop here!
Review Source:Bayou Cafe was the worst dining (or bar-eats) experience I've ever had. Granted, we went on New Years Day when many other restaraunts were closed, but if you're going to be open then you should treat it like a normal day of buisness.
There were about 10 people in the place when we went. The waitress consistently forgot about our table (not giving us menus until 15min after seeing us) and didn't bother checking up on our food (our app. came out cold, our over-priced entrees came out colder). The only "plus" was that, after complaining about the service and cold food, our bill was comped and we left to eat real food elsewhere.
I hope that my experience was an anomaly and looking at the other reviews here, I think that it was. Â But regardless, just know that dinner at Bayou Cafe is a roll of the dice.
Special: a pitcher of beer and a pound of crawfish or shrimp for $15.95.
Pool, darts, excellent service, crawfish, catfish, beer. Â Pure win. Â A blues singer named "Brett." Â Some people questioned his accentless vocals, but everyone agreed being a blues singer named "Brett" was worth singing the blues about.
Bayou Cafe is a must on River Street! Â Live Southern Rock - what more could you ask for! Â The drinks and service are about the same as anywhere else on the block, but the music really sets it apart.
I don't remember the first time I went to Bayou Cafe (honestly - I'd had a Call-A-Cab at Wet Willie's, and there's a reason they call it that...), but it's not a trip to Savannah without it. Â It can be quite crowded since the downstairs is not that large, but it's worth it for the music. Â We've seen any number of Southern rock bands, and it's always a good show, with plenty of soul and oomph. Â
Just watch out for a guy named Big Irish - he doesn't like to be bumped into, but the waitresses always manage to bump you into him. Â He seemed to warm to one of our party who made that mistake, but that guy ended up with an ulcer from the shot of 151 that he gave him...
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