Ragin Cajun Piano Bar

Ate lunch there today. It was delicious! I had the sweet bourbon glaze grilled chicken. It was very tasty, side of perfectly prepared green beans and wonderful sweet potato waffle fries. Everything was great! Fair prices too. Topped it off with a delicious white Chocolate bread pudding. Will definitely go again.
Oh and btw as far as it being just up the river from Cajun country...yeah, only 700 miles.

If you're looking for fresh seafood with authentic Cajun flair, you've come to the WRONG place!

My coworkers and I found this place on Yelp and thought we'd give it a try.  After all, it's just up the Mississippi from Cajun country.  I decided to order a dozen raw oysters and the crawfish etouffee.  

The oysters were a big mistake.  Seriously...what was I thinking?  This is a landlocked state.  It shouldn't have surprised me that they weren't fresh (they had a very fishy smell...fresh oysters should just smell salty like the ocean, and nothing more) and weren't shucked correctly (they should slide freely from the shell...instead I had to scrape them off with a fork, which led to some less than savory butchering of said oysters).  I'm surprised I didn't get sick, honestly.

Crawfish etouffee is usually very flavorful, spicy, and rich.  It's a tomato-onion-pepper-based stew (usually with crawfish or shrimp) served over rice.  This was stew-esque, for sure, but it lacked flavor.  It just tasted like tomato sauce.  And the crawfish itself was really tough.  And if I'm being picky, and I am, it was served with a small portion of rice mixed in...really just not enough.  I couldn't finish it because it just didn't taste good.

If you're just looking for a good beer selection (maybe a couple you've never heard of before), then this is your place.  But eat before you get there...or just snack on appetizers.  Seriously...terrible food.  Chez Marilyn across the street is head and shoulders above Ragin Cajun...go there instead!

Quite a while ago my girlfriend an I tried this place for dinner.  The service was slow, but we just thought they were understaffed.  

A couple of months later we tried again, with three friends.  Once again, they failed to impress. We asked a waitress about a table to be told there was a wait, then she walked away.  The manager was seating others a few minutes later, and we had to ask him to be put on the list (waitress dissapeared).  We went upstairs for drinks, and were seated at a table outside.  Waitress showed up, took drink orders, then took 10 minutes and three trips to bring drinks.  Upon finishing our drinks, another waitress approached, appologized for the delay, the other waitress is really busy, tells us specials, takes our order.  We waited most of an hour for our food. The table next to us was also upset about the wait, asked to speak to a manager, and were treated very rudely.  At this point we were ready to leave, as salads hasn't even come out yet. Both waitresses continued to walk past our empty drinks, and when we asked another one for more she said "just a minute", then took the orders for two tables near us and went inside. When our first waitress returns to take drink orders., one in our party ordered a "special" drink the other waitress expained, but this one had no idea.  They tried to justify the terrible service by explaining there are only 3 waitresses working (the same 3 from the first visit).

Food is good, and the one waitress is really on top of things, just overloaded. This appears to be an everyday occurrence, not a one time thing.

Great for drinks and they have a good thing going, but terrible execution.

Probably my last time having dinner there...but, we got a deal from Groupon and thought that $15 for $30 was worth one more shot.

Third visit... Saturday night, about 10pm, there were 2-3 people at the small bar, and about 6-8 seated at 3 separate tables.  We arrived just behind a group of 10.  No live music.  Apparently one server working.  The sign says "Please wait to be seated" but we had to stop someone and ask, then were told we could just sit wherever.  

We had the same waitress as a previous visit, after talking with her, she's been there since the beginning and they always seem to be understaffed.  She also said there is no live music on Saturdays because the guy has another gig on Saturdays.  How does that work?!

My salad was half wilted, some of the lettuce had broken down to slimy.  I sent it back and told them I did not want another one.  Again the entree was good.  I had a draft beer (seasonal) and it came in a plastic cup and was warm.  

I want to like this place.  I really want to, but they just can't get it right.  They have a great location, theme, and the place has a great feel (outdoor tables, small bar up and downstairs, upstairs balcony, all in the entertainment area on 3rd St.), but they absolutely fail at the execution.