Shumardii's

I've been twice.  Both times with someone else who wanted to go.

The restaurant looks nice but nobody seems to be in any great hurry to take care of you and I seriously dislike paying for food that's worse than I could make myself.  And I can't cook.

No doggy bag for me.

I've visited this place a few times for lunch and it is consistently average.  Prices are ok, food is decent, speed is so-so.  Nothing really sticks out as wonderful or great in comparison to other eateries.  Oh, and I hope you're not on a diet - this is good ol' country cooking complete with a ton of fried options and items smothered in creamy sauces & ranch dressing.  

If you want an appetizer, I'll recommend Victor's Stuffed Jalapenos or the Chicken & Shrim Embrochette. The jalapenos come with stuffed with shrimp, jack cheese, red chilies, and cilantro, and then fried to golden yumminess.  I was surprised that the jalapenos weren't spicier, but still served as a good vessel for the rest of the ingrediants.  This comes with a side of ranch, of course.  The embrochette consists of bacon-wrapped chicken and shrimp, which is fried and then served on a mound of fried onions.  Ranch & some spicy mystery dip complete the heart attack style dish.

As a main meal, I've had the Sante Fe Salad, Grilled Shrimp, and the Catfish plate that was on special one day.  The salad was massive, of course, and came topped with grilled chicken, tortilla strips, guacamole, pico, and sour cream... Oh & don't forget the southwest ranch dressing.  Recommendation on this one: get the dressing on the side so as to avoid a drenched meal.  I also opted out of the sour cream - seemed like overkill.  But the chicken was good and the guac and pico were fresh, so yay for that.  The shrimp was a simple dish, but cooked well.  You also get to pick from side items, which led me to the fresh veggies.  Eh, they were ok at best.  Really, they were flimsy and oversteamed, I think.  The baked sweet potato was alright, but really, how do you screw that up?  Again, I opted out of the mound of butter that usually comes with it, but my arteries were already hurting at that point.  The catfish plate was quite extensive given it was on lunch special.  Of course, the fish is fried, but you get two fillets of it, so at least you can have leftovers.  The breading was ok, but I thought it was a bit thick given that the fillets were relatively thin.  The hushpuppies were a nice addition to the dish, but I can only stand so much bread, really.  Still too much food for me, but it was less than $8, so why complain :)

The waitstaff, while mostly friendly, are terribly slow and seem to mess up orders half the time.  Everything gets fixed, but I don't see how it takes that much effort to get it right the first go 'round.  I've said it before and I'll repeat it for those who may have missed it: its average, so don't go in expecting to be blown away.  If you have average expectations and want a sit-down meal, then this is your place.