Derek W.
Yelp
One day, during my stay in San Antonio, I returned to my hotel only to find the road partially blocked off. I had no idea this was happening, so I had to limit my dinner plans to restaurants within walking distance of my hotel. And it had to be close too because at the time, there was a great heat wave happening in South Texas. I also wanted some seafood.
Landry's Seafood House on the southwest corner of College and Presa checked off both boxes, but failed to check off any of the other boxes related to my satisfaction as a paying customer.
While Landry's does have an entrance at the Riverwalk, I entered through the streetside entrance and noticed the bar just a few steps upstairs. I went up and saw the bartender, Brandon, conversing with the lone customer sitting at the bar. There was a fancy dining area surrounding the bar, but nobody was at any of the tables. It was 5 PM on a weekday when I went, which was during Happy Hour, but I'm guessing most of the diners were downstairs instead.
Since Brandon was so deep in conversation with the customer, it took a while for him to notice me standing by the bar, and I asked him for a takeout menu. He handed me one, and I studied the menu to decide what was best. The Cedar Plank Ora King Salmon looked like the best choice since it was just $2 more than the Ora King Salmon under Today's Catch. However, for that $2 more, I could get asparagus, which a la carte would be $8.50.
It took me a while to decide, but by the time I looked up, Brandon was no longer at the bar. It took a good 5 minutes for him to show up again and take my order. I had considered dining in at the bar, but Brandon would almost certainly have kept his conversation going with the other customer and ignore me. While not rude, his demeanor was pretty rough that I could see him better as a security guard rather than a front of house employee of a fancy seafood restaurant.
After paying, he said it'd be about 10 to 15 minutes. 15 minutes had passed, and still no sign of my order. Brandon kept talking with the other customer, not acknowledging my existence a mere feet away. Several employees had passed by, and none of them made eye contact with me either, not that they were supposed to, but I just didn't feel welcome at the restaurant.
20 minutes pass, and Brandon said they were bagging up my order. Literally two seconds later, another employee walked in from behind me to hand me my order. He didn't seem to have a warm greeting either. So yeah, customer service was definitely lacking here.
I walked back to my hotel hoping the $47 meal would taste good at least, but it was not. They included three takeout boxes in my order, but there was so much empty space inside each box! They skimped on everything! One takeout box included the salmon filet with some honey dijon sauce, one included *two* (!) pieces of asparagus, and one included a small helping of Vegetable Orzo.
The asparagus was bland, and even the honey dijon didn't help much in adding flavor. Same with the salmon, surprisingly enough. It broke apart easily, so it was hard to cut the filet into equal pieces and dip each piece into the honey dijon without having it disintegrate. The only good thing out of the three was the Vegetable Orzo, which was strong and flavorful. However, it still would not be enough for me to award a second star to Landry's as the quality of my entire meal was definitely not commensurate with how much I spent on that meal.
It was the most disappointing meal of my trip to the Alamo City. In fact, it was so disappointing that I had to go out again and grab a second dinner somewhere else farther way, thus making me deal with the heat wave a second time that evening. Definitely no reason to make a return visit, so Kait, when you reply to this review, there is no need to provide the feedback link or send a direct message as that would do nothing but imply that my review wasn't read, at least in its entirety. Try as you may, but there's absolutely nothing you can do to win me back, especially since there isn't even a Landry's Seafood House where I'm from.