Louie's Backyard

This is a massive restaurant. Plenty of seating for our large family of 14. We were seated right away. Food was good. They are known for their seafood buffet. I was slightly disappointed that the buffet didn’t include lines on both sides. When the place was busy, you’ll have to wait a while in the buffet line. Limited salad bar. Need to organize that area better.

Had their all you can eat seafood buffet. It was amazing. Snow crab, shrimp (several different ways), prime rib with fresh horseradish, ribs, fish ( grilled or deep fried). I eat two plates, one with snow crab and prime rib, and one with snow crab and ribs. Wife, not a seafood person, had a prime rib sandwich and could only eat half of it. Well worth the price, based on market price.

Friendly and fast service! The views are incredible and the all you can eat crab legs at the buffet make the trip worth it if you’re a seafood lover! One of my favorite places to eat on SPI.

Even though I’ve been going to SPI for years it was my first time eating at the beach. I looked for places nearby, couple of research I finally chose this place because it was recommended by a friend of mine. It did not disappoint.! My first requirement when I asked my friends for recommendations was “I want to eat next to the ocean” This place has a beautiful view either on first or 2nd floor. It was a partly cloudy day and around sunset, it was stunning! The food was also good. I would like to point out for the first floor there’s a menu and the 2nd floor is another type of menu. I went with family so I chose the first floor. They mentioned second floor is mostly appetizers and drinks. They do have a salad bar, several things to. choose from, salads, cold salads, different type of shrimp, fresh fruit, etc. All plates we got were good portion, good flavor. Service was good. Try it out! I recommend this place 👌

Tue buffet and service are to notch!! The prime rib was the best I've ever had! King Crab legs are huge! Waiter was awesome and kept us laughing!

This is split up into a few areas, there is an outdoor eating area where there is live music from time to time (there was when we were there), and an indoor area where they have the all you can eat seafood buffet. This is the reason we went. The buffet is amazing with quite the variety of food to choose from. We had a coupon from a local tourist information booklet that told recommended the buffet. They were right, it was incredible!!! There is a small gift shop on the way out to get a souvenir shirt, mug, magnet, or other items.

Louie’s Backyard offers a great dining experience with delicious food and strong, flavorful cocktails. The outdoor seating provides a stunning view of the water and South Padre Island’s beautiful scenery. While they don’t serve crab legs or garlic potatoes before buffet hours, the rest of the menu did not disappoint. We visited as a large group, and although one meal took so long to arrive that most of us had already finished eating, the staff remained friendly. An unexpected bit of entertainment came when a bold bird swooped down and stole a fry right off a plate! Overall, we truly enjoyed the relaxed, waterfront atmosphere and would visit again for the views alone.

Came there last night for our 43rd wedding anniversary. Very disappointed with the staff last night we have been several times and this was by far the most unpleasant experience. We were seated and then proceeded to wait 10 minutes and a young man came over to us after we flagged him down he was very nice and in training. He took our order. We waited quite a bit of time for our drinks. The buffet was not quite up tothe standard it has been. Shrimp , mushy, or tough. Crab legs were very good, prime rib was very goodStill very good. But the people down there at the buffet did not even look happy to be there at their job! At one point my husband got his own mac and cheese because the gentleman had his back turned to him for so long. Hopefully this was just a bad night, just a little disappointed because not many smiles going on! Still enjoyed our dinner blessings to all of you!

My fillet was amazing cooked just like I like it, with this huge baked potato and fresh salad bar was included! Happy hour margarita wasn't the best but for $4 bucks what can you expect. Services was kind and my food came out quickly. The outside seating was amazing also! I'm shall return

Not a good experience. Called a little after noon, asked if w could make reservations for that evening: "No, you won't need them." Arrived at 7:15pm to wait in line to get on the wait list. After 10m we had not received the "confirmation text". After another visit with the hostess, who then took down our cell number correctly, we did receive our confirmation text that it would be 35-45m wait. We waited upstairs where we were served our drinks promptly. The service upstairs at the bar was terrific. After about 40m, we were finally seated... sort of. The hostess had an 8-top prepared for our party of 9. But rather than adding another small square table to the end--which they immediately did for the next party of 9 that was seated beside us 10m later--the hostess just shoved all the chairs on one side together to "make room" for one more on one side. Keep in mind, the place was at 40% capacity at best. There were empty tables everywhere. After she walked off, and since no could get into their seats on the crammed side of the table, I added one of several small square tables available in the area to the end of our two tables to make room for all 9 in our party. Within a couple minutes our waitress--friendly as could be but nearly impossible to understand--took our drink order. In a few more minutes we had our drinks, but didn't get to order our meal until the next time she came around, about 10 minutes later. Several tables around us received their meals despite having arrived much later. After 45 minutes I inquired if everything was alright; within 5-10 minutes we were served our meals. The burgers were good but the seafood wasn't anything special: nothing more than what you'd find in the frozen section at the local Sam's Club. It was fine, but well short of exceptions at their price point. We attended on a Tuesday night which included a 9:15pm fireworks show. Definitely the highlight! Would we recommend or go back? No. Was it terrible or gross? No, not at all. Service--except at the bar upstairs--was well below average. Burgers were great, but the seafood... not so much. Ambiance was aided by the fireworks, otherwise a little dilapidated. Just not worth the price.

Louies, Excellent food, service and plenty of ambiance with a huge seating areas on deck to enjoy the beaty of the SPI bay laguna side of the island. Take a break from the wind and sand with the light breeze. Great live evening singer. Fresh nice choices on the salad bar! Enjoyed the mexican shrimp cocktail and salmon too got a photo of my own custom salad but so buzy gobbling it up and forgot to take photos of the rest....oh yeah try the passion fruit margarita on the rocks w salt, fantastic!

Good service. All you can eat salad bar and mushrooms. The baked potato and mushrooms are huge. Looking forward to sals bar. Crab legs looked good.

We were really excited to check out this restaurant, but ended up having mixed feelings about the service and the food.. First for the service, while we didn't have a reservation, we were told we would be called in 15 minutes so we waited around near the bar, as they told us to wait there..they never came to get us so we checked in multiple times with the hostess and were finally seated after almost an hour of waiting.. As for the food, it was alright..a bit overpriced because you are more so paying for the atmosphere. The steak was a little dry and had minimal seasoning..the garlic potato was good though!

Service is a joke, went there shorty after opening, no one in sight. Went there later in the evening and they wouldn't let my wife in because she was wearing a long sleeve bathing suit top, nothing exposing, nothing risqué. It's a FREAKING BEACH IDIOTS!!!!!!!! You're a freaking beach bar, nothing more. What a f***ing joke! All we were trying to do was go to their gift shop, who knows, we may have bought a shirt! If this is going to be your business practice, then shut the place down so you don't embarASS the brand. What a joke!!!

Would not return. Went for dinner and ended up getting the buffet. Wish I would have looked at the offerings because I let the waitress recommend it. Food was warm at best, not many options. Fish had no flavor, the potatoes were hard, the ribs were rough in general. Was pretty disappointed

Hungry for seafood? All you can eat seems to be the winner here! $35 scallops, shrimp crab boil, filet mignon too. Salmon was my winner winner. Cooked perfect. Blackened. Be Hungry! Worth it

Food was wonderful. Love the view of the bay. We go every summer. They have a great buffet.

Came in on a super sunny day and half of our table was in the sun even though there were plenty of shaded tables around. When we asked to move to a different location we were no and the hostess walked off. So, we moved our table to be out of the sun. Our waitress was nice but took awhile to come to our table as she spent most of her time talking to her friends working the bar. We ordered our drinks, and food, because it took her awhile to wait for our drinks, she had to come back and ask us what we ordered.

You come here for two things and two things only.... All you can eat crab legs and the sunset views. The buffet food isn't the best. We keep coming back when we crave crab legs. The servers always come to our tables to pick up our dirty plates filled with empty crab leg shells. The indoor section always feels a little cramped. However they do offer plenty of outdoor seating.

Wait time to get a table was fine. Food was okay at best. Line for the buffet was too long, they could have it set a lot better. Service was ok, had to ask for refill of water. Atmosphere was nice, got to see the fireworks across the water.

Where to start? Service from our waitress was very lacking. The baked potatoes were hard. Not done at all. The appetizer took a long time to come out. Just not good at all. Salad bar is without much choice at all. We won't be back.

We're fans of Louie's, and we go for the buffet every time we're in Padre. We were so excited to go and load up on crab legs and prime ribs; unfortunately, the food was far inferior to what we've had in the past. The crab legs were inconsistent - some were sweet and naturally buttery and others were anemic and flavorless. The prime rib was well done and tough and seemed almost parasitic with stringy somethings running through it. The shrimp tasted frozen and was mealy. Our waitress was wonderful, but the guy serving the food seemed pretty pissed to be there. We were looking forward to the death by chocolate cake, but we decided to skip it because we weren't sure what we would get. Very disappointed!

We had the buffet; the food is mediocre- if you like crab legs then it's probably worth the $35, otherwise, it's probably better to order off the menu. Lesson learned. The view is beautiful at sunset & the fireworks were great, but I definitely wouldn't return just for the food. Our server was very attentive at first but as they started getting busier, we didn't see him for a while. Overall, it was ok - could be better, could be worse.

We only came here for the crab legs and knew that the inside was gross. With that said it still was terrible. All the plates are chipped. The food is bland flavorless super processed. The crab was hard to even fill up on because it's so small and stringy and stuck to the shell. Even with this being the only place on the island that served crab at a reasonable price I would never recommend anyone to go there. The only good thing was our server was super friendly, but never cleared our plates which I think is a strategy.

Was seated, after 10 minutes and no acknowledgment that I was even there, I left. Have a good night.

Used to be a lot better! Some of the peel and eat shrimp was bad(mushy,stinky,rotten) I'm surprised more people don't wind up sick. They run out of food(prime rib, crab) and you have to wait for 20 minutes in line. Line is super slow. For $35 I could have a better experience elsewhere.

Food is decent, Drinks are awesome Service is good when you can get it during most regular days/hours. It's a fun place and definitely has earned its place as one of the go to party spots for Spring Break. This includes holidays & special occasions (not sure how much it occurs anymore, but concerts & karaoke were always great)! During crowded occasions...do not go alone or ya might get lost. Huge Backyard !

Bueno este es uno de los restaurantes al que íbamos cada año ,nunca habíamos tenido ningún problema con el servicio, comenzamos mal, llegando y entrando al restaurante la persona que te acomoda en la mesa le pedimos cierta mesa y nos dijo que no nos podía sentar ahí porque era para 6 personas , nosotros éramos 4 , y estábamos viendo que en una mesa igual había 4 personas , , y después al comenzar a servirnos , una de las personas que estaban sirviendo en el buffet,le sirvió una pieza de steak , a mi cuñada y le dijo que no podía darle más !!! Abrase visto tal cosa ? Es un buffet, no se supone que te sirves todo lo que quieras ? Aparte de eso mi cuñada no quería más ,de una pieza pero se quedó anonadada por lo que le estaba diciendo la persona que la estaba atendiendo , No podíamos creerlo los demás ya que fuimos 4 personas , yo, me sentí muy mal pues yo los estaba recomendando para que fuéramos a comer ahí , ya que cada año vamos a vacacionar a south Padre island y siempre le pido a mi esposo ir ahí a comer , la verdad me dio mucha pena no fue nuestro día .

Service-3 Drinks-4 Food (buffet)-0 Bathroom cleanliness-1 Dessert-4 Fireworks-5 The service was friendly but slow. The buffet had a lot of variety but not a single bite of food was even lukewarm. The ladies room was not in good condition. The atmosphere on the outside patio area was fabulous and we were there for fireworks night which was really nice.

This place became such dive over the years. We always use to visit Louie's when we came to South Padre. They weren't always the best, but they were at least friendly and made you feel welcomed. Tonight was unfortunately a different story. After waiting almost an hour for a table, my wife and 3 kids were rushed by the hostess and we almost lost her. She never looked behind to make sure we were walking together, she didn't hold the door open when we went inside, and sat us in the worst possible table next to the buffet. She left before we had a chance to say anything, and we decided this place is now officially a dump and left. Don't waste your time with a tape worm, terrible food, and 1980s decor. It's not worth it.

Louie's Backyard offers all you can eat prime rib, seafood, and ribs every night. For a reasonable price of $30 per person. I would recommend getting there as early as possible too. The line backs up fast and you may be waiting awhile for crab legs or ribs. The food and drinks were pretty mediocre but I wasn't expecting a lot from a buffet. You can sit outside and get a great view of the sunset and they offer live music options. For affordability this is a great option to have some fresh seafood.

Flew in from San Diego/Orange County to visit family around the area. Came in on a Friday night for dinner and was the were able to easily seat our table of 11. SERVICE - Server was friendly, but wasn't as attentive and had some hiccups taking our orders. I do appreciate that she was able to split our checks accordingly though. That was very helpful. AMBIANCE - Very nice. Right next to the water, amazing view, an live music playing. We luckily had good weather to sit outside too. FOOD - It was mediocre at best. It was a little confusing to differentiate the lines for the Seafood Buffet vs Salad Bar because they were right next to each other. Seafood seemed AIGHT. Their rice pilaf...is not pilaf. Their grilled scallops were on the very edge of being undercooked, and the red snapper was skimpy for its price. PRICE - It sort of surprises me that my Surf 'n' Turf meal of 2 meats was less than the Red Snapper Plate. It's a bit steep for a plate, so I'd recommend doing the Seafood Buffet. It was $33 where as the Red Snapper plate was $34 and my Surf 'n' Turf plate was $32. The ambiance is what helped this place a lot.

Jalapeño crab poppers were quite good! Ceviche was a smidge sweet but perhaps they used really good quality tomatoes ? The setting is nice. Our server must have been having a tough day, so it was a bit awkward and the drinks had a lot of room for improvement.

We waited over an hr, patiently. He did say they were making from scratch so it takes about 30 minutes.. we were find with that and got some drinks. Still, after an hr later we hadn't had our dinner brought. When it was eventually brought., the dinner was wrong. They admitted they brought the wrong thing and offered to fix it. We didn't have time to wait another 30 minutes. They apologized and comped it. Which doesn't matter to me because I was the only one T the tables still hungry. And the other steak order didn't have his garlic potatoes but after being the steak out, they then offered to make something else which also took a while to bring and his steak was already done. I should have known by the 2.5 star rating but we tried anyways. My fault for it'

Service was good, food was absolutely horrible. Everything tastes freezer burned. I can't believe how bad the food is. We should've listened to the reviews but decided to give it a shot anyways...

We had a great view over the water. We got the buffet which I would say was worth it just because we ate a lot of crab legs, the scallops and hush puppies were good as well. Service was pretty good too. Some of the plates were a little chipped but nothing too bad

Service was great. Great ambience. We started with Nachos and left. The nachos were barely warm. About 10 chips on a plate with a little beef and melted cheese on top. Heck. I can cook that bad. Not good. Didn't stay to try anything else.

Food is delicious! Service... not so much. Our order was wrong and the girl who brought it out said that I was in the wrong when I have 5 other people who heard me order. Bartenders were good tho!

If you're not white don't bother coming. Waited 20min. There's was little to no people. I didn't make a scene just got up and left.

The food is of very poor quality! The only reason people go is for the crab legs but the remaining buffet is sub par in quality and taste! That so called prime rib has an off putting sour flavor and was so hard to chew! I spit it out! weird meat! & so tough! The only other edible item was a skewered shrimp in a smokey sauce . Potato salad was uncooked hard potatoes! The manner in which the buffet is jammed in a corner inside was ridiculous! nothing was appealing! sodas were all flat and watered down ! we tried several! Outside is hot and so sunny ! not enough shade, but the servers were nice girls. never Again!

Pure tourist restaurant that has three things going for it. The view of the bay at sunset, friendly staff and the funky beach town restaurant vibe. The menu is limited. The food quality is mid. The drinks are really bad. The all you can eat salad bar is a joke. The seafood buffet is tragic. And the prices are too high for the quality of food. It's one of those places you try once and don't go back. The sports bar upstairs has a different menu and a good view as well. Much better option.

Right off the bat it wasn't a great experience. We were asked which menu we wanted to order from and that determined where we sat. We couldn't get any information on what the difference between the menus were though. It's a huge place! Not kept up very well though. Bathrooms were dirty, it was hard to find a clean table. Service wasn't bad, food took quite a while but we usually don't mind waiting. Sadly, when we got our food it seemed like everything was sitting in the kitchen for a while. Everything was soggy and lukewarm.

We decided to eat here after visiting Gravity Park, just because it was so close. The hostess asked if we wanted inside or outside, we said inside, and she proceeded to seat us outside. There didn't even seem to be an inside. The server didn't ask us for refills, we had to flag her down, and the food took forever to come out, even though they didn't seem overly busy. Plus, I tried to just order a one plate salad, but was told that the $15 buffet all you could eat was the only option.

We enjoyed an evening listening to live entertainment, with Leslie Blasing, outside at the bar, after dining inside. They have a seafood buffet that I'd read about so I chose that option while my spouse chose a "stuffed" pork chop with some sort of teriyaki glaze that she really liked. However her baked potato was either over or undercooked. She couldn't tell which. It was "hard and dry" inside. I'm pretty sure they took it from what was being offered on the buffet. Both of us had salad from the small, but fresh looking, salad bar. We both enjoyed our salads. I chose the sea food buffet because... why not? The obvious highlight of the buffet was snow crab legs. First off, I don't really care for snow crab as it's meat is rather difficult to remove from those long, spindly legs. My first pass thru the bar I skipped that and opted for the other "main event" - tha prime rib. It was obvious that I they were to the end of one roast but hey, I can enjoy an end cut as long as it's well seasoned and not dry. Unfortunately, it was pretty dry. And sorta tough. It was a nice thick piece and the seasoning was good so that counts for something. The au jus and creamed horse radish were good though so they saved the day. I tried some hush puppies that were barely passable as hush puppies and didn't have much labor. I did have some small red potatoes that were steamed and then sautéed maybe, along with some spicy sausage and onions. Those were pretty tasty. My next trip through I tried the snow crab and some breaded fried shrimp. The shrimp was dry and tough. It had obviously been sitting on the buffet line too long. I ate one of the four they gave me and passed on the rest. They gave me two clusters of crab and some clarified butter. As again, I'm not a fan of snow crab but after watching a nearby diner consume four heaping plates of clusters... I was hopeful that they would redeem the meal. They did not. Again, long spindly legs, body meat that's was super difficult to get out as well as being heavily salted and mushy made the experience tedious and not worth the effort. The clarified butter was ok though. All in all it was a pretty bad dining experience that I will not choose to try again. There are other options on SPI that are much better.

Whenever I am in the area, I always make sure that I get to Louie's Backyard for dinner. I love their buffet offerings including Carved beef, shrimp, crab legs, fried fish, scallops, potatoes, pasta, salad, vegetables, and more. I think that the pricing is reasonable for all that is offered. Some days, I sit outside and watch the sunset. Other days, I dine inside and enjoy the air conditioning.

Food is delicious! I tried the prime rib and am very picky when it comes to the meat but I can say they nailed it. Buffet didn't look as appealing thinking they didn't have a lot of options but everything they had was tasty and cooked well. Our waitress was very friendly and kept up with our drinks. Over all ambiance and service including the food was a 10

Food was not great. It was cold and no flavor. Service was slow and recommended somewhere else to eat.

I Had a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich was very cold and not very good I would give it a rating of 1.6 Had a great server but food was disappointing.

The sitting area smelled really foul. The server didn't serve us for 30 mins, they looked at us for a while. Eventually someone came up to us and served the people who did not eat at the buffet. Salad buffet did not have much to offer. Buffet had some good protein options. The ac was leaking over you when you walked under it.

Once upon a time Louie's had arguably one of the best buffets anywhere. Sadly, it appears things have changed. The price still remains reasonable, the staff attentive but the quality at least for today was simply non-existent. The Crab Legs were simply awful which is not their fault as they are becoming harder and harder to find anywhere especially in an all you can eat environment. The legs were bland, small, and impossible to open. This is excusable but man, there is no excuse for over cooking the prime rib, that is 100% in their control. Don't get me wrong, in years past the prime rib was never what I would call stellar but it was always "good" for an all you can't eat buffet. To the owner, Medium cooked Prime Rib is not worth cooking, nor eating for that matter. The Shrimp, salad, and ribs were tasty enough & absolutely worth a shot if these appeal to you. For me, my wife and family members I'm not sure we will be back anytime soon but we will more than likely try it again in the future one more time out of appreciation of how good it can be when they are on their game.

Our first time at the Friday night seafood and prime rib buffet...big disappointment. Very few items on the buffet were tasty. Fried fish was horrible. Pasta salads lacked flavor. Crab legs were soft. Prime rib was fatty and lacked flavor. Macaroni was horrible. The only thing we enjoyed were the little red potatoes, the fried shrimp, and the grilled shrimp on a stick. Service was good. Dirty plates were taken away fairly quickly. Ambience was ok...nothing great.

The 1 star rating is only for the waterside location for sunset. The food itself should be zero stars, especially after waiting 40 minutes for food on a nearly-empty not-busy Sunday night. I realize that Texas is not the place to expect decent seafood, but I figured since we're on the gulf, there could be hope. I was wrong. The grilled tuna was unseasoned. But good thing it came with a lemon that was also grilled until sour. My side of choice was the garlic potato, which really meant baked potato topped with a mound of burnt chopped garlic. We also tried the surf n turf. Requested the steak to be medium, but they must've forgotten about it on the grill because it came out WELL past well-done. At least the side asparagus was decent. First and last time here.

Waiter was great. Buffet was terrible. Poor quality and very bland. It was a great deal considering all you can eat crab legs, but we couldn't even get through one serving of those. :-(

We had dinner here tonight. Jonathon gave us fast, courteous service! The food was just average. Crab legs small, fried shrimp very good. Salad bar mediocre- not even many dressings. Stayed to hear the Rock band- and they were average at best. Someone started smoking by the band - so left. Ambiance not great either. Disappointed

Michael Lafferty was very offensive and not funny at all. Can't really sing either. Need to do a better job hiring your entertainment.

If you're looking for all you can eat they definitely have it. I strongly doubt it's local seafood. Okay crab legs are not usually local, but I know South Padre Island has fresh shrimp! The food was rubbery and it was not very clean. For $33 per plate I'd expect more. Went for the sunset but was quickly asked to move to the inside diner bc of the nats. The shades were turned down, so the sunset was not even a factor to help the food. Sweet margarita and seltzer was $33.

Food was pretty good, I ordered the Patty Melt, it comes with thick French fries. Over all good taste, and we'll seasoned, but the patty in the burger was way too dry and over cooked. Service was good in the sense that the waitress was so nice, and knowledgeable, but she was slow, and we respuestas a plate and it never came, and it got to the point where we wanted multiple things that we ordered all at once and also asked for to go boxes and the check, because we didn't know how long we would be waiting if we didn't order everything at once. Place is super chill, if you want to go for lunch make sure you're under the roof because the sun will kill you, but the view for pictures is amazing. I have been there for dinner, and the night life is pretty fun too, music and good drinks.