Pujo Street Cafe

Came in for brunch ordered my appetizers they were great. When it came to the entrée the server forgot what we ordered and came back twice to ask again. Then my hamburger still was wrong. Wrong cheese and had egg. When I requested the right cheese they brought me the same burger again with new cheese and egg again but no bacon. And no toppings for the burger. Was really the worst service I’ve had ever. The foods that came out first were great but the service ruined my whole experience.

You had me at bloody mary! …and pujo oysters… and beignets! !! Delish, oh my goodness. And the waitstaff is amazing — we had Kevin (terrific) and «stick it» brought the funny! Welcoming hostesses so refreshing for us out-​of-​towners, and the historical building façade is so charming. Love this place — thank you for the great experience.

Service was absolutely great… At first. My original server was extremely polite and attentive.
I had previously viewed the menu online. I thought the crab and avocado salad looked amazing.
When I got there, that’s what I ordered, as well as the chicken and sausage gumbo (which was incredible). I got the salad and it was alright, but also tasted like I just spent $ 14 on an avocado.
When the waiter came back to ask give me the check, I wasn’t going to mention the salad at all, until he asked about it and said «I wish I could take it off for you». At that point I asked, «Why couldn’t you?»
He then stated that the restaurant did not take off items once they were served. He said that he didn’t have the authority to take anything off of the check. I asked then, why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to make a customer happy and want to come back? I asked for a manager and he told me that he wasn’t there. I asked for another waiter or bartender.
A woman came up to the table and asked what was wrong. I was very polite when I told her that I wasn’t going to say anything until this poor man told me he wished he could take an item off that I wasn’t happy with. She then said that no, they do not remove items unless there was something wrong with the food. I looked at her and said again, it bothers me that a place this nice won’t go out of their way to make sure a customer is satisfied and couldn’t wait to return! She said to me, «you should have paid more attention to the menu.»
I then told her that yes, I absolutely did, in fact, I looked at the menu from my hotel and knew what I would be getting before I even arrived. She then said she’d remove it and walked away.
This is ridiculous. Insulting me will not make me want to return.

Shrimp poboy on real French bread. It was good. French onion soup was good but very small.
A little expensive.

This was my first time visiting this place. I drove in from Houston that day. I was here for a bridal shower on Saturday, August 1^st. The place is set up nicely, & the party room where the shower was located was a nice size. The food was pretty good and our waiter was pleasant.
The reason for the three stars was because when I went to use the restroom, I was not impressed at all. The sinks had not been scrubbed in I don’t know how long. That restroom needs a serious makeover. Nasty restroom to me equals a nasty kitchen. My grandmother has always taught me, if you want to know how someone is, see how they keep their kitchen and their bathroom. I wasn’t able to inspect the kitchen, but from the restroom, I can only speculate on how clean the kitchen was. Even though the restroom is old, does not mean it can not be scrubbed. All they need to do is use the Clorox FOAM restroom cleaner and let it sit.

Great food. Went for lunch and service was poor bc wait staff was limited. Price was a bit aggressive but some items worth it. Awesome lay out. Awesome location. Highly recommend.

I don’t think I’ll ever come back here. Whoever runs this place needs to do a better job delagating the work and managing the staff. My friend and I came here for a late lunch. The restaurant was empty with the exception of two or three couples. For some god awful reason, the bartender was our waiter and everything was downhill after that. We never got drink refills unless I went to the bar and asked for them. He forgot our appetizers and it took over an hour to get burgers. While we sat there with empty drinks and no food, the bartender aka our waiter was busy chatting up patrons at the bar. In all fairness, he is the bartender so I can’t fault him for that but he should never have been our waiter at the same time. the waiter serving the table next to us was doing a great job from what I could tell and We were jealous that we didn’t have him as our waiter. Instead we sat there wondering if the bartender was ever going to come back. And the food? Well I can’t comment on appetizers since they forgot them. The burgers were average. They weren’t bad by any means but definitely not worth putting up with the horrible service.

This place is such a hidden downtown secret. I opted to sit at the bar with a friend since we only wanted deserts and drinks. The bread pudding was phenomenal however it does not have raisins in it if that is something you are in to. The rum sauce was a hit. The bartender Ryan was so sweet and knowledgeable. He grows blackberries and blueberries in his yard and brings them to work. The blackberry cobbler was delicious however the vanilla bean ice cream was extremely hard… like so hard you could hardly get your spoon through. Sorry you loose a star for that. On to the drinks… lime in the coconut was great but the show stealer was the mojito. Ryan is definitely a pro at mojitos. Great way to end the night

Super service, patio is perfect and food was amazing, good price and quality fresh ingredients.

Great drinks particularly on Martini Monday. Oysters Pujo OUTSTANDING. The atmosphere is generally quiet to mostly subdued. I have found the service to be exceptional.

All good things must end, so I guess Pujo has reached theirs.
We used to LOVE this place. So when we are in Lake Charles, we spend our dinner dates between Pujo’s and 121 Artisan Bistro. We have been paying 121 a little more attention over the past 8 months, so we decided this past Saturday to show Pujo some love instead. BIG MISTAKE!
We made reservations (totally not necessary anymore) and arrived about 20 minutes early, so we sat at the bar and ordered martini’s, one pineapple and one key lime pie. The drinks were fantastic, as they always have been and the bartender was nice and attentive. We finished those, asked the hostess if we could be seated and she promptly sat us. The hostess btw was fantastic, very accommodating and very professional.
Melody the waitress, has waited on us numerous times before, so we were glad to be seated in her section… at first. We ordered the avocado and crabmeat salad. She brought us a plate and walked off. No crackers, no bread, no anything to eat it with. When she finally made it back around 5 minutes later, I flagged her down and asked her if we could have bread. The bread used to be served immediately and now she told us it was only served upon request and walked off to get it. Okay, whatever, no big deal. I have to ask for bread now, easy enough. At this point, we did notice a bit of an attitude from Melody (she was just very short with her replies and acted as if we were inconveniencing her by asking questions), which we had never experienced before. We tried to blow it off and enjoy our evening. The big issue came when we tried to order dinner. My husband asked her what was the special for the night and she said they no longer do the specials. He said okay and asked her if he could order the duck l’orange. She told him they no longer serve the duck l’orange. He said okay and ordered the prime rib or ribeye (can’t remember which now) and a baked potato. She said they didn’t have baked potatoes! He asked her how they ran out (he wasn’t rude about it at all, even kind of chuckled) and she raised her voice (NO JOKE!) and said «We have a 30 top table over there (she pointed) in case you didn’t notice and so we ran out of baked potatoes!», she then began to walk off! I guess she realized she still hadn’t finished our order so she came back and my husband said «It’s not my problem you have a 30 top table, maybe a little better planning on managements part would have avoided this?». She rolled her eyes, threw her hands up, kind of smirked and asked with an aggravated tone if we were ready to order. My husband had decided at this point that we were leaving and told her no, just bring us our check and we would go somewhere else. He also asked for the manager and was told the same thing another reviewer said «he was in the kitchen and did not have time to talk to us». The hostess was very apologetic as she witnessed the entire thing since we were at the table nearest to her stand. We paid and left and ended up at 121 bistro. I’m glad we did, the service was top notch and the food phenomenal. Kind of like Pujo USED to be before everything went south.
I don’t know if Pujo has new management, but the changes they have instituted are bringing the place down. Used to the menu was fairly small and simple. Now, it’s several pages long with cheaper dishes and sandwiches. Cheaper food brings a cheaper crowd and hence the atmosphere becomes less appealing. We used to never notice children running around like it was McDonalds, but that was not the case this time. There were small children running around and screeching. Used to when we did see children there, they were very well mannered and sat at the tables with their parents. There was one little girl in there about 5 who was well behaved, but she was the only one. Also, taking specials off the menu is unfortunate as the Duck L’orange was one of them and my husbands favorite. Now it is not served at all. Having to ask for the bread makes it feel a little like a cheaper fare and the fact that they had NO baked potatoes to serve with the steak was mind blowing. Even if there was a 30 top (we were told it was a wedding party or something to that effect), I’m assuming that they would have had to make a reservation and management should have planned accordingly by making sure that guests who were not part of the party were not inconvenienced with their orders because the party ordered a certain amount of food. I also tried to call the manager Sunday to discuss what had happened the night before and again was told he was busy in the kitchen! I guess the manager has no time for customers anymore?
Sadly, this was our last visit to Pujo. I would rather pay more for 121 and know that the service and food is going to be up to par and not subpar for just a few dollars more.

The waitress Melody was friendly and attentive. I just ordered a regular burger and it was huge. Came on a Monday afternoon and it was dead, a nice cool indoor relief from the outside heat.

I ordered the surf n turf with salad and grilled vegetables, wife ordered fried tortellinis and a cup of gumbo. 25 minutes later I ask the waitress to check on my salad and appetizer. She checks and brings out the appetizer, still no salad. 5 minutes later salad arrives. Good salad and tasty appetizer. Then the gumbo and my surf n turf arrive. Wife says gumbo is very good. I start with the shrimp. The shrimp were grilled with a spicy seasoning. Very good. Then I tried the steak, COLD. The steak was barely over room temperature. I called the waitress to tell her about my problem. She said she was sorry and offered to reheat my steak or get me another one. I did not want to wait another 40 mnites for them to cook another steak. I did not want to reheat mine either. I ate the shrimp and ask for the manager. 10 minutes later the bar manager came by and I explained the problem. He offered to discount my meal. I ask him to speak with the manager and he told me he was to busy in the kitchen to speak to me. WOW never heard this before. Finally when we were leaving the manager showed up and I explained everything to him. He appolgized and took my meal off my ticket. Just a bad experience. Will not be going back anytime soon.

Food’s always good, but this place seems to have some staffing problems. I’ve always had good service at Pujo, but a lot of times, especially in the evening, it seems like they try to run too many tables on too few servers. I end up feeling sorry for the waitstaff.
They used to have some awesome tres leches cake that was worth the whole trip, but it wasn’t available anymore the last time I ordered it. Wish they’d bring it back.

We ordered an Avocado-​Spinach Dip appetizer, served with fried pita chips, and the Crabmeat-​Avocado salad, desiring a lighter fare for this evening’s Gallery Promenade festivities. The appetizer was quite tasty — not too rich-​tasting, while the salad was superb, with crisp assorted baby greens, avocado that was at the absolute peak of ripeness — not too firm, not too soft — and an excellent piquant flavor! Topped off with a tasty Irish coffee that was neither too strong, nor too weak. This was my first visit to the Pujo Street Café & I definitely plan to visit again to sample some of their deliciously described entrees!

Pretty unexpect from my view of Lake Charles restaurants. Really eligent. Waiter was a bit rude but he was single handedly running the front of the house. Crab cakes were fresh crab and delicious. Price wise its more of an anniversary dinner than casual dinning. All in all a really good dining experience.

Their menu was limited. I don’t eat fish and there were only 3 things for me to choose from.

I had high hopes for this place as it was listed in the local lake charles magazine, I guess that should have told me it wouldn’t meet my northern taste bud expectations.
The boyfriend and I went for my birthday dinner, the scallops are ally good, small though and over priced for what you get.
I had the filet which came out cooked the way I like it and Jason had the tuna. He enjoyed his.
I ordered crab and hollandaise sauce for my steak thinking it would come with the jumbo lump crab on the top and sauce on the side, not so much. It came mixed together and had WAY too much sauce.
We had the crime brûlée for dessert, not good at all. Had a funky taste to it, it’s hard to mess up crime brûlée.
We went back again a few nights ago, I ordered the steak again and they gave me mashed pots with it, very bland. Jason got he fish and he liked that. I think they used a new seasoning on the steak as I got sick, most likely I had a sensitivity to the seasoning. The first time we went the chef was very aware of a gluten allergy.
The last time we went they were unsure of what gluten even was…
I will say their staff is wonderful. I liked both waiters we had… young but on top of things.

One of my favorite restaurants. Great food and drink. Friendly, attentive wait staff. Nice atmosphere.

Bland, uninspired and overpriced. Service was acceptable although impersonal. The entire place reeked of the cloying sweetness of potpourri. Will not be back.
Steer clear of this place.