Friends Coastal Restaurant

Paying for the view not the food or service. Very nice location and renovations are very pretty though.

Went here once, waited an hour after being told it’d be 15 minutes (mistake 1) then waited another 15 minutes for our drinks to come out, keeping in mind this place was NOT busy at all. after waiting another 30 for a chicken Caesar wrap we left. not worth it, never has been even before the fire

Madisonville is a nice small town, with historic significance, and lots of boats on the river. I find it is a good place to spend an afternoon eating, watching a game on the bar TV, and having a cool afternoon cocktail or beer.
I went in for a drink with my friend Asger on Sunday. He’s a local that lives just up the road in Mandeville.
We had a drink downstairs and watched the band, but it was a bit too hot to stay for long that day.
Upstairs is a restaurant and bar, A/​C and PLENTY of TV’s to watch while you watch your favorite team (LSU) win!
We enjoyed the burgers we ordered, and the service was good, especially for how busy it was.
The river view and people watching here are top notch. I suggest that any Sunday afternoon would be the best time to go.

The venue is extremely nice! Such an open vibe and cute coastal décor. Not cheesy, or typical. The peons are huge! Loved the oysters and shrimp, the fish was so so and the crab cake is fried so if you aren’t into breading then it won’t be your thing. Drinks were by far the best I’ve had on the north Shore!

The atmosphere is terrific! The food and service can be summed up in one word, HORRIBLE!

I was glad to have them reopen. The parking lot is valet only, not good. The raw oysters are the best around madisonville. They are shucked at the bar as ordered, not stacked in a refrigerator like other restaurants in the area. Everything is overpriced except for the oysters. $ 6 for a draft beer! I had luck there last month and got the fish of the day, Mai Mai. Guy next to me ordered the Mai mai sandwich off the menu. I was shocked to see my portion was the same as his. He got the same side and was charged $ 15. I was charge $ 25 and he got a bun!
Last Thursday night I had the shrimp and oyster platter. When it arrived the server immediately said he would get me some different fried oyster. The ones on my plate were burned to a crisp. 15 minutes later the other ones came out and were fine, not great but edible. I did have a burger last month and that was average and not worth the money.
Only giving it two stars because of the raw oysters and atmosphere. Sorry, no reason for a restaurant in south Louisiana to serve food like that. I’ve had better fried oysters from a gas station.
Everything others say about the atmosphere is correct.

I had eaten here last week and decided to give it a second chance.
Service was good.
Chicken pasta was very dry.
The diet coke and coke zero tasted the same. Both were tasteless.
The hamburger was pretty good, but overpriced, so is most of the menu.
The calamari was greasy.
The view is fantastic.
Getting to madisonville from Mandeville is always horrible due to the drawbridge.
I won’t go back for the food, but to have a few drinks and look at the river while listening to music.

I am so glad this place is going to reopen. We went there in the summer last year and had such an enjoyable experience. Nothing like sitting on the water, with the breeze through your hair, and eating a good meal. Oh, and they serve frozen daiquiris there as well. I was so upset when I heard that they had damage for the hurricane, and I am glad they are reopening soon. I will be going this spring.

Good food, just not great food. I mainly go for the the deck and honestly the food is pretty good I love going there for lunch and just relaxing I don’t know that I would say they are expensive I would say average for the type of place, out of all the times I’ve been there the service has been nothing but great. As for someone complaining about waiting 10 minutes for appetizers to arrive… I don’t think anyone could make them happy!

This was our third time trying to dine at Friends. First two times, we were unable to find parking. This time, when we entered, we were asked if we wanted to sit inside or outside. We said inside. We were then told inside wasn’t available. We were, then, told the bar area had tables and we could seat ourselves. The bar had 2 tables and one was dirty. We waited for menus and/​or an acknowledgement of our presence, but it never came. We left, never to return.

this place is good for its view and drinks on the deck. the food is mediocre. the crawfish and corn bisque was bland and starchy, the sauce for the crab cake was strange and non-​complimentary, the catfish poboy was bland, and the green onion sausage poboy with all the fixin’s (peppers, onions, cheese and mustard) in addition to being dressed was just overdone and piled on. i tasted the catfish tchefuncte and it was ok.
service is sometimes good, sometimes spotty, but not outright bad — either over attentive or not attentive enough. once i had a server who was trying, but forgot everything so repeated requests for everything were necessary.
the problem is that food choices in the immediate area are limited, which i suspect accounts for the high ratings.

Great place to enjoy dinner on the river in Madisonville.
Sauteed crab claws are unreal! Spicy, buttery, yummy sauce with loads of claws swimming in it — and french bread to soak up all the deliciousness. An absolute must to order. The appetizers here are incredible, salads are really tasty… Hard to even get to an entrée with the amount of food they serve.
Bloody Marys are great, but be advised, Happy Hour is only at the bar, not at the tables.

The only thing separating this from a 5 star was running out of Miller Lite. Not really that big of a deal, but it’s not perfection!
I had the amberjack that was on special with a lemon butter sauce. It was awesome. My coworker had a fried chicken dish of which the details escape me, but he spoke pretty highly of it.
Add attentive service to a great atmosphere on the patio, and you have a winner.

My husband and I had lunch here on a busy Saturday. It was very hot outside so we sat inside at the bar. We really liked this place a lot. It is right on the water so a few people came by boat. He had the Grouper Filet sandwich with fries and he enjoyed it very much. I had the ½ Shrimp Po-​Boy and cup of Crawfish Bisque. I’m a big fan of the local Crawfish. We thought the prices were very reasonable.

The last few times we have been here the food has been notably better. Went there the other day with a party of 12. Food was exceptional — $ 10 for all you can eat Boiled Crawfish.. .. . They just kept bringing us tray after tray — seasoned well. Fried oysters were good and the service was over the top. Kept bringing us beer and crawfish. Only gripe I had was they were out of the Abita Andygator. My current favorite on the North Shore for consuming mass quantities of food and beer.

Go visit Friends when it’s nice outside and sit on the river side patio. Don’t even bother sitting inside. This place has one of the best views on the north shore. Try the grilled red fish on the half shell with key lime Burre blanc and crab meat. It’s damn good! This place is worth a drive from the city to visit for a lazy afternoon.

Great place! Ok for kids, & really wonderful seafood. Service was wonderful, but we went on a slow evening (make a habit of that since there is 7 in our family). Located in charming downtown Madisonville, this place is dress/​casual. Starters were yummy, crab claws both sauted & fried, & fried calamari. Got the «Pontchartrain» Filet– which is stuffed with lump crab meat. Wow was it wonderful! My husband got the seafood platter, which was great as well. Someone got the Lobster & Andouille Pasta, & it was good.
There is a bar inside so I’m sure if there is a game or big event it could get loud. There is outside eating, during pleasant evenings, along the Tchefuncte River.

We hadn’t been to Friends in a while so we decided to have dinner here.
We made reservations through the open table android app. I love open table. I wish every restaurant used it. A few clicks, and my reservations were confirmed.
We arrived on time and were promptly seated. The restaurant wasn’t very crowded condsidering how full their parking lot was.
We started with sauteed crab claws and calamari. The crab claws are incredible. They are sauteed in what I believe is the sauce for bbq shrimp. It is wonderful and spicy. After eating this appetizer you will have probably consumed several sticks of butter, but who cares. It is that good. The calamari were also good. It comes with a side of marinara for dipping, and there is a habenero on top.
Our entrees included the special grilled fish (escolar), crab meat salad and fried seafood platter.
The grilled escolar was very good. I had never heard of escolar, but it was very tasty.
The crab meat salad was very good and had a good amount of crab meat.
The fried seafood platter came with shrimp, oysters (I substituted more shrimp), catfish, a crab cake, sweet potato hush puppies and fries. It was very good. All of the fried seafood was cooked perfectly and tasted great. The crab cake was also very good. The seafood platter was $ 26 and is enough food for two people. There were at least 10 shrimp, two or three catfish fillets, a crab cake, two hushpuppies and a mountain of fries.
The service was very good. Our server was very attentive and friendly. This was really a good experience.
We didn’t go outside on the deck, but there were a good amount of people out there. There was live music and a great view of the river.
I highly recommend Friends and think it is the best restaurant of its kind on the Northshore.

Good food and probably the best waterfront eatery on the Northshore. They have a deck just along the river which makes for the perfect Sunday afternoon dining spot.
My favorite here is their crab cakes.

Fun restaurant for a group of people looking for a laid-​back atmosphere. We sat upstairs and had the freedom to joke and laugh and make a lot of noise. The service was fairly slow and not once during the night did a waiter come check on how we were doing (but they were nice whenever we did interact with them).
The food was good — definitely try the hush puppies! I was disappointed the fresh catch of the day was out by the time I ordered (about 8pm), but everyone else enjoyed their meals. Two of us did have some upset stomach symptoms later in the night — not sure if that’s coincidence or a result of something we ate.
The drink menu is great — definitely try the Coastal Rum Punch. I’d go back, but maybe be a little careful about what I’m eating.