crescent city grill

had a very good lunch today at crescent city grill. i had the zydeco chicken which is a grilled chicken breast smothered in a creamy cajun sauce, mushrooms and andouille sausage. great flavor in the sauce and the sausage. i also had potatoes au gratin and dirty rice for my side. the potatoes were solid, but my rice left a little to be desired. dirty rice should not be sticky and there was not much flavor. service was attentive and friendly. i really like the variety of the menu with various poboys,shrimpand fish dishes. definitely will be a repeat stop while in hattiesburg.

sooooo disappointed. normally one of
our faves but the last couple of visits have been consistently mediocre. today during crabfest we got the crab and avocado salad, the crab melt and theshrimppoboy. to begin with the menu condition was atrocious and i sat in a chair with mangled upholstery. the menu was torn and extremely worn, it kept snagging my fingers.
i felt like i was in a 'greasy spoon'. the crab and avocado salad was great, perfect for a steamy southern day. the crab melt was just sad, no words. theshrimppoboy was the big disappointment; no more real poboy bread. they have changed their bread making it a gummy mess, and theshrimpwere over cooked and mia. no more over-stuffed poboys.'

bad night?. crescent city usually has wonderful food with great service, however tonight was the complete opposite. i ordered the pasta jambalaya and my father order theshrimpcarnival. my pasta was terrible! horribly over seasoned with oregano (one of the worst spices to over season with), it made the dish unedible. the carnival dish consists of ettouffe, creole, and fried shrimp. my father said the ettouffe and creole were both down right gross. usually the servers/ manager promptly check to see how the food tastes, but this was not one of those nights. if we had not already waited over an hour to receive our food (on a very uneventful thursday night) i would have sent my food back immediately.

to recap:
-unappetizing entrees
-very slow bringing out food
-very slow bringing/collecting bill
-one of the last groups of customers left in the joint...?

as i said before crescent city used to be one of my favorite places in hattiesburg to eat, but tonight was an utter disappointment. don't know if i should chuck it up to a shotty thursday night crew or if st. john is cutting back on quality employees to make up for his expenditures for his renovations at purple parrot.

i visited this restaurant many times over the years and can only think of one occasion when i was not pleased with the dish i ordered. i find their seafood dishes to be fresh and flavorful. the crab cakes, crawfish pie,shrimppoboy and grilled catch of the day are some of my faves! i always go back and enjoy taking out of town guests there!

weekly customers. our favorite are the fried crab claws appetizer. then the wonderful salads, homemade house dressing and homemade ranch. wonderful fresh catch of the day and crawfish bisque,shrimpbisque, and corn & crab bisque soups. just a wonderful menu with a+++++++++++++++++++ service. the waitress' know exactly what we want and just bring it to us. couldn't ask for better

terrible food. i cannot understand why people continue to patronize ccg. it does have a good atmosphere, but you cannot eat atmosphere. the service is good also but what about the food? the presentation is nicely done, but there is nothing about this food that is good. to call it new orleans style food is a sacrilege. robert st. john's restaurants would not survive 1 week in new orleans! i think the only reason he is surviving here is that there is no competition in hattiesburg except the chain restaurants. in the past 3 years since we have moved here from new orleans, we have eaten there 9 times & have yet to have a flavorful meal. last night was the worst. the char grilled oysters were absolutely pitiful. how can you ruin oysters grilled with lemon, garlic, butter & cheese?? but, they managed to do so. what they called corn & crab bisque tasted like something out of a can from campbell. i couldn't even eat it. the batter they use to fry the stuffedshrimp& the stuffed mushrooms with was so heavy & thick, one could use it as a hockey puck. by the way, i still haven't tried the purple parrott because i cannot make sense of the menu & tabella's is so far from being authentic italian food that it's a joke. i simply do not get it!!!

exceptional dining experience. i am not in any way familiar with hattiesburg, but the army brings me to this city for a week and already i can make this determination: crescent city grill is the best restaurant for the money here.

there are 4 restaurants inside of this building, all are owned by the same person and all use the same kitchen. so the quality of the food is going to be very high. the decor and ambiance was a huge draw to me and my group of 5 guys with lots of dark wood, low lighting and a high, metal tiled ceiling (just take a look at my pictures so you can see for yourself). call it sexist if you want, but immediately we noticed that ccg employs a staff of very attractive females. they go to great lengths to treat you right and by default, the customers go to great lengths to tip well.

their menu is diverse, just stare at it for a while. southern dishes are their feature and seafood is in literally every dish. i started with an appetizer of fried pickles and jalapenos. for a group of 5, it was gone rather quickly. the jalapenos were not spicy at all.

for my main meal, i actually got two appetizers instead of an entree, just so i could see what they were all about. i got the soup trio (gumbo, corn and crab bisque and soup of the day which was french onion) and the fried green tomatoes. the french onion soup was borderline too salty, but otherwise had a great flavor. the crab and corn bisque was very skimpy on the crab and the gumbo had surprisingly large chunks of duck in it. i was very pleased with them. the fried green tomatoes were a huge hit and some of the other guys at the table got them as well. it is only three large tomato slices, but they were very firm and fried to perfection. theshrimpseafood topping on them was second to none and had all of us wishing we had a giant plate of them to eat all night long. one of my friends also go their steak special which had a smoked sirloin covered with smoked onions. he said it was out of this world and it looked every bit too.

finally, our group ordered up almost every one of the desserts they had to choose from: sweet potato pie, death by chocolate, new orleans bread pudding and buttery pecan pie. i got the death by chocolate (which did not kill me) and although it was good, the winner of the desserts had to be the guy who got the buttery pecan pie. this ain't your normal store-bought pecan pie. this stuff was crust-to-top full of pecans, with only the tiniest sliver of that corn syrup filler in between. it looked and tasted amazing and probably wins my award for the best pecan pie i've ever had.

in the end, we sat and reveled in this terrific meal with every single person declaring they wanted to come back the next day. this place won't let you down and i would recommend it to anybody who is in the area as a place you shouldn't pass up.

of note: i observed at least 3 separate tables of single diners who all had brought a book or something to occupy their time. i find this very strange in a sit-down, upscale restaurant like this. although i don't know what it would mean.

passing through hattiesburg and had dinner with friends at this restaurant. i checked "liked it" but actually my husband and i have mixed reviews. he said hisshrimpand grits were delicious and so were my crab cakes orleans, thougjh they had too much filler for my taste. hubby said au gratin potatoes were from frozen potatoes that they added cheese to. he ought to know as he orders from food distributers. the bread pudding was okay but nothing like what we have had in new orleans. this one was pureed and sliced like a pie, no texture. whiskey sauce was good though.

disappointing. my wife and i have heard such great things about crescent city we had to try it. we started with the gumbo which had a good thickness and color but had little meat and no rice. theshrimpand grits were watered down and had too many onions for my liking. the crab and corn bisque was ok but the crab crake was very small and had little flavor. all the dishes had a sour finish to them almost like lemon or something and nothing tasted fresh. i'm sure they leave all the roux's on a hot plate all day and just dip from there. i doubt we try crescent city again.

love to go here all the time, the three atmospheres under one roof is so cool. pp is my fave. excited about the new loft. crescent city is my lunch fave.shrimpand grits is #1 and the warm chicken salad is #2. the hubbs loves theshrimppoboy and mardi gras pasta.

dissappointed. last monday night, i chose to go to ccg. i had not really eaten there in several years and they always have lots of cars there. so as i eat out once a day, i thought i would try them out. my server was nice and brought me my drink immediately. i ordered the sensation salad, which i had always liked, and the po boy with 1/2shrimpand 1/2 oysters with slices of fried jalapenos
lettuce, 3 slices tomato, and lots of purple onion, a tad of sauce on french bread. not new orleans french bread, but french bread. my salad came with big chunks of romaine, last time i had this salad the lettuce was finly chopped up and the dressing was full of flavor. then my po boy. coldshrimpthat made them soggy, 2 fried oysters that were also soggy, and about 25 or more of fried jalapenos. see the fried jalapenos made it look like i had lots of shrimp. they kept asking how the food was and i kept telling them it was "just ok" and really for 17 or 18.00 it should have be hot. and really good. the oysters crispy,shrimpcooked. i was disappointed. in fact i asked my fb friends just what do people order that keeps them coming back for more and more. oh, there is no reason any restaurant should serve frozen french fries. by a potato cutter and fry those babies fresh. again, i will try again. and i agree about the smoking outside.

good gumbo. having eaten in the purple parrot and the crescent city grill, i decided to have dinner at the mahogany bar tonight. the house salad with the sun dried tomato vinegarette was excellent and very fresh. the soup de jour was seafood gumbo which was a nice thick roux withshrimpand seafood and a bed of rice. the gumbo was very good. very reasonable prices too.


-----22 may, 2012-----

very good lunch. having tried the purple parrot once, i was anxious to give the crescent city grill a shot so i had lunch there today. the hostess quickly showed me to a table and alex, my server, was quickly there to get my drink order and tell me about the specials. i picked the lunch combination special which was cajun roast beef with mushrooms, pepper jack cheese and horseradish sauce, along with a small crock of french onion soup and some crispy home-made kettle chips. the soup was excellent with a light, but flavor packed broth, plenty of onions and some nice bread and cheese; and the cheese was not ridiculously stringy, as it can be. the sandwich was also very tasty with tender beef and the horseradish really came through; there could have been a tad more meat on the sandwich, but i won't complain. the kettle chips were crispy, flavorful and not overly salty. the food was great and the meal was a bit over $13.
my only issues were these--one small and one not so small. when i went to the rest room there were no paper towels, so i mentioned it to a server when i came out. my bigger issue was the temperature. bring your parka! it seemed really chilly when i got there, but i decided to wait a few minutes and adjust. the longer i sat there the colder it got. when the hostess came by to seat another group next to me i quietly asked if she could adjust the temp and she agreed it was really cold--right then the other table said the same thing, so i know it wasn't just me. my food arrived and the arctic blast eased for about 10 minutes, but then kicked back in. i would have stayed for dessert, but i had to get out to avoid frost bite to fingers and toes. (and it was only about 78 outside, not exactly an inferno). just be warned, wear layers when you go in there :)

i dined here with my family and we really enjoyed it! we started with oysters on the half shell, which were delicious. theshrimpand grits were excellent - a slightly different take on it than the traditional dish - topped with sautéed mushrooms. attentive and friendly service.

theseshrimpand grits are the best i have ever had.


-----04 jun, 2011-----

this restaurant is awesome! go there you won't regret it.


-----11 jul, 2009-----

great place. me and my boyfriend go here usually once a week. when we try to think of somewhere to go eat, we usually fall back on crescent city, you know the food is going to be delicious, good drinks and great service.

best creole/cajan food outside of new orlean. myshrimp& crabmeat in a fried eggplant boat with a creole was awesome.