Saltwater Willy's Bayou Cafe
121 Jack White Drive
Kingsport, TN 37664
phone 423-765-1665
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com
Tonight my wife and I decided to get something out for dinner outside of the usual burger or pizza as she had worked quite late at her medical office. After picking her up, knowing that the usual wouldn't be very well received, I suggested we try Salt Water Willy's Bayou Cafe. It's located in the old Amato's building at the end of Jack White drive, which is directly behind Grand Furniture's building on E. Stone Drive.
This restaurant is owned by Wayne Michelli, who also owns Riverfront Seafood and is known to his fans as well as detractors as, "The Fish Nazi". He's a picky guy when it comes to seafood and you will pay for that quality.
When we arrived at the restaurant this evening at about 7:30PM, we had to search the parking lot over for a parking place, which we did find pretty fast. I thought this was a good sign as a busy place is normally doing something right as we're not in a tourist area. It also can mean that meat and seafood get a rapid turnover so you're less likely to get something less than reasonably fresh.
We entered the restaurant with some pleasant Zydeco music playing both outside near the door and inside the restaurant. The variety of Lousiana-flavored music at a reasonable volume level played throughout our meal was very pleasant and enjoyable. Our friendly hostess seated us quickly and didn't give me any crap for requesting a table. As some of you may know, I have mobility issues that causes me to avoid booths if possible. Unlike a previous trip to another nearby restaurant that was recently reviewed, she was quite accommodating. Surprisingly, there was almost no one in the restaurant that we could see. We found out that a local business was having a party in a private room and that explained most of the cars outside. We only
noticed one other couple in the main dining room with another that came in not long before we finished our meal.
Our cordial server, Brandy, quickly arrived at the table with our menus, took our drink order and asked us if we'd seen the appetizer listing posted on the board in the lobby. We had noticed one of them: fish tacos on special for $1. Being a fish taco lover, I asked her about them. She explained that they were pieces of fried tilapia with lettuce and pico de gallo on a soft taco and of a reasonable size. That sounded good to me and considering what some of the local Mexican places around here pass off as fish tacos, I was interested and later ordered one. I had a question about how the prices were listed on the menu. In the entrees, it would show something like: 9/13. She explained that the lower number was for a smaller portion and the larger price was for a serving that was twice the size. Fair enough.
http://www.saltwaterwillysbayoucafe.com/Menu.html
They've lately had an advertised special in the Thursday dining section of the Kingsport Times-News of "Two Can Dine For $20", and she explained it to us and gave us the special menu for it separate from the main one. Basically, you get an appetizer off the list, two house salads with choice of dressings and two entrees for $20. The selections of appetizers and entrees were reasonable compared to the regular menu offering. She neglected to tell us that the appetizer and entree portion size were on the modest size compared to the full price version.
They also had posted on the entry door another special running Monday-Thursday 5-8PM where if you bought two non-alcoholic drinks and an entree off the menu, the second entree would be free if equal or lesser in price to the first entree. A difficult choice between these two. After studying all this for a bit, we decided on the "2/$20" deal. We'd already ordered ice tea for drinks and selected the Calamari with Cajun Sauce for the appetizer. I went with bleu cheese for my salad and my wife chose the ranch dressing. I selected the Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya for my entree, which was supposed to come with a baguette. Sherri selected the Grilled Tilapia on Wild Rice with Broccoli. She chose the Cajun seasoning for the fish from a selection of plain, lemon & herb, cajun or you could have it blackened for $1 more.
The appetizer of calamari came out in a few minutes and I was quite impressed with the quality and taste of it, although not the portion size. It was barely enough for even what one person would normally expect for an appetizer and when I quizzed our server, she said the specials reduced the portion size. I told her I would've been quite upset to have been served such a small portion for $8, which was the price quoted on the menu. I wish I'd known about the reduced portion sizes of everything in advance of ordering. Still, the squid was cooked just right, not too done nor rubber band-like as most places manage to ruin it. Nicely breaded and quite tasty by itself, although a slice of lemon to go over it would've been a nice complement. The Cajun sauce served with it was a small ramekin of what looked and tasted like diced tomatoes with diced bell pepper that had been simmered together. Not what I was expecting at all for Cajun. It was okay in taste but not something I'd consider serving with a squid dish, mackerel maybe. Plain old cocktail sauce would probably have been a better choice, at least in my opinion.
The salads came in smaller salad bowls heaped up with the dressing on the side in little cups. The mixture of ingredients in the salads was nice but because of the small bowl sizes, it was difficult to mix the dressing in without flipping out salad onto the table. They would've been better to serve the same amount but in somewhat larger bowls. The bleu cheese dressing was very "bleu", which was a good thing as so many places bleu cheese dressing tastes mostly of ranch with a few crumbles of bleu cheese thrown in. The ranch dressing was deemed acceptable to my wife.
The entrees came out in a few minutes. My wife's Grilled Tilapia consisted of a good-sized and thick fillet of seasoned tilapia on a bed of mixed mostly white and a bit of wild rice barely bigger than the fillet. There was a number of good-sized florets of steamed broccoli accompanying it. My Shrimp, Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya came out on a plate layered only to the depth of the few small shrimp that were on it. I never did really notice the pieces of chicken that were supposed to be in it and can only assume they were there. The few pieces of Andouille sausage were thin slices that had been quartered. Possibly six small shrimp, neglible chicken and maybe three thin slices of andouille with rice, tomatoes and bell peppers. I guessed the actual serving size to be about two cups, maybe. It was pretty tasty though. The so-called baguette didn't arrive with the entree and I was almost finished with it before catching the server's attention to request it along with some butter. It wasn't a baguette at all that was brought out but a split-top hard roll with a chewy interior along with a small cup of margarine. Hmm.
Our server did come by with tea refills a couple of times without having to be asked which was nice. After finishing our entrees, she did tell us about the desserts and we chose the "Jimmy Lee Pie with Ice Cream", which was something one of the owners of the original Salt Water Willy's on New Beason Well Road of many years ago came up with. It was something like a chess bar in a 4" pie shell, drizzled with chocolate sauce and with a side dish of quality vanilla ice cream. While it was obvious that the pie had been microwaved (it was very hot inside), it was a nice dessert and the perfect size for us to split.
There was an abundance of staff on hand, along with the owner who did stop by to ask us about our meal and wishing to avoid a possible confrontation, I just said it was tasty. Considering the amount of customers, I'm sure most of the staff were on hand to deal with the private party. Our server was most congenial and among the best we've encountered lately. I guess I shouldn't have expected too much for our meal considering iced tea was like $2.29 per glass and if we'd ordered off the menu, we'd have spent close to $50 but had larger servings. As it was, our bill was $33.49 before adding a $6 tip. I would give this restaurant a 7/10 rating based upon my experience this evening.
I know that the owner has made it pretty clear to several I've spoken to over the years concerning Riverfront Seafood, that he doesn't really want, nor is looking to bring in the more budget-conscious customers that places like the new Fisherman's Dock in Colonial Heights, readily serves. I assume the same mindset also goes for Salt Water Willy's. However, I do know that every time I've been in Fisherman's Dock lately, the place has been full almost to capacity with customers lined up out the door for Sunday lunch. Several nearby restaurants employees, including a family member have told me that they've really taken a lot of their business since they've opened. I guess time will tell who has the better business concept.
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