THE NATOMAS BUZZ | @natomasbuzz
A new Asian N’ Cajun restaurant in Natomas is scheduled to open Tuesday.
The eatery will open Oct. 28, according to a banner posted on the restaurant. That’s about a week later than the grand opening originally planned for Oct. 22.
Asian N’ Cajun is located at 4271 Truxel Road in Suite B1. It will be similar to the popular Cajun seafood restaurant Boiling Crab in South Sacramento, co-owner Vincent Dang said.
The Asian N’ Cajun menu will also include Vietnamese food, beer and wine, Dang said.
We were extremely excited with anticipation for grand opening! I also know they are supposed to be a fusion of Vietnamese food and similar to Boiling Crab. I have been going to Boiling Crab for over 2 years and it is the best! So we walk in last night at 730pm. I will admit we do get a table right away. The young man does offer us water. We were kinda waiting for a welcoming that was more exciting ie. “Welcome to Asian n Cajun, my name is __ and we are glad you came to try us out for our grand opening” We got nothing but would like some water which is better than no water. Continuing to timeline 740-745 we started wondering why our order wasn’t taken yet. We are observing other customers and her commits like “We didn’t get a bib”, “I ordered mild and this is too spicy” from different tables but we were still wanting to try since its only 2 minutes away from our house. We were watching staff walk back and forth past our table never once acknowledge in any way. “I would love to have heard at minimum, we are little busy I will be right back, but nothing.” I even saw a young lady tend to a young man with his meal then noticed that when he left they gave each other a peck on the lips and realized they were dating. Another waitress seemed to be focused on cleaning tables that nobody was at when people were waiting. Then at about 750, we noticed the staff had a huddle behind the counter area. One girl that finally noticed that we were looking at them, another waitress finally came over. She never really welcomed us, never said her name, however she did apologize but it we felt wasn’t really sincere. We asked questions about menu and she did kindly take our order. We didn’t order appetizers, but I did order a Pepsi. She did bring back in a timely manner so I will give her that. A little later, a woman customer gets up and finds waiter to get more water and quickly comes over. Whoever, that waiter was with water seemed to be on it after woman customer got up because he constantly came over with water refills which is better than not. 805pm our waitress comes back and apologizes and says we ran out of sausage is there anything else you would like? She said, they were not expecting as many people to show up today! We declined any alternatives, but we wondered why she would say they weren’t expecting a crowd on grand opening! At this point its been 35 minutes. We are still trying to justify, that they might be new staff, we want to give them the benefit of the doubt and not expect Boiling Crab as we are in a new restaurant. So after observing other customers, we noticed people being served that had same amount of parties of 4 as us but came in after us. A couple with a child walks in and was quickly seated. They got water, they were quickly asked for to take order. Another couple away from us I overheard said they have been waiting over an hour for there food. They kept talking to people next to them. Another single man walks in and they are talking amongst each other. I over hear a waitress which seemed nice but constantly apologizing and giving discounts. I overheard she forgot to put order in for calamari. All this was weighing on us to just leave but we felt bad because we ordered already. At about 820pm the couple that said they been there an hour finally got up and left. Other people around them kinda chuckled in embarrassment. We waited longer and got more water. 830pm we finally said, enough is enough. There was no communication from waitress just to say status of food or anything. I even left $3 for my soda so I could leave the place knowing I didn’t steal a soda. When we got it, immediately several staff finally started to look at us and I said we have to go its been an hour we don’t know whats going on. I said I left $3 for soda and he said that’s ok you didn’t have to do that. I said yes I did and we walked out and drove to South Sac for Boiling Crab. As usual we were greeted with smiles, we never care about the wait there, because we know what we are consistently getting with great food and service. So here is my rating out of 5 stars. Staff – 1 star, they seemed like nice people but untrained. Establishment decor- 4.5 stars- its brand new so it was obviously clean, decor was ok for the type of restaurant and area we are in so I will give high rating. Management – 0 – They weren’t visible, they weren’t observant, try and visit your new customers and you might get some loyalty. Train your staff and be more prepared. Food – 0 stars – Unfortunately we never got a chance to try. Bottom line, we won’t be coming back. Maybe if your open next year and we see a line like Boiling Crab, we might consider, but we are willing to drive 25 min to Boiling Crab, wait 1.5 hours outside in the rain or cold at Boiling Crab. Still wait another 20 min for our food but joyfully get a great smile, fantastic food, good environment and know that we are getting the best food in town. Thank you Asian n Cajun for the grand opening experience.
I had a similiar experience as R A. When I came it was the 2nd inning of the Giants/Royals game by the time I received my “takeout” order the 4th inning was ending. Pros about this restaurant: food smells good when you walk in. That was encouraging. For the people I saw receive the correct order, they liked what they ate, Cons: Obvious lack training/experience of the staff in terms of overall customer service( I witnessed 4 couples that were seated, and 2 single customers (total of 10 orders of food) walk out after the staff’s lack of observation, that they were waiting for there order to be taken after waiting for 10-15 minutes. It was obvious chaos in the kitchen because the orders kept getting mixed up and the staff could not remember (mostly) who the food went to. I asked if the “fried calamari (as stated on the menu)” had tinnacles (which I like), One young woman who worked there responded to me in a very disrespectful tone, states to me “it says on the menu that it is “calamari rings .” I simply responded by letting her on know the menu stated “fried calamari” only otherwise I would not have asked. I am 55 years old and don’t expect to be disrespected over a menu item the staff is unfamiliar with.I probably should have left then and did not. I try to give young people a chance and told them this is their 1st day and I understand about them being busy. Once the 1st young man finally took my order, I sat down and waited an additional 25 minutes. During this time I was finally offered a glass of water. As the obvious chaos on the restaurant floor continued, one nice young woman named Jasmine offered more apologies to me and commented on how patience I am. I almost felt like they were waiting for me to leave. Maybe they really didn’t care that customers were leaving.I told her that the food smells good and the people who finally got there food liked it overall. However I had to be very frank and told her that it is obvious they are disorganized and inexperienced when it comes to customer service. And customers were noticing it too. They want to give you all a chance but I told her they will drive their customers to go next door to their competition if they continue to service customers this way which I mentioned will affect their sales and tips.
After almost an hour, I received my food from the 1st young man that waited for me. I basically told him the same as I did to Jasmine. Jasmine seemed more receptive, he seemed more uninterested.
Will I go back? Not sure. If I do, I might try next week. We’ll see. Anyway, I did wish them good luck and left 10% tip which was generous especially given the experience I had. You know what they say about first impressions (may not be accurate, but alot of people do go by them). P.S. (the Salt & Pepper Shrimp delicious and good size. Not so impressed with the oysters (should use the cajun/creole style batter, not tempura (maybe it was suppose to be asian not cajun) and the calamari rings okay ( could be a little crunchier and need to be fresher. Unfortunately, I got a few bad pieces that I discontinued eating immediately for fear of getting sick).
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