Fontenot's Cajun Way Monroe

My second time here. The food quality is good, but portion size is not. The prices are high for what you get for some entrees. The picture I have posted is a 20-dollar ½ and ½ fish and shrimp. The other picture is their appetizer crawfish boulettes. Again, the quality is good, but the portion size is below average. Additionally, I am glad to see they are one of the few restaurants around the area that have posted they charge a credit card usage fee. I think it was 3.5% on top of your local tax. Just as a reminder to those reading this, if a restaurant does not post this outside to the extent, it is very clear you are being charged and how much, you are not responsible for the charge per the law, and you should report them to the Better Business Bureau. Again, I enjoyed the food here, but I would have to opt for their specials during the week. Thank you for reading my post.

First time here for lunch, and while we did have 9 people, and there were several large tables of equal or larger size. That said, they seated us right away and took our drink and app order. All came out relatively quickly and tasted good. Crawfish boule was spot on as well as the onion tangles. Fried boudin balls were OK, little bland, IMO.
Then the fun began, we certainly noticed food not really coming out very quickly after that. Yes, I'm sure it had a lot to do with the large tables and full restaurant, but what really seems to be the bottleneck is 3 servers and the point of sale system in place. To keep up with traffic and turn over the tables, you've got to expand your system. Having one person ring up and check out tickets while servers are waiting is way outdated and will be painful in the long term.

Overall, the food was decent. Took way too long for entrees to hit the table. Servers could not properly care for the guests due to short staffing, POS out dated system, and disorganization. While I want to love this place and keep it in Monroe , several changes have to happen for it to survive.

We tried Fontenot's Monroe tonight for the first time. And we were the last table sat of the night before they closed, apologies on that one. But regardless the service was top knotch, and the food was impeccable! I got the Cajun Dream, he got the fried oyster plate with onion rings and we shared an appetizer of the crab cakes. Everything was absolutely delicious and well seasoned. Honestly reminded me of some of the best seafood places in New Orleans and Lafayette. Hands down, a spectacular experience and I hope they continue to do great things in Monroe.

We went in before they received their liquor license, so take note if you're looking for that.

Staff was new and seemed not to have a lot of food service experience. The hostess didn't really seem to know what to do when I told her the little 2-person bartop table was not going to be big enough for food. Our waiter was a bit too eager to get our order. My companion and I were having a conversation when we sat down, and rather than wait to introduce himself, he spoke over us. I had to ask him to repeat everything he said when we walked up. He interrupted our conversation again, several times as we ate to ask if we wanted anything, which I appreciate; however since they weren't busy, just standing nearby would have given us the opportunity to say excuse me, we need ____. The gossiping employees at the bar with nothing to do was irritating as we tried to eat and have a conversation.

Food was ok. Expected a lot more "homemade" food rather than premade/frozen to fit in better with the local food offerings in this area.

Started with a side salad that was basic shredded iceberg and way too many cucumbers. The salad dressing was a disappointment as it came from a jar rather than homemade. Gumbo was ok. A bit thin and not seasoned. It did have a smoky flavor from the sausage and the dark rue. The rice was sparce and very bland. Crab cakes pre-made frozen (very similar to what I buy at Brookshires). They were spicy with a lot of breading. and served without any sauce, they were my lease favorite thing ordered. The Shrimp Creole was fairly bland with a hint of sweet that was off-putting to me. The bread was good, though. The charbroiled oysters were the best thing ordered. They were quite good and served piping hot.

We will be back once they have a liquor license and have worked out some of the kinks.