Stinky's Bait Shack

They had great coffee

Catch live music while you wait for a table next door. They serve the same drinks and the atmosphere is awesome.

This was our first time eating back at Stinky's in a few years and it has been one of our must go spots in the past. But tonight was a different story. They have moved into a new building next door which is a definate upgrade but the food has taken a decided turn for the worse I'm afraid. The squash and crabmeat appetizer has been a favorite in the past but it's no longer served in a squash blossum but rather a hollowed out yellow squash which in off itself shouldn't be that big of a difference. But to me it takes away somewhat from the delicacy of the dish. They also are now using backfin crabmeat instead of the jumbo lump formally used and that is a definate detraction from the former version of the dish. To top this off the seasoning was totally lacking which rendered the whole thing bland. Strike one. For soups my wife had a special which was crab bisque and I had the seafood chowder. Both soups were made with the aforementioned backfin crabmeat and the chowder had no decernable other seafood at all. The flavor for both was good however so it wasn't a total loss but at $8 for a very small bowl of the bisque it certainly lacked that wow factor that you would expect for a very small bowl of 8 buck crab bisque. My wife and I each chose fresh grouper for our entrees. She had hers fried and I had mine grilled. The standard sides were stir fry vegetables and what they described as brabant potatoes. On our last visit we had the stone ground grits with pepper jack cheese and my wife asked that the grits be substituted for the potatoes and vegetables this time. She got her grits for a small upcharge which was worth it because the grits were very good as we remembered them but the potatoes and vegetables that I got were almost inedible. The vegetables were cut slaw style and had corn mixed in but seemed to be steamed and then stir fried with nary a hint of seasoning. The potatoes were nothing more than fried potato cubes also sans seasoning not even salt. Both my wife's fried grouper and my grilled grouper were fresh and perfectly cooked and mine was finished with what amounted to a seasoned butter that was very good. Strike two? What really blew the whole thing though was the desserts. My wife had peanut butter pie and I had mud pie which I sent back after one bite. What I got amounted to a chocolate cream pie and not a very good one or competently prepared one. My wife's peanut butter pie was so rich because it tasted as almost if the pie filling was pure peanut butter. Not good or competently prepared either. I got a replacement key lime pie which was fairly good but it wasn't the typical key lime pie with the huge layer of mereigne. But the custard wasn't that sickly green and it had good flavor if a little too tart. I would say I'd skip dessert next time but I think this place has lowered their standards and to me it shows. Strike three IMO. There are too many other very good places out there that we haven't tried and we're going to try those and sideline this one for good I think.

Great food, nice wait staff, good prices. They get a little busy and have a small parking lot so they have free valet to deal with that. Worth the trip to eat here! Yum.

We love Stinkys!! There is no fresher fish dishes served in the area. Wonderful service. Must haves are Stinky's Stew; Fried Green Tomatoes with crawfish etoufee on top; any of the fresh fish of the day (usually 6-8 choices); Shrimp & grits & at lunch their cheeseburger can't be beat. One style served with a flash fried piece of brie on it. Unbelievable!

Portion size was small. We ordered food to go, and they left part of my order out. It was not good enough food to go back for the missing items. Too many good restaurants on 30A to waste your time there.

Stinky's Worm Camp
As I cut into the blackened amberjack on my salad, I noticed something that appeared to be a mung bean sprout. As I lowered my fork (I love bean sprouts!), it occurred to me that a mung bean sprout would be an odd thing in this restaurant and in this salad. It certainly wasn't listed on the menu. It was a worm - a mung bean sprout sized worm.

After spending the next 20 minutes in the bathroom throwing up my lunch, apps (oysters and gumbo) as public toilet water splashed up on my face, I returned to the table. The waitress wanted to know if she could bring me something else - anything - lunch or dinner menu. Would you really want to eat anything else?

The way they handled it was pretty bad. She clearly did not want news of the wormy amberjack (candle that fish guys. pay attention to what you are serving), to spread across the dining room on this hectic Father's Day. I kept telling the waitress that I did not want to eat anything else. I was covered in toilet water and just spent the last 20 minutes throwing up food and hopefully no worm parts.

She kept apologizing to the male "head of the table," which was weird because he didn't eat the worm. She took my salad off the check. For something that terrible, they should have comped the meal. After all, I threw up the apps. My mother-in-law couldn't eat her amberjack tacos after that. No one really had an appetite. They sent us home (and by home, I mean we were driving all the way back to New Orleans) with a blackened shrimp salad that I never ordered and an entire key lime pie. Clearly, I threw those away when we got home.

I'll never eat there again.

Very average and overpriced. Parking, service and food quality were just not worth the stop. There are so many other good places around this area that are great; making Stinky's a well named restaurant.

A favorite of us we enjoyed the food so much but they run out of most of my favorite fish 🐠,the sea food soup that my husband had OMG out of this world and my granddaughter had her catfish 😆she loves it.

Great thick cut grouper, not the standard thin fish you usually get. Different type of restaurant with an elevator, but small and quaint and worth the wait to get in.