Captain Jack's

After our lovely 45 minute wait at the Captains, watching couples leave hungry after waiting for god knows how long, we finally got our meal. My wifes lemon chicken kabob, though tasty, was a little pink inside, not a good sign. My kibby burger was sufficient, on the dry side, but sufficient. My son's chicken and dumpling was more of a spicy soupy stew, that he liked. The chaos was amazing, half tables served, the other half waiting for ten more minutes for food. The wait staff, thought no the most sophisticated, tried thier best (bless their heart) As a finally parting fatal error we oredered the falafal for our vegetarian daughter, 45 minutes later the the pea sized sandwich arrived, with a little shredded lettuce as a side' At that point, my wife who has the patience of Job, went up to the owner and mentioned the size and price of the sandwich, she was understanding, but the chef came out and demanded to know what the problem was.... my wife was married to a perisian and we eat at every persian, greek, lebanese, joint we can find, was amazed at his attitude and the owner agreed to comp the falafal. When she went back to retrieve said sandwiich, the chef had thrown it away... me thinketh he needs to spend more time in the kitchen cooking, then greeting customers, sitting at tables, etc.. all in his grimy, grease soaked apron,... get it together people, or your days are numbered. People were not happy and we will have to cool down quite a bit before we ever return. We try to give every break to every resturarant we go into, make up excuses for them...but this was over the top. If anyone knows them, let them know that they need to close and do another grand opening with all the flaws worked out. Best to all. Bill and Susi. Sorry about spelling errors, not my strong suit.

Susi, is this the "Captain Pepper Jack's" place, or somewhere new? I'm not nitpicking, I just wondered if it was the same place. Either way, it sounds dreadful. Did they re-make the sandwich? Yikes.

Yes, This is the Captain Pepper Jacks across from the airport. My wife was tempted to sling a few infamous Persian insults his way, but refrained. The conversation was most unpleasant, with the chef demanding to know what made her an expert on Falafal's etc..etc.. The first time we were there their business Banker came by our table to see if we had any suggestions on presentation of our entrees... so I know they want to do well. And though I'm sort of known for my outbursts, and rarely believe I'm wrong, I will bend over backwards to make it up to a customer..free desserts, comp meals, anything to have them leave happy and then cuss the hell out of them out of sight. You just don't confront customers the way this guy did after an almost two hour wait!!!

Always hate to be a newcomer to a site and post a gripe the first time. I was one of the poor souls that was at Captain Jack's last night. It was sad to see a place so overwhelmed. Without getting into anymore bashing than I have already read 3 of us were there for an hour and a half and my wife was the only one that ever received her food. We were told that the reason things were so bad was that they got slammed at lunch and had to reprep everything. On a weekend that's pretty inexcusable. I really did feel sorry for everyone there. The few people who did get served all seemed to enjoy their food. Even though I never did receive my order of Gyros I did manage to graze a little off of my wife's plate and her dish was very good. I will probably venture back someday but not until they have had time to work out the numerous issues. I so hope it is a success because I really like to support the local dining scene in Louisville. Unfortunately poor service will ultimately destroy a restaurant even if the food is good.

I always go in the ealry evening and I've never had a problem... The lamb and veal gyro is really good IMO.

I want Captain Jack's to succeed. I really don't think anyone is trying to bash his restaurant. Sometimes I believe that a positive review on a site can almost be a death sentence for an establishment such as this. The owner seemed to be such a nice guy that we really did feel sorry for him. They were just so overwhelmed that it was sad to watch. When the bartender is running up front to take orders and they have run out of silverware I think anyone would admit that there is a problem. Actually I thought that everyone there was pretty sympathetic.

I dined here on Thursday evening - my food was very good. From what I heard from my server, it seems that Suzanne (original post in this thread) may have been there on the night that the article about Jacks was in the paper.

I hear that the restaurant had no advance notice that they'd be in the paper, and they're so new the advert caught them without having stocked enough food supplies and also not enough staffing enough servers to handle the totally unexpected flood of customers that evening.

I didn't realize a restaurant wouldn't know in advance that it would have a food review in the paper on a given day, but that may be the way it works. Robin, is this the way it works?

Anyway, my only point is perhaps give them a try. Also, they are aware of this thread and are certainly mindful that good customer service, even when they're busy, is key.

[Robin Garr]

I didn't realize a restaurant wouldn't know in advance that it would have a food review in the paper on a given day, but that may be the way it works. Robin, is this the way it works?

It used to be that the CJ would give warning before a restaurant is to be listed, Sally, but with the new management and budget cuts, who knows? It also used to be that a good review would invariably slam a restaurant, but with the diminished readership and ad-supplement look of Scene, this seems more iffy. A review of a well-known place in the eastern city (Cafe Lou Lou?) will bring in a crowd, but reviews of smaller or out-of-the-way or ethnic places don't seem to do much any more.

In LEO the system works like this: The photographer goes out several days AFTER I have visited, and in the process of taking pictures informs management that my review will "probably" run the following Wednesday.

Being a free pub, LEO's readership isn't entirely predictable, but it appears that our reviews (mine and surrogates) will generally cause at least a blip on the radar screen of most restaurants reviewed, regardless of location and style. The Pakistani folks at Omar, for instance, reported later that their review caused quite a crowd.

Robin is being modest.
LEO reviews can cause quite a stir. Once, while I was still selling for LEO, I visited a potential advertiser and all he wanted to do was re-run a review of his restaurant that had been in the paper several years previously. It had caused a run on his little restaurant that lasted about a week... until the next review of another restaurant came out. He wanted to re-experience that popularity by paying to rerun the review.

I wandered in to Captain Pepperjacks after watching the Belmont. There was a light crowd, no waiting. Food was pretty good. But you could tell they were still dealing with having just recently opened. Nothing really bad, it just felt like they weren't firing on all cylinders.

I wandered in to Captain Pepperjacks after watching the Belmont. There was a light crowd, no waiting. Food was pretty good. But you could tell they were still dealing with having just recently opened. Nothing really bad, it just felt like they weren't firing on all cylinders.

What did you have, Josh?

Split a chicken quesadilla app with my buddy, I had the shrimp and scallops on rice, my friend had the beef kabobs.

The only complaints we had were, on mine, one scallop was about half the size of the rest and overcooked and chewy, and on his, he wanted more beef. But since he likes lots of meat on his dishes I consider that his problem, not a problem with the dish.

Sides for both were veggies, which were nicely done. Not overcooked, had a good flavor.