Blow Fly Inn ~ Gulfport, MS

Let me start this out on a positive note … Lucy and I were sooo very excited about trying this restaurant in light of the great reviews and heck “it was on Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives … gotta be awesome, right?”

This is the kind of restaurant review I don’t really like to do but hey somebody’s gotta say it … disappointed in Blow Fly … BIGTIME!  Here’s my take on the place …

First off I’ve gotta say this place is recommended by a lot of reliable sources … WHY I DO NOT KNOW … maybe when these places/people ate here it was a different owner or cooks or something … or maybe it was reviewed years and years ago … I don’t know but even Yelp gives it 4 out of 5 stars … ME?  Well I wouldn't even give it 1 star!  Well … maybe 1 star cause it was edible just no flavor and dishwatery tasting.  Their menu boasts “Featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and Emeril Live” along with stating that “USA Today named us one of America’s 51 Great Burger Joints” and “Southern Living named us one of their ‘Favorite Seafood Dives’” and Guy Fieri’s profile pic is on ‘bout every page of their menu!!!  I’ve eaten at a few bad restaurants in my life but I think this one takes the cake … it will be very hard for me to trust any ‘well-known’ reviews after eating at this place!!!!

Lucy and I both got a bad feeling about this place from the get go … we should have followed our guts and left right then but we didn't and of course, regretted that decision later.

The parking lot was pretty filled up (we thought that to be a good sign) and there were large groups of people waiting to be seated as we walked in to request a table for 2.  The place wasn't very clean … definitely not a place where the 5 second rule would apply!!!!  Well it wasn't filthy either … just very ‘divey’ which there ain’t a thing wrong with BUT there is divey and clean and divey and dirty …  All joking aside … the menus, the chair seats and the table were grimy and sticky as heck … another bad sign.  We stayed anyway …

See?  Its built up on steel piers because its on a bay.

Typical 'dive' table setting ... but nothing wrong with that.

Looking through the menu there were numerous recommendations by Guy Fieri with his profile pic right next to the dish … seriously!  I thought … hmmm "I’ll stay safe and order only dishes that he recommended" so I ordered a cup of Creole Gumbo and Lucy ordered a cup of the She Crab Soup.

  

My Creole Gumbo was, like I said, recommended by Guy Fieri.  It really didn't have a lot of flavor … no spiciness and a little watered down … in other words, more water than tomatoes … no okra in it at all and when I got to the bottom (I was hungry so I did eat most of it) there were two strange looking things that caught me off guard … I had to actually put on my readers to even recognize what they were … BOILED SHRIVELED UP OYSTERS!!!  There was probably two MAYBE three teeny tiny shrimp in it … the kind of shrimp you get in a can!!!  At this point I’m thinking “WTH Guy Fieri? … but maybe its just an off day … a new cook or something".  It wasn't AWFUL or INEDIBLE but it sure was not something I’d attach my name to … EVER!!!

Creole Gumbo ... so they say!

                                          

Lucy’s She Crab Soup … first off it looked milky … I mean like a cup of warm milk!  It wasn't at all pink or orangey tinted as I’ve always had anywhere else I’ve eaten it.  Again … tasteless and again very disappointed and mostly MILK … seriously … I didn’t even get a piece of crab in my one taste!!!

She Crab Soup ... so they say!

At this point we are both thinking maybe we shouldn’t have ordered entrees until we had our appetizers but we had so we felt we couldn’t just cancel the orders … wish we had though!!!

I had ordered another Guy Fieri recommendation … Red Beans and Rice and Lucy ordered the Crawfish Etouffee which she loves but this one she didn’t … in fact she took a couple bites and was so over it … tasteless … we’re like “do they not own any spices in this place?”  My Red Beans and Rice, and believe me I love Red Beans and Rice, tasted as if they opened up a can of Red Beans, warmed them up and threw two sausage links (cooked separately) into them and then scooped up some watery rice and dumped it on top.  This is the WORST part … both of us thought our entrees tasted as if they were cooked in dirty unwashed pans or served in dirty unwashed or improperly washed bowls!!!  You know … like dirty dish water … NOT that I’ve ever tasted dirty dish water LOL.  We didn’t eat more than a couple bites and though the waitress insisted on ‘boxing’ them up to go … we left the to-go boxes sitting on the table when we left.  It was that bad!

Red Beans and Rice???

Spiceless 'Crawfish Etouffee'

I don’t know what the requirements are in advertising and boasting that you were featured on so and so or recommended by so and so … if its something a restaurant can brag about indefinitely or what but this place was awful.  I would hope that those who have made great recommendations would at some point return for a second or third or even yearly to make sure this place is still top notch cause top notch it WAS NOT!!!

Our meals, 2 cups of soup, 2 entrees and 2 waters totaled $32.06 … money that I feel I just threw away CAUSE we left HUNGRY!!!

To top it all off … on our way down the metal outdoor stairs (the building is built up high since it is on the bay) someone (or a couple someones) had thrown up all over the staircase.  Eeeeew!!!  We had to sidestep to get past it!

 

Our view ... which was actually nice!

Sorry ya’ll (for being so blunt) but I do not recommend this place at all!!!  In fact … the name Blow Fly is soooooo very appropriate!!!