Poppy’s Seafood Grille

Holy hell this place is Delish. Boudin egg rolls were stunning.
Catfish was the best ever and I am the foremost expert on catfish. So fresh and perfect.
Try the red beans. Stunning!!! Even the green beans tasted great. Who makes green bean taste good.
Fried shrimp taste like basil and lemon. So good
Ask
For Danny. He was a great waiter for us.

I absolutely love the food and atmosphere here! They definitely know how to make their crawfish, which is a challenge to find in Texas. I personally think they have the best fried pickles. Every time I have someone visit me, this is where they want to go! The only thing I would recommend for Poppy’s is to have entertainment on Friday/​Saturday evenings.

Great seafood gumbo. Fresh seafood. Cool place. Awesome calamari! Best I’ve had in years!
Glad it’s close to home…

My husband, our daughter, and I were driving home to Dallas from Houston and decided to stop at Poppy’s for dinner. Boy, am I glad we did! We were seated promptly and our drink order taken immediately. Their iced tea, by the way, was excellent. Our waiter, Tanner, was terrific! He was friendly, attentive, and made good recommendations when asked. There was a great live musician playing on the Tuesday night we were there. My husband loves boudin, so we started off with the Bouchee Roll. Oh my goodness! It was so good it may be worth driving back down from Dallas to get another one. It came with two sauces; my husband loved the jalapeño ranch. I ordered the fried shrimp, my husband ordered the fried shrimp and catfish, and our daugher ordered the cheeseburger. The shrimp and catfish were fried to perfection. It was served with fries, which appeared to be battered or coated in something before they were fried. They weren’t terrible, but just okay. The coleslaw that came with the meals was fresh and very good. The cheeseburger was served on Texas toast and she said it was great. Our daughter finished off with the cheesecake and, on Tanner’s recommendation, I had the key lime pie. It was smooth and creamy and perfectly tart. Possibly the best I’ve ever eaten. What started out as a quick stop for a bite to eat turned into a really enjoyable meal. We will definitely be returning.

Four of us ventured out to try a new place outside of The Woodlands and we were impressed. Food was awesome and service great. Yes, it was a Thursday night and they were not very crowded, but everyone enjoyed their meal. Highly recommend Poppy’s for the «not a chain» meal that we so dearly need.

If I could give 10 stars!!! Yummy food and good service. Great fries, poboys and chicken. Yummy tea too. Glad we stopped here. Family said I choose well. Will definitely come again. Thx.

The gumbo was bland, and the po-​boy was basically seasoned with Johnny’s seasoning salt. It was ok. The waitress and the staff were attentive and very good

Poppys is awesome. The food is always really good, and never too greasy and the service is always great. They are always on top of everything, I never had an empty drink. The only reason I gave them 4 stars instead of 5 is because I wish they had liquor. My boyfriend doesn’t drink beer but had limited options here. Other than that, everything was great! We will definitely be back :)

The red beans and rice was delicious and waiter was Great. The prices where very reasonable it is truly a place that you will love. They also have a good live Band.

Great service when I arrived! Started with the bouchee rolls, this could be an entrée’ with a small side item! Excellent! Ordered the jambalaya, was considering the gumbo but did not want too much sauce. Waitress brought out a small sample of the sauce before I ordered the meal to try it out. Thanks to her suggestion, I got a little bit of the gumbo sauce and used it on the jambalaya! Got the best of both dishes! Must give the waitress (Cherish H.) credit for knowing how to treat the customers. Her tip will be generous as a result!
All of those who gave negative reviews based on slow service, etc., stay away! Leave this place for those of us who enjoy good food and excellent service! Highly recommend this place for a Texas twist on jambalaya and boudin!

I love fish tacos… Here they are just so-​so. Not a lot of flavor to them.
Granddaughter had jambalaya… I tried a bite… Ummmm… If you make your jambalaya with rice-​a-​roni
then you’ll like it here. We’re from Louisiana. This isn’t jambalaya.
Shrimp poboy was good.
Kids didn’t complain about their corn puppies or chicken nuggets… So I assume they were ok.
Service was good and friendly, food came within 15 mins… So it wasn’t stellular food but I give them another try.

Poor service. Terrible actually. Had to repeatedly ask for things and at one point finally went up to bar to get lemon.
Just had a salad. It was bland. Family said their food was good though.
The live music was the best part. Guy is really good!

Unexpectedly enjoyable atmosphere. Live music was very pleasant. Everything very «down home» warm. Server was very attentive. Had the gumbo and shrimp & cat fish. All were good the fries shrimp and catfish had a light batter, a must in my opinion, and we’re very tasty. I wish they had a better beer selection such as a local beer like St Arnold’s. That would have bumped this review up to a 5.

Even though the parking lot was pretty full, we walked right in and were seated immediately. Not shabby for 6pm on a Saturday night.
For all of you who recommended the bouchee rolls — thank you! They’re delicious and come with 2 sauces that are equally as yummy.
The hubs had the seafood platter (fried catfish, fried oysters, fried shrimp, stuffed crab) and he loved it. I had the fried shrimp and loved it. Our food came out hot, freshly cooked, and with great flavor. We will definitely be back!

Poppy’s in Willis has perfectly fried, fresh seafood. The catfish on the Seafood Platter tasted fresh out of the river and the shrimp were devine. The gumbo however was bot good. It tasted like the roux was burnt. The main star of the meal was the Bouchee Rolls.

Was greeted promptly, the place was empty and we ordered 5 minutes after we sat. The menu had a small selection and our waitress wasn’t very tentative. Our food took 30 minutes to come out. It was very poorly presented and it tasted as such. Some staff seemed very unprofessional and I won’t return. The reviews had me fooled but I’ll say stay away. #dontbelievethehype this place doesn’t deserve to call their «stove top raditions» creole food.

There was a short wait but its not a huge place so that didn’t matter to me. Got sat in about 15 minutes. I ordered 3 lbs of crawfish, a cup of chicken gumbo, a bouchee roll and a burger with hush puppies instead of fries. Had to wait a long while to get all the food. Chicken gumbo was a little bland, when i got my burger it came with fries instead of hush puppies. Crawfish was good to me but it was also my first time eating crawfish. The bouchee roll was awesome. Burger was pretty good. Fries were good but i preferred hush puppies.
Restrooms relatively clean but had garbage toilet paper.

We met some friends at Poppy’s for crawfish and cold beer Friday night. We live on the 105 side of Lake Conroe and have been disappointed with the crawfish and the service at both Back Porch and Wolfie’s. We had been told that the crawfish were great at Poppy’s and they weren’t kidding. These were the best crawfish we have had so far this year and the beer was EXCEPTIONALLY cold. Every mug that we received was frosted over perfectly. The service was also exceptional. Our server was Tanner and he did a fantastic job! We are planning to go back this Friday night.

On a whim, we stopped at Poppy’s on the way home from shopping. I have gotten take-​out burgers from here before, but we’ve never eaten a sit-​down meal at Poppy’s. At first, i was a little disappointed by the menu because it’s quite short, in comparison to most places in a similar price range, but as soon as we started eating, our opinions changed.
My husband and i both tasted three items, the Bouchee Rolls, the Texas Creole, and the fried Catfish and Shrimp. We were very impressed by all three.
The Bouchee (pronounced boo chee) are eggroll wraps filled with a cheesy boudain. They come with two very interesting sauces, a spicy ranch and a marmalade. These are very different and very tasty, and since these were our appetizer, my husband immediately regretted ordering anything else. He just wanted more Bouchee Rolls. Good stuff.
The Texas Creole is a mixture of smoked chicken, shrimp, and Chappell Hill sausage, in a tomato-​y sauce, over rice. This sounds a little boring when i type the description, but oh boy! Every bite of this stuff is really a beautiful experience. The smoke is so genuine and perfect, i had to ask if there was smoke coming out of my nose. This dish also comes with garlic bread, which goes perfectly and is prepared, well, i’m going to say «perfect» a lot. Fantastic comfort food.
Last, we tried the fried Catfish and Shrimp. And while normally, fried seafood plates have a tendency to taste like just a bunch of seafood, thrown into the same generic batter, fried in the same grease, and all tasting like each other and a little rubbery. This was not that experience. I am in awe, still. Each bite of the fried shrimp was perfect in texture and flavor, not at all rubbery, but perfectly prepared with a light batter. The catfish, was coated in a spiced cornmeal batter and fried (i’m going to say it again) to perfection. I really can’t get over it.
The coleslaw that came with the shrimp and catfish was a little over-​sauced for my preference, but the ingredients were obviously fresh and high quality, like everything else we ate, and i ate the whole serving in spite of the sauce, and enjoyed it. The shrimp and catfish are served on a bed of french fries, which are slightly breaded, which isn’t my favorite way to eat fries. This is the main reason i’m not giving Poppy’s five stars.
The service was great; the atmosphere was pleasant; the décor is really fun; and i was really surprised at the obvious care and quality that went in to every bite of our meal. Very very impressed.

We wanted to give this place the benefit of the doubt. It seems the parking lot has a lot of cars on Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately this is not a good benchmark for the menu inside. We’ve eaten at Poppy’s twice because the first time our service experience was horrible (server didn’t know much about the menu and the food took forever to come out.)
I don’t know what restaurant experience the owners had prior to Poppy’s but my impression is they retired or left a career and decided that a restaurant would be a good way to start the next chapter of their life. This is not uncommon in the restaurant business. If you’ve ever watched Restaurant Impossible on the Food Network you know there thousands of places like this.
95% of Poppy’s food is frozen or pre-​packaged. When we asked our server if they offered anything made by hand she told us the fried shrimp and oysters were hand-​breaded but she was pretty sure the actual seafood came from the freezer. This is a shame given the number of fresh seafood vendors there are in this part of the country. Poppy’s is approximately 2 hrs from the gulf. From what I can tell except maybe for their Jambalaya everything comes from the freezer: hamburgers, french fries, tilapia, hush puppies, chicken, shrimp, catfish, etc. I’d wouldn’t be surprised if the bouche rolls weren’t frozen. Although I didn’t ask, my guess is the rest of the food is also pre-​made: coles slaw, spicy rice, garlic bread. It probably comes from a can or is brought in from Sysco or a similar vendor. Again, a shame given how easy it would be to hire someone to prepare this in house. Finally the beer/​wine selection is sad. You know you’re in trouble when the only export listed on the menu is Corona. Really?
If you don’t mind paying +$ 14 for frozen food then you will probably enjoy Poppy’s. Personally I’m a little picky when I’m feeding 4 people and I know my bill with drinks will be in the $ 50-​$ 60 range before tip. There are just too many better choices out there for my dining dollar. Like many I’m confused by the high ratings Poppy has rec’d on Unilocal.The only thing I can attribute to is that fact there’s not a lot to pick from in Willis.
Should the owners of Poppy’s read this please know I would love to come back and support you. I would suggest making a few items in-​house. Start small. Patty your own burgers, cut your own fries, get fresh shrimp from the gulf. It’s not that difficult. Offer a local beer from St Arnolds, Karbach or Southern Star for God’s sake — they’re in your back yard and I bet they’d help you reach a broader audience. Unfortunately I won’t hold my breath.