Ambiance: Located in an industrial area of Market Common that I was not familiar, we set the GPS. 1229 Shine was easy to find and looked really cool from the outside with a large wall mural and plenty of parking. There’s outside seating, but the plastic poolside chairs are not particularly inviting. Inside a massive bar dominates the room. Seating is limited and there is a small oyster bar. We required a table for five and were seated in a space off the main area. The seating is comfortable, but a two-top was also seated in this limited space. Other than inadequate seating (except for the bar), the ambiance of 1229 Shine has a fun bayou vibe.
Service: As part of the service aspect of my reviews, I begin at the front of the house with the hostess in this case. She was inexperienced and it showed. She didn’t ask that we wait at her hostess stand while our table was prepared. She took us to the bar area for five awkward minutes where we stood between the bar and a full row of tables. Our server was fine. She took our orders correctly and each course was served in a timely fashion. The menu does not require much clarification from your server, so we made few inquiries. When leaving I asked the bartender if they had a to go menu. His answer was a curt, “You can order online.” A more customer friendly answer to the question I asked might have been – no, but our full menu is online. It’s difficult rate the service at 1229 Shine without seeing a smile, or two from the staff. Maybe working on Father’s Day was the issue.
Food: The menu provides a very nice description of the options, but unfortunately the kitchen has not gotten the message. We began by sharing three appetizers. At the risk of over simplification, the Bang Bang Grouper Bites were missing the bang bang. Calamari Rings were heavily breaded. I’ve seen less breading on onion rings at fast food restaurants. Crawfish Spring Rolls were quite nice and the Thai chili sauce a perfect compliment. Moving on, the Shine Burger was excellent, especially considering it’s the only beef on a dominant seafood menu. However, as good as the burger was the Oyster Po Boy was a huge disappointment. Way too much roll buried any goodness that might have been in this dish. One of our party ordered the Tuna Crudo and the kitchen’s inabilities were in full display when they couldn’t slice the tuna correctly. Again, the menu presents each dish very well. Mistakes in the kitchen are not paying off the promise.
Price/Value: This is really difficult to apply to 1229 Shine. On one hand the pricing seems accurate for what’s presented on the menu. However, the food quality does not reflect the menu. There’s nothing at this restaurant that cannot be easily fixed. I will return in the fall to sample their oysters. Until then my rating is based on my experience.