Read about it a few days ago in the Trib. So I dont recall details. However I believe the story said a former manager at George's is opening a Cajun and Mexican fusion restaurant there.

The business page column did also mention the sushi restaurant going in next door at the old Don Carlos' building.

I thought that was in reference to Jorge's which dropped the Cajun aspect

Bear Doc said:

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Yogi said:

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Still waiting for Sammy to open his Italian concept: Georgio's.

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He doesn't want any part of the Waco Marinara Mafia though...

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LOL. Beat me to it.

Actually further clarification the name of the place is Tia Juanita's Fish Camp it looks to be a regional chain out of Beaumont it appears there are not many at this point in time, the Waco location will be like the 5th or 6th one. Waco will be the largest area where one is located (slightly edging out the Beaumont area in size). It is also the only one not in east Texas. The rest are in really small towns in East Texas. From pictures it looks like it has a Chuy's like vibe. They actually look like cool restaurants. Not sure now about the former George's manager's role. Not sure if the former George's manager is a franchisee or if the company has hired him to run it.

Not wanting to speak out of school (one of my favorite Mississippi sayings from my childhood) …… but the owner of Tia's is a longtime friend of Sammy Citrano, both grew up in Beaumont. They nearly brought the concept to Waco but decided on Jorge's instead.

I've eaten at the store in Lufkin several times and it's good. Lots of fish and their identity is dozens of margarita choices, frozen varieties of every kind. It's definitely not Mexican cuisine, but there's a flair.

Bear Doc said:

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Yogi said:

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Still waiting for Sammy to open his Italian concept: Georgio's.

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He doesn't want any part of the Waco Marinara Mafia though...

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That is funny and oh so true!

The best way to describe the food is SETX cuisine - think fried shrimp and spicy queso. Live music. I think it will do well in Waco - hopefully it survived the curse of the building.

And yes, my username checks out!

Here's a menu.

https://tjfishcamp.com/menu

We'll I've looked through the menu, got hungry and they're not open yet. What in the heck am I supposed to do now?

LIB,MR BEARS said:

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Here's a menu.

https://tjfishcamp.com/menu

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A quick perusal of the menu gives me strong Buzzard Billy's vibes.

Haven't been to whatever they call the new place yet, but it seems similar to what Buzzards once was.

While the menu has some items that could be ok, how it's actually cooked will be the key. That chicken gumbo needs some andouille to be more tasty and authentic.

When my daughter was a Freshman her suitemates wanted to go get "cajun" food at Buzzard Billy's, she went although she told them she doubted it would be any good. She was 100% right, the pictures she sent me were all captioned guess what this is supposed to be.

The boiled crawfish at Tejan's is blasphemy; dumping seasoning on top of the crawfish is just wrong.

There is one in Longview. It's awesome.

PartyBear said:

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Actually further clarification the name of the place is Tia Juanita's Fish Camp it looks to be a regional chain out of Beaumont it appears there are not many at this point in time, the Waco location will be like the 5th or 6th one. Waco will be the largest area where one is located (slightly edging out the Beaumont area in size). It is also the only one not in east Texas. The rest are in really small towns in East Texas. From pictures it looks like it has a Chuy's like vibe. They actually look like cool restaurants. Not sure now about the former George's manager's role. Not sure if the former George's manager is a franchisee or if the company has hired him to run it.

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This place is fantastic. I stop there all the time on the way to New Orleans. Great food!

I went to the location in Athens last weekend. 45 minute wait at 6pm. Food was fine. I need to visit a couple more times to give a fair assessment. They had a couple of girls playing guitar and singing. Pretty cool place and should do well.

It's mainly an East Texas deal. Waco will be their first outpost West of I-45.

We've eaten at the one at Crystal Beach several times and it has always been good. I'm hoping it will survive the curse of that building.

tlpuig1996 said:

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We've eaten at the one at Crystal Beach several times and it has always been good. I'm hoping it will survive the curse of that building.

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Ditto on surviving the curse.

Ate at Tia Juanita's in Waco this afternoon. The service was very slow. Took about 20 minutes even for a server to come to our table to take drink orders - and the restaurant was not particularly busy. That was a theme throughout the meal - refills and requests never occurring.The chips and queso as an appetizer were okay. Ordered the seafood enchiladas as the entree; they were very good. Wife's hush puppies and chicken nachos were just okay. Dinner salad came out after I finished my entree. Hopefully service will get better as the restaurant gets settled in. Will give it a try again in a few months.

Tried it yesterday. I really was not impressed. By that I mean it was just ok. . We shared hush puppies and chicken nachos. Could be the chicken nachos and hush puppies are not that great. It does have a cool atmosphere though. I still think a Razoo's would do well here.

Went there Saturday with my wife and dad. We had enchiladas and quesadillas. We all enjoyed it a lot and the service was very good. We will be back.

It was fine... Kinda reminded me of Fuzzy Taco fare with some more fancy options. Blackened shrimp and fish nachos were good, crawfish queso was really watery... Kid enjoyed the popcorn shrimp. Margaritas were fine... Overall just kind of fine, nothing exceptional.

For lunch today my wife and I went to a new restaurant in town called Tia Juanita's Fish Camp. It is part of a small chain of about 6 restaurants. It bills itself as a MexiCajun restaurant.

We shared an order of chicken fajitas with corn tortillas. It was plenty of food for both of us. This was the best fajitas I have eaten in a long time. The flavor from the onions and peppers was very good. The chicken was nice and tender, it could be cut with a fork.

We also each had refried beans. It tasted very good. I did not put anything on it except for some of the onions that the chicken was cooked in. The queso was bit disappointing, as it was rather mild. Given the nature of the restaurant there was not any traditional Mexican salsa to put on it. They did have three different versions of Louisiana themed pepper sauce. I put a little bit of Tabasco sauce on it and it tasted fine.

The restaurant was busy. The service was reasonable. The place has a sports bar type atmosphere. From my seat I counted 14 different television monitors showing sports stuff. A little to my surprise they were only showing 2 different sports channels.

The restaurant was rather noisy. It you want to have a serious conversation with your meal companion, this is not the place to go.

Overall, we were happy with our meal. We will put this into our rotation of potential restaurants when we are in the mood for something spicy to eat.