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For the past several months a friend of mine has endorsed this place. She ate there several times and truly enjoyed it and thought I would too. Earlier this month coming back from Baton Rouge on Lake Charles Little Theatre business I found myself, with my permission of course, virtually kidnapped. My three companions including the person who adores this venue and I battled our way through the maze that is the street system of Lafayette. The red steel building looks like any other until you pull up. The carved columns and doors made me wonder if they had taken over a defunct Asian restaurant. The interior brought more wonderment. The vaulted white ceiling possesses a combination of wood beams, sprinkler pipes and steel support elements. Tapestries hang from rafters bearing such names as Broussard with what seems to be coats of arms. The white wall sport deer and elk heads along with black and white photos of the city and its people (past and present). The chairs and tables of a red mahogany-like wood intricately carved in a leaf and vine motif seems vaguely Indonesian to me. This combination hunting lodge/Asian decor with down home Cajun felt odd until I looked at the menu. It pretty much reflected the decor. They offer game (venison, elk, quail, etc) along with some Asian spiced dishes and some down home Cajun food.
Our party ordered two appetizers to be shared, Wells Fargo Cajun Escargot and Seafood Skillet Fondeaux. Eaten without the sauteed mushroom cap that they sat on, the snails tasted lovely (the juice from the mushroom diluted that taste). The garlic croutons that accompanied this dish I could make a meal on. The Fondeaux with its shrimp, crab, crawfish, spinach buried under a jack cheese crust proved much more delightful. It was enjoyed by all
I ordered a Shrimp Remoulade Salad while Blackened Tuna Caesar Salad, Corn and Crab Bisque and Red Snapper Diane rounded out the table. They seared the outside of the tuna leaving it rare. Then sliced it and put it on top of a delicious looking salad. A piece of the tuna provided me proved tasty and succulent unlike the leather of overcooked tuna. A spoonful of bisque revealed rich cream soup laden with crab and sweet corn, a meal in itself. The Snapper Diane consists of a large pan sauteed filet smothered in a creamy sauce of bell pepper, mushroom, shrimp, crab, and crawfish. A sample of this filled by mouth with richness beyond belief, a little too rich for me for that time of night. My salad come out with a base of spring lettuce mix with a good portion of medium shrimp soaked in a New Orleans remoulade sauce (Creole mustard based rather than mayonnaise) surrounded by cherry tomatoes and topped with three enormous stalks of grilled asparagus. It did the job and I really loved the smoky flavor of the asparagus.
On my return from NOWFE last week I stopped and did the whole nine yards thing. I started with a Crab Cake Cardinale which consisted of a hockey puck sized cake, pan sauteed, that was at least 60% crabmeat. They covered with a sauce of crawfish, onion, bell pepper and cheese. The sauce carries just the right amount of spice to accentuate the sweetness of the crab. Next came a Seafood Gumbo. They used a red roux (has a little tomato product in it) and therefore it possessed a turtle soup quality. This change of pace item had onions, bell pepper, and shrimp, crawfish, and crab in it, sort of in between country and city taste. Next came the Huckleberry Salad. A dish described and praised by my original informant (it comes with the entrees). It consists of mesclun mix with huckleberry vinaigrette topped with candied walnuts, wine-poached pear slices and crumbled blue cheese. As she said quite delightful. I opted for the Five Spice Sea Bass. It came with Thai crawfish rice and a red and yellow curry coconut sauce. The lightly crusted piece of Chilean sea bass appeared perfectly cooked. The rice mixture contained mushrooms and eggplant and in combination with the slightly sweet but pungent sauce brought the dish together. I literally lick the plate. I finished with their in-house bread pudding. A very simple bread pudding made with French bread and a touch of what I think is nutmeg. It floated on a lake of lightly sweetened cream along with some strawberries.
Having just come off of a four day wine and food binge I shied away from the game dishes but will return to give them a try. The wait staff was a few notches above Lake Charles but not to New Orleans standards. What can I say but when in Lafayette eat at LAFAYETTE’S.
