Meaux Dad's

From February 8, 2008
If'n Y'all's Desperate

Yes, it's another restaurant review. The title is courtesy of Frank, who insisted I use it.

For those of you who don't know, Meaux Dad's is a Cajun-themed restaurant in front of Target; they took over the old O'Charley's building. At first glance, it's not bad. There are a lot of booths, which I like. There are televisions, but they are confined to the bar area, which I also like. The place is decorated in a Mardi Gras theme, but it's not overdone like Benigans, Friday's, etc. And the music is very good - blues and jazz. Unfortunately, that was most of the good points for the meal. The place tries to be slightly more upscale by not having ketchup on the table. They do have Louisiana brand Hot Sauce (not Tobasco! another good point) and Meaux Dad's own Bayou Garlic Sauce. The iced tea was great! They have sweet and unsweet. We got the unsweet which was very strong and came without a slice of lemon (another good point - I hate lemon in my tea). From there, it went downhill.

The menu is very thin - 2 facing pages, single column, with desserts on the back of another page. We ordered the Natchitoches Meat Pies appetizer, with Creole Remoulade Sauce. The sauce was mustardy and not bad. The meat pies were okay. They were small, which I expected from an appetizer, but they were a bit generic. If you've ever tasted a real Natchitoches Meat Pie, you'll know what I mean. For the main meal, I ordered the Fried Crawfish and Frank got the Chicken/Shrimp/Andouille Jambalaya. Frank said the jambalaya was okay, but unfortunately it wasn't jambalaya. Jambalaya is a dish of rice with some kind of meat cooked in it. This was an okay-tasting combination of meat and vegetables over white rice. Frank said it wouldn't have been bad if they hadn't called it jambalaya.

My crawfish were a different story. The crawfish were coated in a strong batter. There was a lemon flavor, some cayenne (a bit of heat), and what Frank thought was either a strong herb flavor or burnt flour. The coating was dark, so it could have been a bit burnt, or it could have been the seasonings. The main problem was that I couldn't taste the crawfish! Just the coating. The dish came with fries, which are hard to screw up, and Jalapeno Corn Fritters. Yes, instead of hushpuppies there were corn fritters. Frank said the texture was not right for fritters, it was more like inbetween fritters and a hushpuppy. And it had pieces of corn and jalapeno in it. Somewhat generic.

So, overall, I won't be going back. Remember though, that I'm from Louisiana so I have high expectations. According to Meaux Dad's website, he went to college in Monroe, Louisiana, and that's where he got the idea for this restaurant. Let me tell you, Monroe is not Cajun Country, it's Country Country. But if your idea of good Cajun food is the Cajun entree at Applebee's, then you'll probably love Meaux Dad's.