Lyn D's Cajun Gypsy Cafe

From February 15, 2008
Yes, Virginia, there is a Cajun restaurant . . .

Got another review: Lyn D's Cajun Gypsy Cafe

First of all, this place is run by people from Lake Charles, Louisiana (west of Lafayette) so it's actually around Cajun Country. It's a no-frills type of place, and boy do I mean no-frills. You walk in and place your order and pay. They give you a number and you go sit down in the dining area. There were about 7 tables (2-person and 4-person) in the dining area, plus another room with 2 larger tables. They do have sweet and unsweet tea, but you have to get it yourself. They have red plastic cups, a big metal ice pail, tea, lemon wedges, and a roll of paper towels. So it's partially a bus-yourself type place. The tea is Luzianne, but they really need to wash out their teapot. It was a bit off. Still drinkable though.

We got there a little after 11:30, and placed our order. The menu is small, but it's a small place. They also have daily specials. It was only a few minutes for our food to come out. It comes out on a styrofoam plate with a fork or spoon, depending upon what you ordered. I had the Crawfish Etouffe. Frank had the Combination Gumbo. The gumbo came out in a styrofoam cup, and they brought him a large bowl so he could combine it with the rice.

Crawfish Etouffe: My plate had Crawfish Etouffe over sticky white rice (like it should be!), a garlic pistolette (roll cut open with garlic butter inside), and a slice of lemon pound cake. The crawfish were good. They were a good size and I could taste them! The etouffe was a bit creamier than I'm used too, and tasted like it might have had Worcestershire in it. It was also hot. It was pretty good, and the garlic roll was very good. Heck, even the store-bought lemon pound cake was good. Oh, and there were chopped fresh green onions on the etouffe as a garnish.

Gumbo: The plate had sticky white rice with fresh chopped green onions as a garnish, garlic pistolette, and potato salad. If you're wondering why it came with potato salad, in some parts of South Louisiana they put that in the bottom of their gumbo. I didn't think the potato salad was that good, but I tend to judge potato salad by Boar's Nest standards. It was homemade though, and it had olives in it. The gumbo was dark, which is traditional, and pretty tasty.  They had seafood gumbo; chicken and sausage gumbo; and combination, which is a mix of both. Frank said it tasted pretty good. And there was a lot of it.

Overall, there was a nice atmosphere. I like hole-in-the-wall type places, as long as the food is good, and it was good! They had Cajun music playing, and the walls had nets, traps, and posters of Mardi Gras and New Orleans on them. It actually reminded me of some places I've eaten at in Louisiana. There was even an "attack turtle." And if you've ever wanted to try alligator, they do have fried gator there. We got out of there a little before noon. And they do bus the table after you've eaten, you don't have to do that. Yes, overall it was pretty good, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants Cajun food.

Edit:  I haven't been there since 2008, but this place would get 4 stars in my current rating system.

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.