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BAYOU BOUDIN & CRACKLIN CAFÉ
www.bayoucabins.com
100 W. Mills Ave., Breaux Bridge (Map) - 332-6158
Wednesday-Sunday: Breakfast and Lunch
When you spend the night in one of the cabins overlooking Bayou Teche, owner Rocky Sonnier treats you to Bayou Boudin’s sampler plate: hot-from-the-fryer cracklins, freshly made boudin and a slice of hogs head cheese, which tastes even better when washed down with his homemade root beer. Or drop in for a rustic and deeply Cajun lunch.
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BOJANGLES
www.bojanglessushi.com
101 E. Main St., New Iberia (Map) - 369-5929
Monday-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner
Bojangles’ cobalt blue sushi bar and diverse menu feature lots of innovative sushi rolls, sashimi specials like a salmon rose and raw oysters on the half shell. If the raw bar’s not your style, there are fried or garlic-and-cheese grilled oysters, steaks and teriyaki dinners.
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BON CREOLE SEAFOOD, INC.
www.boncreoleseafoods.com
1409 E. St. Peter St., New Iberia (Map) - 367-6181
Monday-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner; Sunday: Lunch
Bon Creole doesn’t know the meaning of restraint; its seafood poboys are so over-stuffed you’ll have trouble getting your mouth around them. Sandwiches made with shrimp, oysters, soft-shell crab and crawfish are joined by a homemade hamburger poboy. Bon Creole boils seafood at night, and the excellent seafood gumbo is New Orleans style, thick and redolent with shrimp and crabmeat. Sundays, the barbecue pit flames chicken, sausage, pork chops and ribs. This place is the creator of the Crawfish Spinach Boat that haunts hands and stomachs at festivals year round, yet isn’t on the regular menu.
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BRENDA’S DINE IN OR TAKE OUT
411 W. Pershing St., New Iberia (Map) - 367-0868
Monday-Friday: Breakfast and Lunch
This tiny family-run breakfast and plate lunch restaurant has earned its share of big accolades, with coverage in The New York Times and Gourmet magazine. Owner Brenda Placide makes great standards like fried chicken, barbecue ribs and red beans and rice, but her smothered cabbage with sausage is the house specialty. Fridays, every kind of seafood winds up on her combo plate.
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CAFÉ BREEN
www.cafebreen.com
204 North Main St., Opelousas (Map) - 678-1303
Monday-Friday: Lunch
Cafe Breen offers a unique experience in Opelousas with a full-service coffee bar with combinations like chocolate chip cookie or peanut butter bliss lattes. It also has a hefty tea assortment from traditional Earl Grey to Strawberry-Kiwi. The star of the menu is the seafood and corn bisque. It’s rich, spicy and is loaded with all the savory-sweet flavors it should be. Go for the full Monty and get the special: the bisque or small salad, one of their wraps and fresh peach cobbler.
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CAFÉ JEFFERSON
www.ripvanwinklegardens.com
5505 Rip Van Winkle Road, New Iberia (Map) - 359-8525
Daily: Lunch
A small dining room on a glassed-in porch overlooks the lake. The Rip Van Winkle Gardens are to your right, while gorgeous food is ahead of you. Try the seafood heaven, which has a basil sauce full of shrimp, crabmeat and crawfish over angel hair. The seafood bisque, however, is a mainstay and perennial favorite of Jefferson Cafe. For dessert, a fat wedge of Key Lime pie and a cup of coffee or a cocktail will complete your perfect afternoon.
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CLEMENTINE DINING & SPIRITS
www.clementinedowntown.com
113 E. Main St., New Iberia (Map) - 560-1007
Tuesday-Friday: Lunch and Dinner; Saturday: Dinner
A beautiful antique bar welcomes you into New Iberia’s finest restaurant. Start with the crawfish snaps, which top gingersnaps with crawfish salad, cilantro oil and fresh dill. Try the crab-stuffed jumbo soft shell crab, or the duck and gnocci alfredo. Clementine is justifiably famous for its bread pudding, so don’t skip dessert. For something lighter, park yourself at the bar and munch on snacks like Cajun wontons, filled with crawfish, boudin and a fig dipping sauce.
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COMEAUX’S CAFÉ
104 S. State St., Abbeville (Map) - 898-9218
Monday-Friday: Breakfast and Lunch; Saturday: Breakfast
Comeaux’s Café is the place for breakfast in Abbeville. Don’t miss the pain perdu (French toast), dusted with powdered sugar. Be sure to douse it with Abbeville’s Steen’s syrup, a local, molasses-flavored favorite. The grilled biscuit with ham is another winner, or segue into lunch. Cajun classics like crawfish etouffée sit side by side with the restaurant’s renowned hamburger steak.
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DUPUY’S OYSTER SHOP
www.dupuysoystershop.com
108 S. Main St., Abbeville (Map) - 893-2336
Tuesday-Friday: Lunch and Dinner; Saturday: Dinner
Since 1896, oysters on the half shell have been Dupuy’s calling card in winter; summer is a great time for Louisiana crabs, and the crab cakes at Dupuy’s are stellar. Seafood turns up fried, grilled, pan-sauteed, in gumbo, over pasta, in eggplant stuffing and on poboys.
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EL DORADO
2307 N. Parkerson Ave., Crowley (Map) - 785-0339
Daily: Lunch and Dinner
If you are very hungry and want to get down to it try El Dorado’s buffet with options ranging from the healthy to the decadent. You can order off the menu anytime if buffets aren’t your bag. Try the chimichanga with grilled chicken. Check out the powdery soft sopapillas drizzled with honey, hot and made fresh constantly.
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FEZZO’S SEAFOOD, STEAKHOUSE & OYSTER BAR
www.fezzos.com
720 S. Frontage Road, Scott (Map) - 261-2464
2111 N. Cherokee Drive, Crowley (Map) - 783-5515
Monday-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner; Sunday: Lunch
Raw oysters, charbroiled oysters, boiled shrimp and crawfish, oh my! Other menu items include gumbo, fried and grilled fish, po-boys, steaks and salads. Then there’s the house favorites, Phil’s Seafood Festival — seafood gumbo, oysters, shrimp, fish, frog legs, a crab cake, stuffed shrimp and seafood etouffée over rice — or Pat’s Ribeye Supreme — a 10-oz. ribeye steak flame-grilled and smothered in seafood étouffée.
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FROSTO
228 N. Ave. G, Crowley (Map) - 783-0917
Sunday-Thursday: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Not much has changed since Frosto opened in 1956, and that’s a good thing. The drive-in restaurant in historic downtown Crowley, still owned by the same family, serves up everything from scratch, like its homemade hamburgers, hot dogs, daily plate lunches, fried shrimp and catfish, onion rings and ice cream. It still serves those old-fashioned dip cones, which transport one back to childhood.
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JOSEPHINE’S CREOLE RESTAURANT
830 S. Main St., St. Martinville (Map) - 394-8030
Monday-Friday: Lunch
Josephine Cormier knows Creole food. Her weekly menu items include stuffed turkey wings over cornbread dressing, smothered pork over dirty rice or the superb barbecued ribs from the pit out back. Cormier opens the doors early, and it’s not unusual for her to sell out of menu items by noon. “A big man needs a big lunch,” is Miss Josephine’s phrase.
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LITTLE RIVER INN
www.littleriverinnnewiberia.com
833 E. Main St., New Iberia (Map) - 367-7466
Monday-Friday: Lunch and Dinner; Saturday: Dinner
Little River Inn is the place to go for Maine lobster -— boiled, broiled, stuffed or surf and turf with your favorite steak. The Shrimp and Catfish Pirogue floats seafood in an eggplant bateau, topped with a creamy pesto sauce. If seafood isn’t your dish, try the St. Louis-style barbecued ribs, followed by the perennial favorite, bread pudding.
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MAIN STREET PIZZA
719 S. Main St., Breaux Bridge (Map) - 332-3232
Daily: Lunch and Dinner
Owners Lisa Foster and Nick Breaux serve up daily plate lunches during the week, or stop by for dinner to choose among pizzas named after Breaux Bridge streets, pastas, poboys, salads and appetizers. Try the BBQ Roast Beef Poboy that comes layered with tender beef and all the fixings, or the South of I-10 pizza with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, sausage, hamburger, onions, jalapeños, green peppers, mushrooms, smoked sausage, bacon, shrimp, tomatoes and cheese for a cornucopia of flavors bursting in your mouth.
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MYRAN’S MAISON DE MANGER
1023 Neblett St., Arnaudville (Map) - 754-5064
Daily: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
Myran’s porch overlooks Bayou Teche, and it’s the right place to settle in for boiled crawfish. There are eggs for breakfast and a stunningly good shrimp poboy at lunch, but it’s boiled crawfish and shrimp that draw folks in the door, and Myran’s is one of the few places that offer boiled seafood at lunch time.
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PARK RESTAURANT
204 Park Ave., Abbeville (Map) - 893-9957
Daily: Breakfast and Lunch; Friday and Saturday: Dinner
Tucked away on a side street off Hwy 167, the Park starts off your day with the Cajun omelette, stuffed with tasso, andouille, onions, bell pepper and a little bit of cheese. The pancakes, sweetened with Abbeville-made Steen’s syrup, are so big most patrons can eat only one. Plate lunches are served Monday through Friday, like steak and gravy or pork roast, or try one of the best burgers in town.
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POCHE’S MARKET & RESTAURANT
www.pochesmarket.com
3015 Main Hwy., Breaux Bridge (Map) - 332-2108
Daily: Lunch and Dinner
Traditional Cajun and Creole plate lunches get top billing at this Breaux Bridge favorite. Pork backbone stew and crawfish étouffée have their share of devotees, and Poche’s also offers Cajun favorites such as boudin and cracklins. Visit Poche’s on Sundays to feast on old-fashioned Sunday barbecue and dirty rice, a Poche’s tradition for more than 30 years. And don’t walk out the door without one of its stand-out pralines for a rolling dessert.
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THE RIVERFRONT RESTAURANT
www.riverfrontla.com
503 W. Port St., Abbeville (Map) - 893-3070
Monday-Friday: Lunch and Dinner; Saturday: Dinner;
Having a cocktail on the deck overlooking the Vermilion River is a perfect way to start a meal at the Riverfront, which is known for its Eggplant Evangeline, fried eggplant medallions topped with crabmeat béchamel sauce. Fried seafood platters are also popular, as are the Riverfront’s black Angus beef steaks.
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SHUCKS!
www.shucksrestaurant.com
701 W. Port St., Abbeville (Map) - 898-3311
Monday-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner
Everyone knows that Shucks! is renowned for some of the best raw oysters in southwest Louisiana (get ‘em pan-broiled, fried or stuffed if you like), but owners David Bertrand and Bert Istre have also tweaked and expanded the menu a bit. There are crab cakes, fried alligator, shrimp remoulade, duck and andouille gumbo and an oyster stew recipe that’s winning raves.
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SOOP’S SEAFOOD AND STEAK HOUSE
8218 Maurice Ave, Hwy. 167 (Map) - 893-2462
Monday: Lunch; Tuesday-Saturday: Lunch and Dinner
Soop’s menu doesn’t stray too far from its name, keeping it simple with hamburger steaks and ribeyes. On the seafood front, the Chef’s Special overflows with seafood gumbo, shrimp étouffée, shrimp-stuffed bell pepper, crabmeat au gratin, fried shrimp and french fries.
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VICTOR’S CAFETERIA
www.victorscafeteria.com
109 W. Main St., New Iberia (Map) - 369-9924
Daily: Breakfast; Sunday-Friday: Lunch
Don’t let the cafeteria-style service fool you. Breakfast dishes like omelettes and pancakes are made to order, and at lunch some of the best gumbo in town is spooned over rice. Or go for the crisp fried seafood, baked chicken and eggplant stuffing. Don’t miss out on the homemade desserts like banana creme or lemon meringue pie.
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VILLAGER’S
www.villagerscafe.net
8400 Maurice Ave., (Hwy. 167) Maurice (Map) - 898-1554
Monday-Friday: Lunch and Dinner; Saturday: Lunch
Even in the land of great shrimp poboys, Villager’s stands out as one of the best. But bring a buddy, cause you have to order the slow cooked gravy laced pot roast poboy as well, and the barbecue poboy, and the chicken fried steak poboy, and — you get it. Nightly specials feature a whole poboy for $5.25 and Monday is meatball poboy night.
