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Mr. Nikinik and I took some out of town guests to Atchafalaya Restaurant (previously Atchafalaya Cafe) last night.

Atmosphere: A-
I really love the atmosphere of this little place. Small...warm lighting and the character that comes with old houses. It reminds me of the houses in my neighborhood (Algiers Point). I would've liked that the tables be not quite so close together.

Service: A -
We could tell that our server was new and he was nervous...and could've used a little more polish. But all in all he still did a really good job.

Food:

Fried Green Tomatoes Topped with Jumbo Lump Crabmeat: $12 B-
The tomatoes were really good and fried perfectly. They were not stingy AT ALL with the crab...The lumps were big and plentiful. What threw this dish off a little was the remoulade sauce...as it was entirely too strong. It just had an overwhelming taste of strong creole mustard...which was just too much when dealing with a taste as delicate as crab.

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp: $10
One of our guests got this appetizer with a house salad to eat together as an entree. She raved about the shrimp.

Pear and Blue Cheese Salad: $10 B+
This salad was really good. It would've gotten an A...but I felt it was stingy on the blue cheese.

Crawfish Atchafalaya (fettucine): $18 B+
This was a really nice sized serving for the price. The pasta was cooked perfectly. I found the crawfish to be slightly overcooked...but not enough so to ruin the dish for me. One of our guests got this and gave it an A+. I am a little bit of a harsh critic on this dish because I cook crawfish fettucine that is out of this world. Second to mine, I LOVE the Crawfish Diablo at Maximo's...and didn't feel that this dish was as good....but still good none the less.

Shrimp and Grits: $23 A
I'm a big shrimp and grits eater. When I have seen it in other restaurants, it's usually a cream type sauce...or rarely...like BBQ shrimp. The menu described theirs as a smoked tomato and andouille broth. I'm not big on tomato broth based dishes...so I passed. I'm VERY thankful that hubby didn't pass. This dish was the winner of the night. The grits were so creamy and delicious! The sauce was an incredible compliment and the shrimp were cooked perfectly! Since hubby was going through it so quickly, I didn't get a chance to see how many shrimp were included...so I can't really say if it was a good value or not.

Other notes....

The bread: A+
Jalapeno cornbread muffins! They were fantastic...and they kept it coming. At first they were stingy on the amount of butter we got...but we just asked for more and they brought plenty.

Overall, I'd give Atchafalaya Restaurant a B+ and I'd definitely go again. Hubby and I are big on going out to brunch, so I definitely want to go back for that.

Oh yeah....this restaurant is on Restaurant.com at 80% off right now. Unfortunately I had forgotten my coupon at home!

Also note: This is one of the few restaurants on restaurant.com that does have day restrictions and can only be used M-Th.

I have eaten here quite a bit in the past year. I think they have gotten progressively better over time, although there are still some mis-steps w/ food or service periodically. The last dinner we had there was spot-on in all respects. Then last Sunday I went for brunch and they were slammed and service was really slow. If you go back for brunch, get the grillades and grits. I think they have one of the better versions out there. They also make a very respectable Ramos Gin Fizz, which not just anyone can do.

I would definitely get the grillades and grits because the grits with the shrimp and grits were so good. And dang it...I almost got a Ramos Gin Fizz...as I've never had one. But I ended up not drinking at all.

I immediately thought of the Ramos Gin Fizz when I walked in tonight and saw the eggs on the bar. Alas, I didn't order one...

I've been sick a couple days but Bam and I wanted to get out and have dinner somewhere tonight. After looking all over the internet we finally decided on Cafe Atchafalaya.

Our waitress was very nice. And the background music was Eric Lindell's CD which I thoroughly enjoyed. A little later a 3 piece band played by the bar which was also very cool. Anyway....we started by ordering a bottle of Syrah from Washington. It was a decent jammy wine but nothing spectacular. I think I liked it more than Bam.

We shared a few things to start: the fried oysters with shoe string potatoes over a creamy tasso sauce. Very good. The oysters were fried nicely, the sauce could have used a little more salt/spice but good. Then the pear and blue cheese salad. Bam agreed it could use a bit more blue but he loved it.

For an entree I had the crawfish stuffed flounder and Bam had the boudin stuffed bacon wrapped quail. Both were very good but Bam's was a flavor BOMB! Even the greens on his plate were great. Lots of rice wine vinegar in the greens. YUM!

One cute note...our waitress was really nice but every time, and there were three, she said she'd "check and get back" to us with something, she never did. The only thing I really wanted to know I just asked the other guy waiting tables in our area and he promptly answered.

Since it's Lent, we didn't have dessert...so I didn't even look to see what they had. Then again, after all that food, we didn't need any.

The place looks really nice. We had good, attentive service and the food was very good. There was a lingering wait before the entrees....but Bam was being good so I enjoyed our conversation.

Sounds like a great evening! I too was listening to Eric Lindell last night...at the Old Point. We need to get back to Atchafalaya soon...as we have a Restaurant.com certificate and I keep dreaming about the shrimp and grits!