Restaurant des Familles. Lafitte: 7163 Barataria Blvd. 504-689-7834.

Last Updated on Friday, 03 December 2010 16:06

Restaurants - Seafood Restaurants

Restaurant des Familles

Lafitte: 7163 Barataria Blvd. 504-689-7834. Map.
Nice Casual.
AE DS MC V
Website

WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Lafitte and the communities around it abound in fishing camps and charter fishing boats. It makes sense that a restaurant should tap into the bounty. This is a good-looking restaurant whose windows gaze into the bayou. The menu ranges from the casual to the more elaborate, with a logical emphasis on seafood.

WHY IT'S GOOD
A good bit upscale from the typical seafood joint, the restaurant provides the basics like boiled shrimp remoulade, gumbo, and seafood platters. But it gets more ambitious, too, with sauces and grilling. Also here: the only Sunday brunch worth talking about on the West Bank.

BACKSTORY
Restaurant des Familles is named for the bayou outside its windows. At one time in the dim past, that was the Mississippi River. Pat Morrow opened the restaurant in 1993. It was washed out by Hurricane Katrina, but dried out and reopened just in time to be flooded again by Hurricane Rita. It came back quickly after that, too. In 2009, Morrow sold the restaurant to Bryan Zar, one of her early employees. He began as a teenage busboy with no plans to stay in the business, but it grabbed him.

DINING ROOM
A large wall of glass that gives onto the lazy old bayou creates most of the atmosphere. Alligators have been known to appear in the winding backwater. The visual is almost laughably typical of South Louisiana. The dining room is spacious and airy. Sometimes there's live music.

ESSENTIAL MENU
Starters
»Crabmeat Remick
»Oysters Lafitte
Shrimp remoulade
»Barbecue shrimp
Fried calamari
»Oyster-artichoke soup
Turtle soup
Seafood gumbo
Chicken gumbo
Popcorn shrimp salad
Entrees
»Catfish or soft-shell crab Foster (with artichokes and mushrooms)
Redfish Marcelle (fried, with crabmeat and shrimp)
»Fried catfish meuniere or amandine
»Fried seafood platter (with gumbo)
Fried oysters, shrimp, or soft shell crabs
Shrimp Diane (garlic butter, pasta)
Shrimp balls in Creole sauce
Jambalaya
»Crawfish etouffee
Crab cakes with bearnaise
»Broiled stuffed crab
Grilled T-bone steak
Baby back ribs
Desserts
Black Forest cheesecake

FOR BEST RESULTS
If you've never been this way before, check the map. It's not hard to find, but easy to zoom past. The simpler the dish, the better it is likely to be.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
Almost all the fish is farm-raised. Seems that in a place like this they could come up with more wild-caught fish. Too many dishes are deep-fried. Some of the more ambitious entrees are overwhelmed by their sauces.

FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.

• Dining Environment +1
• Consistency
• Service +1
• Value +1
• Attitude +1
• Wine and Bar
• Hipness -1
• Local Color +3

SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES

• Live music some nights
• Romantic
• Good view
• Good for business meetings
• Small private room
• Open Sunday lunch and dinner
• Open all afternoon
• Historic
• Good for children
• Easy, nearby parking
• Reservations recommended

ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
Our area is in close proximity to many Ends Of The World. Restaurant des Familles is not in such a place, but well down the road to one of them: Barataria, the hangout of Jean Lafitte and his pirates. The surroundings of the restaurant are primordial enough that there are swamp tours nearby. Yet it's close enough to town that if you have a visiting client or friend who wants to eyeball the unique Louisiana environment, it's not too long a trip to come here. And eat some gumbo, oysters, crabmeat, and all the other comestibles for which our town is celebrated.