Seafood.
Uptown: 4330 Magazine. 504-895-9761. Map.
Lunch Tuesday-Saturday. Dinner Thursday-Saturday.
Casual.
No credit cards.
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Casamento's is a specialist. While they have the full range of fried seafood, this is primarily a place you go for oysters. They are of excellent intrinsic quality, and are fully satyisfying whether you eat them raw, fried, or in a sandwich. The unique premises also endears the place to the hearts of New Orleans eaters.
WHY IT'S GOOD
Casamento's adheres rigorously to the Two Laws of Great Fried Seafood. First, the seafood must be fresh and local. Second, it has to be fried immediately before being served. They take this one step farther by offering excellent fresh-cut French fries. All of this is as good as it gets, and the superb raw oysters caps a simple, wonderful meal.
BACKSTORY
Second only to the Acme in age among New Orleans oyster bars, Casamento's is in its third generation and still going strong. They're as noteworthy for their quirks as for the goodness of their food. For as long as anybody remembers, they've closed the entire summer every year. They are also doctrinaire about their hours, locking the doors on the dot.
DINING ROOM
The tiled walls and floor make it look like a kitchen, or an old-time barbershop. Those tiles are genuine Newcomb pottery, before any of that was famous yet. Two rooms of all that, with the oyster bar in the front and the kitchen all the way in the back.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Oysters on the half shell.
Seafood gumbo.
Oyster stew with milk.
Fried calamari.
Fried crab claws.
Fried oyster loaf.
Fried shrimp loaf.
Soft shell crabs.
Fried seafood platter.
Spaghetti and meatballs.
French fries.
Cheesecake.
German chocolate cake.
Cafe au lait (made with Union coffee & chicory!)
FOR BEST RESULTS
Start with a dozen raw. This is a good place to have raw oysters for the first time. Know that the oyster loaf here is made with "pan bread," a standard white loaf cut into large slabs, toasted, and buttered. Go somewhere else for spaghetti.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
The cash-only policy is nothing but an inconvenience to customers and is long overdue to be rescinded. While gruffness of the staff is a long-running tradition, I liked the mellowness of right after the hurricane. It's also time they opened five days for dinner.
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 +2
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Historic
- Oyster bar
- Quick, good meal
- Good for children
- Easy, nearby parking
- No reservations
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
Although it's not as consistent as it once was, Casamento's--a big, long room covered with enough spanking-clean Art Nouveau tiles that it looks like a gigantic bathroom--is still a first-class vendor of oysters. They're terrific in either raw or fried form; no small number of patrons start with the first and finish with the second.
The oyster loaf here is not a poor boy but a sandwich made on thickly sliced, toasted, buttered "pan bread." Other local seafoods are also fried with the same deftness. No such thing as tepid, soggy, or greasy trout or soft-shell crabs here. The french fries are among the best in town--cut from fresh potatoes and fried to order. The Italian dishes are completely forgettable--red sauce piled atop white spaghetti.
Casamento's closes for the summer every year. They also close at exactly the time they say they will at lunch (1:30 ) and dinner (9:30). Do not expect any leniency
This review was updated with new information on 2/17/2010.
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