Steak.
Metairie: 3520 18th St.. 504-887-6641. Map.
Lunch and dinner continuously Monday-Saturday. Sunday: dinner only.
Casual.
AE DC DS MC V
Website
WHY IT'S NOTEWORTHY
Crazy Johnnie's is the best of the low-end steakhouses around New Orleans. It's solidly in the old tradition of maintaining a straightforward menu in unstylish premises for a mainstream budget-minded clientele. Although it counters much what the deluxe steak chains claim, the place really does serve a piece of beef in which only the high-rolling connoisseur will find fault.
WHY IT'S GOOD
The steaks are grilled to order, doused with hot garlic butter, and accompanied by a pile of smashed, skin-on potatoes. Crazy Johnnie's also roasts a good prime rib--a cut of beef not much seen around town. The non-steak specialties, however, may in fact be even better. Here is the best stuffed artichoke in town, and a mysteriously excellent seafood gumbo. Everything is served simply with no ceremony, but at these prices it's hard to complain.
BACKSTORY
Johnnie Schram--a gal with a lot of personality--opened Crazy Johnnie's in 1985 as a bar. But she came up with a good gimmick. One night a week, they set up a grill in the parking lot and sold thick filets mignon at cost--all of $4.95, with potatoes. The only restriction was that you needed to have a drink in your hand to get a steak. Almost immediately the steaks were on the grill every night, and people were waiting an hour or more--always with the drinks in hand--to get them. The novelty wore out and the prices went up (they're still a bargain at $16), but Crazy Johnnie's remained popular. The fact that it looked and smelled like a bar limited the trade until, after the storm, a thorough renovation made the place family-friendly. The menu expanded to encompass a full range of food, most of which is better than you might imagine, given the tout ensemble.
DINING ROOM
Except for the large bar area, the restaurant no longer feels like a bar, and the no-smoking law has improved the literal atmosphere tremendously. The tables are shoved a little too close together in the dining area, which is a bit noisy as a result. The patio around the restaurant offers al fresco dining.
ESSENTIAL DISHES
Shrimp remoulade
Crawfish Johnnie (with mushrooms over croutons or rice)
Filet Mischa (grilled filet tips with garlic cream sauce)
Shrimp Sochi (dill cream sauce)
Seafood gumbo
Stuffed artichoke
Table salad (basic greens for four)
Crabmeat-stuffed mushrooms
Filet mignon
Top sirloin
Prime rib au jus
Grilled chicken breast
Grilled tuna steak
Dippin' shrimp (New Orleans barbecue shrimp)
Shrimp and crawfish etouffee
Red beans and rice with smoked sausage (Monday only)
Filet mignon poor boy
Barbecue prime rib sandwich
Pies
FOR BEST RESULTS
Order appetizers for the whole table to split; they're enormous. On Tuesdays, all the wine in the place is half-price. There's an early-evening special on the filets that knocks off four dollars.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
I'd come here more often if they had a serious sirloin strip steak, even if it were twice the price of the regular steaks.
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
- Consistency +2
- Service +1
- Value +3
- Attitude +2
- Wine and Bar
- Hipness -1
- Local Color -1
SPECIAL ATTRIBUTES
- Courtyard or deck dining
- Good for business meetings
- Medium private room
- Early-evening specials
- Open Sunday dinner
- Open Monday lunch and dinner
- Open all afternoon
- Quick, good meal
- No reservations
ANECDOTES AND ANALYSIS
The steakhouse universe is split cleanly into two halves. There are the cheap ones, for people who are more concerned with keeping the price down than the fine points of beef selection and cookery. And there are the expensive ones, which make their reputation on the pedigree of the beef and the other ingredients on the menu, the excellence of their service and wine lists, and the impressive heights of their prices. Crazy Johnnie's is decidedly in the first category, but it's so much better than other low-end steak specialists that no small number of people claim it serves the best steak in town. It doesn't, but its quality-to-price ratio may well be the highest in the business.
Drawback: you can't impress an important new client or a date by bringing them here.
This review was updated with new information on 7/14/2010.
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