Perino's Boiling Pot
3754 Westbank Expy, Harvey, LA 70058, USA
Harvey
Perino's ranks highest in my casual count of men wearing white T-shirts in sit-down restaurants. In a boiled seafood house, this is a good sign. Boiled seafood is messy, and you don't want to wear your best tie while pulling a crab apart. The people who most love boiled seafood know this, and keep the restaurant focused.
Anecdotes & Analysis
Perino's ranks highest in my casual count of men wearing white T-shirts in sit-down restaurants. In a boiled seafood house, this is probably a good sign. Boiled seafood is messy, and you don't want to wear your best tie while pulling a crab apart. The people who most love boiled seafood know this, and keep the restaurant focused.
Backstory
Sam Perino was a seafood dealer for a long time before he had the idea, in 1972, to open a cafe for his well-regarded take-out boiled seafood. The place did well enough that, twenty years later, it moved across the highway to a more amenable but no more visible location. Eight years after that, Perino's took over an adjacent building and expanded yet again.
Dining Room
Boiled seafood and raw oysters--the two main specialities of Perino's--are among the most primitive of dining activities, as they should be. Perino's is right in step with that. Although there's no connection with the motel next door, the exterior doesn't promise much. Inside the place is brighter, spartan but pleasant, with tables a shade too close to one another. On the other hand, when the place gets busy on Friday at lunchtime or Saturday evening, you'll be glad all those tables are there..
Why It's Essential
Finding a restaurant with boiled seafood is harder than we tend to think it is--even on the West Bank, which has the best seafood markets in the area. Perino's is the definitive West Bank place for making a mess cracking crab shells and peeling shrimp and crawfish hot out of the pot.
Why It's Good
You come here for boiled seafood, and that's what you get. It is very fresh, very well selected, and almost always served still hot from the pot. They understand that eating boiled seafood takes awhile, and there's never the sense that one is being rushed. A few appetizers and seafood platters round out the short menu. If you want a poor boy sandwich, buy a fried seafood basket and, for $2.75, they'll sell you the bread, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, mayo, etc.
Most Interesting Dishes
<em><strong>Starters</strong></em><br /> Crawfish boudin Stuffed artichoke Fried calamari Gumbo Raw oysters on the half-shell Popcorn shrimp salad <em><strong>Entrees</strong></em> Boiled crabs, crawfish and shrimp in season Fried shrimp, oyster, or catfish baskets Stuffed crab Fried soft shell crab Fried crawfish tails Fried chicken tenders
Deficiencies
The seafood platters are served in those plastic baskets that have become common in local seafood restaurants. Plates would be a lot better.
For Best Results
The tangle of ramps from the West Bank Expressway can be confusing for non-West Bankers. If you're coming from the Crescent City Connection, get off the elevated at the Barataria Boulevard exit, hook a U-turn at the intersection, then stay at ground level in the right lane, headed for the nearby Harvey Tunnel. Perino's is right before you veer into the tunnel.
Bonus Ratings
1
Attitude
1
Local Color
1
Service
2
Value