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Written: Jun 14 '00 (Updated Jun 14 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It used to be The Source, and Fabio and Woody Allen were once on the premises.
Cons: It's now no longer The Source
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| Chuq's Full Review: Cajun Bistro |
Look elsewhere if you want good Louisiana food. Here you'll find yourself pining for the "alfalfa sprouts and mashed yeast" of The Source's days.
When the venerable old health-food restaurant at this location closed (disappointing everyone from Woody Allen fans to Fabio), I was tremendously excited to see that it would be a Cajun restaurant. I'm a New Orleans native, and I miss my home state's wonderful cuisine. I tried to maintain my healthy skepticism at the prospect of good Louisiana food outside of Louisiana, but I know it can be done, and I kept an open mind. I was primarily excited because this place was just a few minutes from where I was living at the time.
I tried the place the requisite three times, each time tasting the food that my companions had ordered. I could not have been more disappointed.
The first warning sign, the first red flag, the first alarm bell went off when I opened the menu to see that this establishment spells gumbo thusly: "gumbeaux".
This is not how you spell gumbo.
This is not how gumbo is spelled in Louisiana, by either English-speakers or French-speaking Cajuns and Creoles. This is not how you spell gumbo, period.
When a restaurant misspells the name of the quintessential dish of the cuisine it purports to represent, even if it's deliberate for some kind of comic effect... it's a bad, bad sign.
The second bad sign was that the gumbo was too hot to eat. And I, being a native, have quite a tolerance for cayenne pepper.
Gumbo is a complex dish, in which a skilled and talented cook builds layers and levels of flavor and texture. If you obliterate this complexity by making a gumbo that's so peppery that all you get is heat, you've ruined it. It's a waste of good seafood as well, to have oysters in a gumbo be overpowered by too much cayenne. This is the mark of someone who doesn't really understand how to cook Cajun food properly (although I understand that the original owner of this establishment is from Opelousas, Louisiana).
The jambalaya was served in a large soup bowl and was ... soupy. It consisted of a thin red gravy that was the consistency of tomato soup, surrounding a scoop of plain white rice.
This is not jambalaya. Jambalaya is not soup, and the consistency should resemble the paella from which it is descended. I've had this dish a hundred different ways by a hundred different cooks, and this is just not how you do it. Intensely disappointing.
There are far better places to go if you want real Louisiana cuisine in Los Angeles. Head to the Crenshaw district for superb food cooked by Louisiana Creoles at places like Harold and Belle's or La Louisiane or Stevie's on the Strip. Head out to Venice and Cochran, a little ways past La Cienega, for superb Creole food at Uncle Darrow's. Head up to Altadena for fantastic fried seafood (best in town) at A Taste of New Orleans on N. Fair Oaks.
Don't waste your time or money at the Cajun Bistro.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Chuq
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Member: Chuck Taggart
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 80 members
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