THE CAJUN BOIL & BAR

"9/23 - Cajun Boil has added live music nights to their schedule on Fridays and Saturdays. Seeing Timmy Maia on the list, we made sure to attend. Great performance as always. The fried calamari had a nice crisp to the coating but was chewy. From the Mexican menu, the grilled steak hard taco was also chewy so a clean bite could not be made. The lobster soft taco had real lobster but was not detectable with the sauce on top. The shrimp fajitas were flavorful but the tails were left on. After we both swallowed one or two building them in the dark, we cut the tails off, but this left us done for the night. Our tall drinks had light pours. We ordered two dry martinis that had good pours. # 7/23 - Revisiting since spring '22 for their karaoke night, we were surprised by changes in the menu items. Originally billed in local press as a fusion restaurant, run by a Chef who is Asian and grew up in New Orleans, the one-sided dinner menu consisted of 2 choices: boiled in the bag shellfish with flavor options & fried baskets including gator. Notable to us now is that the other side of the menu consists of Mexican food. Perhaps the owner thought this would increase his customer base or a new partner or Chef in the kitchen made this change. Hamburgers have been added, too. Working on a top ten chicken wing list, Cajun Boil was on it until this new outing. Not sure what changed - sometimes there's a new Chef, a recipe change to cut costs or a new style. Biting into them, our friend and I both noticed the flesh had a yellow color to it. He said, I've never had a yellow chicken wing before. Maybe it's some kind of marinade. If saffron, even though it goes a long way, would be too expensive. Turmeric? Possibly. There was no flavor element if so. The original wings we had came with a fine coating - panko? Whatever they use now is heavy and thick and covers a palid piece of skin. But at $5.00 for 8 wings, what can you expect? On the upside, I had an absolutely delicious bowl of clam chowder, and a few of my companion's all-you-can-eat shrimp order for $25. bucks. The shrimp comes with 8 choices. We did not try the sauteed, fried or buffalo, but enjoyed the boiled in the bag and cocktail versions. An appetizer of grilled oysters was very small in size. Special drinks were okay. Karaoke was well timed for singers. # Visiting a friend opening a restaurant next door, we walked over to The Cajun Boil for a unique experience. Empty of customers aside from us, we loved the big space and design. The booth had surprisingly low bench seats. Beer and wine only license now. Ordering two white wines at $8.00 each, served in small plastic glasses, I suggested if they're going to sell customers wine for this amount in this "glass," they should not expect to sell much wine. She said people tell her this but it's a true pour. We agreed this was 2 oz of wine and there are many places with better pours. For $16.00, we could have brought in a nice bottle. Consider a corkage fee. The best thing about our meal were the wings. Unbelievable. Fried like no other, they were incredibly crispy with no hint of oil, cooked perfectly yet moist and lush, flavorful and a decent size. When asked, in some monosyllabic word we said they were great busy devouring them. Fried shrimp rolls were no different from a Chinese place. For dinner, the menu promotes a steamed in the bag combination of a choice of shellfish or a fried basket. Staff told us the Chef learned to cook in-the-bag meals in New Orleans where this is common. I've been there. My partner's been there. Friends have been there. None of us remember this cooking style. Nevertheless, the two lobster tail dinners with garlic butter & Old Bay seasoning, medium, were very tasty. Really messy to eat, especially since they only provide plastic forks and knives and no dishes. Two people had fried basket dinners which looked easier to enjoy. Our wait staff got it right when she said some customers don't want to eat out of a plastic bag. Understandable. The lunch menu offers a variety of tacos and shrimp dip."

"I was optimistic getting their hole belly clams at market price. The staff were super friendly and enthusiastic about their new restaurant.. Unfortunately, it was the worst hole belly clam plater I’ve ever had. Maybe two or three clams were hole and the rest were little pieces. Over cooked and a greasy after taste, with the portion size of a kids meal. And I wouldn’t of posted this if the manager offered to accommodate me with a discount or at least something! The market price for hole belly clams was a whopping $37.57 , and I gave 15% because of their good attitude. But spending 45 dollars for a platter that wasn’t worth $12 , was horribly disappointing. The girl appreciated my call to complain about it. But she should have offered something to me, because now I won’t go back. And I’m writing this to boot! If she offered something to accommodate my bad experience, I would be going back to try again. And I wouldn’t of wrote this. . I don’t think they will make it there. Unless they fix the food and reach a certain clientele that will spend high prices for fried food. Good luck!"

"Very unique restaurant in such a very odd area. I love to support local & obviously, try new food. I really do love the concept of the place, but pricing is a little high. Staff is younger & new, not that experienced, so hopefully that will get better (I've been several times). I do wish that the restaurant was more environmentally friendly, they use disposable silverware & cups...all plastic. I'd say they did a good job with the interior of the space."

"Cajun boil is a newer restaurant that opened recently, I finally got a chance to check it out. It's located right off of Winsted road with plenty of parking. They have a big outdoor deck off to the side and the dining room is very spacious. There are to areas to accommodate larger groups as well as a bar. The food was good I got the shrimp and crayfish comb and gator bites. 1lb of crayfish isn't enough so just be aware there is a lot of shell. Definitely going to go again and try other items on the menu, stay tuned for an update. There are no vegetarian or vegan options other than fries but you definitely want to confirm how they are fried Not a negative just figured I'd mention."