Chez Bayou Review

Today we had lunch at a new restaurant in town, Chez Bayou. The grand opening was today and seeing as I can't resist Cajun food, we had to go. Chez Bayou is located in East town next to Wolfgang's and across the street from Yesterdog. Chez Bayou is certainly a step up from those dumpy places.

The decor is traditional New Orleans, French Quarter and all. It's very clear that they put a lot of attention to detail when designing the dining room. The big question is whether or not they put the same attention to detail into their food.

I started off with a bowl of Chicken Gumbo, which I must say was the best gumbo I've ever had. They clearly got their roux to a nice chocolate color and the benefit of their hard work is in the taste. It had a wonderfully spicy, nutty flavor. The andouille sausage and chicken were perfect additions to the wonderfuly roux and rice. This gumbo is worth coming for.

Janna started off with a side Cajun caesar salad. I didn't try any but she had nothing but nice things to say about it. She particularly enjoyed the fact that she could taste the anchovy in the dressing. Janna tends to get a caesar salad and uses it as a base by which to judge restaurants, if a restaurant can make a good caesar salad it suggests that they have a clue as to what they're doing.

On to our main course. I ordered the Crawfish Etouffee, which I had been looking forward to all week. About five minutes after we placed our order we were informed that they had 'run out' of etouffee. One must wonder how they ran out of something when we were one of the first people in the place for lunch. Disappointment aside, I ordered Jambulaya. I was expecting big things after the gumbo and was throughly disappointed in the Jambulaya. The rice was flavorless and overcooked and the chicken tasted as though it didn't belong with the dish. I wouldn't recommend the Jambulaya, though I still want to try the Etouffee.

Janna had a Muffuletta Sandwich and she to was disappointed in it. The difference between a Muffuletta Sandwich and your run of the mill sandwich is the olive salad spread and that was unfortunately missing for Janna's sandwich. What she was given was a fine sandwich, it tasted good and all but it was missing the essential ingredient.

Over all I think we had a fine dining experience. They clearly have a few kinks to work out with the staff, for example they shouldn't seat customers next to waitresses who are preparing silverware. The kitchen needs to figure out what goes into each dish a little better (olive salad on the Muffuletta guys) and perhaps they need to tweak some of the dishes. We're definitely going back, that gumbo will keep me coming back over and over again. There are a few dishes I want to try down the road, the Etouffee (yeah, I'm bitter about the Etouffee), fried alligator, blackened chicken and so on all look good. It's my hope that Chez Bayou will make it here in GR, we desperately need this kind of place.

I give it 2 stars out of a possible 4. If they get on the ball with some of their dishes and if their wait staff gets better (you have to think they will over time) then this place really has a shot at getting a third star. In the meantime, I'll have to encourage everyone to go to Chez Bayou even if it's just for gumbo.