At Table
Mike Anderson's Seafood
By M.B.T. Gastronome
Mike Anderson’s Seafood is one of Baton Rouge’s premier seafood and steak restaurants. Owned by former LSU All-American linebacker Mike Anderson, this restaurant is located on West Lee Drive, south of the LSU campus.
Mike Anderson is well-known in LSU circles, but is also known by loyal Auburn fans who are old enough to remember the 1970 football season. Auburn entered the game with a #6 national ranking and featured great players such as Pat Sullivan, Terry Beasley and Mickey Zofko. Late in the fourth quarter, and on 4th down, Auburn running back Wallace Clark was stood up at the LSU 2 yard line by Anderson, saving a touchdown and a potential Auburn comeback victory. LSU went on to win the game by a score of 17 – 9.
Now back to the main course. I have eaten at Mike Anderson’s many times and have never been disappointed. This time, my dining companion and I chose to split a fried seafood platter. Consisting of shrimp, oysters, stuffed shrimp, stuffed crab, catfish fillets, crab fingers, crawfish tails, onion rings, hush puppies and French fries, the platter provided plenty of food for two. It was delicious!
Either salad or coleslaw is offered with the seafood platter. Each of us chose the salad with 1000 Island dressing. The dressing is made in-house and contains horseradish, giving it quite a unique taste. It is very good. The salad dressings are for sale, but I always imitate Mike Anderson’s 1000 Island variety by adding horseradish to off-the-shelf 1000 Island dressing. Remember, though, you must use prepared horseradish and not horseradish sauce.
There are many more seafood dishes offered at Mike Anderson’s and they are all very good. They also put out a very good gumbo and an excellent crawfish bisque. I understand their steaks are very good also; however, I have never had a steak there.
Mike Anderson’s, like Brunet’s Cajun Restaurant, is not on the regular tourist path, but it is well worth the effort to find. Traveling west on 1-10, take the College Drive exit, turn left, and follow College Drive until it turns into Lee Drive. Continue on Lee Drive and cross the Highland Road intersection to West Lee Drive. Mike Anderson’s will be on the left about a mile past Highland Road.
(Editor's note: Our pseudonymous gourmand visits area dining establishments and reports on the experience. Wherever food is served, our peripatetic critic is likely to arrive with an appetite and depart with an opinion. He dines at his own expense; remains anonymous to all; reports only on those restaurants he frequents in the regular course of life, primarily reasonably priced places. However, he does splurge on occasion. Bon Appetit!)
