At Table
R & R Seafood
By M.B.T. Gastronome
R & R Seafood has been on the Causeway for a while. Only after Katrina did this seafood market emerge as a restaurant. The R & R website says, “From the moment you walk through the door, your senses will be delighted.” I found those words to be quite true, especially for today’s lunch visit. The wonderful aroma of crawfish and fried seafood greeted me when I walked in.
The lunch menu is somewhat limited but does offer an adequate selection for the hungry diner. I chose the ½ shrimp po-boy (dressed) which came with a cup of gumbo. I ate the gumbo first, and consider it to be an average gumbo. Not bad,
but not distinctly good either. I
found it to be less tasty than Blue
Gill gumbo but far better than
either Ed’s, Captain’s Table or
Oysterella gumbo. I will comment
on Felix’s gumbo in another
review.
Any shortcomings found in the gumbo were made up for in the shrimp po-boy, although, at R & R, it is advertised and sold as a poorboy. Regardless of what it might be called, it was good. The bread was good – crunchy crust with a soft inside. The server did not know the brand of the bread but did state, “We get our bread and our crawfish from New Orleans.”
There was an abundance of shrimp on the sandwich. The shrimp were not seasoned like I really like them and were slightly over fried. I prefer fried shrimp to emerge from the grease with a golden color rather than brown, but they were good nonetheless. I would certainly order this sandwich again.
And then, for the coup de gras, I had a few boiled crawfish. It was the crawfish smell, after all, that seduced me when I walked through the door. In fact, as I ate, I witnessed walk-in customers who were buying crawfish to go. Good decision, because the crawfish were very, very good. They were cooked just right, which made them easy to peel. They were seasoned just right – enough of a bite but not so spicy as to mask the taste.
Having said all of that, it is confession time. I had it on good report, from what should be a reliable source, that this was a mediocre seafood restaurant which probably won’t be around too long. With all due respect to my source, you missed this one. I went to R & R with low expectations and left impressed. The food was good, the staff was very friendly and helpful and the restaurant was clean and comfortable.
In the words of Gen. MacArthur, “I shall return.” However, I probably won’t wait two years to do so.
(Editor's note: Our pseudonymous gourmand visits area dining establishments and reports on the experience. Wherever food is served, our well-traveled 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!)
