Creole Soul - A Taste of Both Worlds Under One Roof

New Restaurant in Austin

Driving home down Roosevelt I noticed a new place called Creole Soul that immediately caught my attention. Upon further inspection this is the space where Depot Diner used to be. A sign in the window advertised Fried Chicken, Salmon Croquettes, Seafood Gumbo, Jambalaya as well as Breakfast. Well I hadn't ate and was hungry so I stepped on in. They offer breakfast from 6a to 11a each day (Closed Monday) and serve lunch and dinner until 6pm as of most recently, they said they'll expand hours soon.


a peak inside

Regulars on the lunch and dinner menu include Fried Chicken, Shrimp Po' Boys, Cajun Fried Catfish Filets, Hand Formed Burgers as well as an array of sides including Red Beans and Rice, Mac and Cheese, Yams and more. On the blue plate special board they had Cajun steamed Crab Legs for $11.99/lb. They also have daily specials that are weekly. Stuff like Shrimp Creole and Meatloaf on Monday's and Crawfish Etouffee and a Fried Shrimp Platter on Friday's, Dirty Rice on Saturday's and turkey necks on Sunday's. I talked to the two guys running the place and they're still working out the menu but one of them who hails from Mississippi used to work in the kitchen at the Depot. His partners family is from New Orleans. The seafood gumbo on special each Wednesday was pretty damn tasty. It's grandmas recipe and really hit the spot. The best part about it was the roux which was really deep in seafood stock so I'm pretty excited to see what else they got going on here.


Seafood Gumbo

Creole Soul
5840 W Roosevelt Rd
Chicago, IL 60644
(773) 854-1160

Thrilled to both have a new cajun/creole option in town and to return to the old Depot space, I checked this spot out last week.

Besides a few NO colloquialisms painted on the walls above the line, not much has been altered to the interior of the old DD. Even the stenciled mark of the beast remains on the wall.

There didn't seem to be printed menus available yet (though we picked up take out menus on the way out). We ordered off of a dry erase specials board (confusingly there are two, one for breakfast items and the other for lunch plates).

Taking Beef's cue, we started with the Seafood gumbo.



This mocha- colored bowl was on the thicker side. However, the nutty taste of a deep roux wasn't all that discernible– which led my dining companion to question the vehicle of its thickening agent– though the accommodating server (who seemed to be the proprietor of the recipes as well) assured us it was thickened with roux only, not dubious corn starch nor more traditional filé. It was satisfying enough with sweet shrimp and low rent sausage (not always a bad thing in my book), and definitely perked up with a few shakes of Louisiana.

More successful was our Fried catfish plate with sides of red beans and rice and mac and cheese.



Really quality mac, bound with authentic Velveeta and augmented with cheddar and perhaps smoked gouda as well. Red beans and rice were pretty good, I would have favored a smokier profile that a higher quality sausage or some other smoked pork would have offered. Catfish was really good with a well seasoned, crunchy- brittle cornmeal crust.

A Fried shrimp po boy rounded out our lunch



I would not order this again, mostly because its built on an industrially spongey hoagie roll. The shrimp might have had some merit onto themselves, but quickly sogged out in the hostile environment of shredded iceberg and mealy pink tomato. Notably, those crinkle cut fries were fried to crisp, golden perfection.

I will return to this spot, for sure, for plates of fried stuff and that mac. And the Depot nostalgia is certainly a factor for me. Based on that catfish, I'd have to think they could do good things with some fried bird.