Layfayette, Louisana-any 'not to miss' places?

The family is going to spend 2 days in Layfayette and looking for some great GNR type places. The only limitation is price-please no high end recs. We are looking forward to some good eating! Any recs would be most appreciated! Thank you.

Here, here, and here for Boudin. I can vouch for the second two but I found them thru the Boudin link website and they are pretty damn dedicated to their cause and high school friends of my freinds older brother.

Both Guidroz and and this spot were my favorite stops on my journey thru the area the two days I was there. However it was the seafood buffet at Lagneux's that I enjoyed more than the boudin and that might work for your family. My friend who's family was native to Lafayette and with me swore by this place but it was closed when we went. it was his belief that only a little rice belonged. Cant wait to get back to that area one day.

That site is a pretty good tool for good eats taht should help.

Here are some random notes from my 8-10 trips to Lafayette and vacinity (defined as within the six parish area):

First, here are some links to prior posts:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=18800&p=189045&hilit=lafayette%2C+la#p189045

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=17019&hilit=lafayette+la


Prejean’s has some of the best Cajun food in the world. Get a seafood platter and sample it all. It comes fried, but they will be happy to grill it for you. Note that there is generally live music at dinner time.

Mulate's is in Breaux Bridge and also serves some pretty good food. They have a lot of really good live music in the evening. While it is "touristy" at times, the locals pack in.

Brunet's was my find in my last trip. Very solid food, nice atmosphere.

Brunet's Cajun Restaurant
Open Mon. - Thurs. 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m., Fri. and Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m. Closed Sun. Experience the Cajun tradition! Baton Rouge's only authentic Cajun seafood restaurant. Nightly specials Mon. - Wed. Daily lunch specials. Live music Wed., Thurs. and Sat. nights. Private party rooms available. Come and pass a good time! V, MC, AE, D.
135 South Flannery
Baton Rouge, LA
225-272-6226
http://www.brunetscajunrestaurant.com

If you want something authentic, try Poche's Bridge Market and Restaurant a little North of Breaux Bridge (10 or so miles East of Lafayette off of I-10). They make great andouille, chaurice, chaudin, boudin, and roast pork dishes, it's out in the country, and if you like their products, they ship. This place is really great … and very hard to find. Google and mapquest and be ready to call for directions. I drove 15 miles driving past the road 10 times. Do realize that Poche's and most of the meat markets have a steam table and 5-10 tables. Most of the places serve "meat and threes" and a variety of menu items. Do not expect a restaurant per se.

If you're willing to drive to Maurice, Soop's is a small restaurant with very little in the way of ambiance, but really good local food, po-boys included and piled HIGH. This is NOT haute cuisine. It is really the food of the locals. It is a place that no tourist place know of. The food is authentic - they were serving pork jambalaya the day I was there.

As an aside, Soop's is located right next door to the locally renowned Hebert's Meat Market, originators of turducken, and where you can pick up wonderful stuffed, boneless chickens and other good quality meats, all ready for cooking. The brothers have the meat market, and the sister's have the restaurant. That's what I've heard, anyway. Even if you are not taking food home, stop here just to watch the knife work.

Personally, my favorite boudin is Boudin King in Opelousas. I am prejudiced by the owners willingness to show me everything about the sausage.

By the way, if you are NOT familiar with boudin, you don't generally eat the casing.

Hope that helps.

A couple more recommendations:

Don's Specialty Meats

Ambiance: A roomy and bright new store with plenty of indoor or outdoor seating. Don's specialty meats, boudin, lunches, cracklin, and jerky are second to none. Spending a half hour eating here on a Saturday or Sunday and then leaving with some food to cook at home is time welll spent. Good place for pralines and other southern specialty.

Location: 730 I-10 S. Frontage Rd, Scott, Louisiana, 70583 (the original location is in Carencro, Louisiana.)


Joyce's Restaurant
Location: 1620 S. Main,
St. Martinville, LA

The supermarket is pretty non-descript. There is a shack behind the market, That is the restaurant. Meat and threes for under $5. Some of the best southern cooking that I have ever had. The best crawfish etoufee that I have ever experienced.

I found this place looking for the Evangeline Memorial - I was starving, saw a ton of cars around the place.

Looks like the classics have been covered, so I'll offer up this little nugget I picked up at The Spice House in Old Town one day. The guy at the counter was filling an order for a restaurant in Lafayette. I'm a LA native, so of course I was intrigued. Asked him who was ordering spices, and he gave me contact info. for TWO restaurants that regularly buy spices from them.

I've haven't tried either, and it's far from your typical south Louisiana cajun/creole (and you may find better Indian in Chicago). Masala Indian Kitchen's web site says "Indian Kitchen" and "Spanish Tapas". Could be interesting. Could be horrible. If you check 'em out, I'd love to know if they're good recs.

So you'd be, like, an LTHForum Guinea Pig. Surely there's honor and accolades in that?

Masala Indian Kitchen
2208 Kaliste Saloom

Pamplona Tapas
631 Jefferson

Just a little bit west of Lafayette, in Scott, LA is the one & only Best Stop Supermarket.

Boudin Heaven. I know of several New Orleans resaurants that regularly send people on the 4 hour round trip to obtain their extraordinary product. It's the kind of place where people in New Orleans place standing orders with friends that travel to Lafayette to visit relatives. In fact, when I brought back my stash (obtained on the way home from Houston) I was roundly abused by several friends who said, incredulously, "Why didn't you tell me you were going to stop there, you idiot! I would a had ya bring me back sumpthin'!"

I made my first stop there over the New Year break & was so stunned by their many unique & most excellent offerings that I was actually befuddled & had a hard time even ordering. Besides the boudin, I settled on acouple of cryovac'ed packages of stuffed quails (which made their way onto the grill for New Years' dinner) along with the best beef jerky I have ever had, by a wide margin.

Not to be missed if you're in the area. They also ship via Fedex!

http://www.thebeststopsupermarket.com/

ChiNOLA wrote:Just a little bit west of Lafayette, in Scott, LA is the one & only Best Stop Supermarket.

I usually try to hit the Best Stop on each trip I make to visit my folks in Baton Rouge. In addition to outstanding boudin, they make one of my favorite versions of andouille. After returning to Chicago, I often keep a pound of the andouille in the cold cuts drawer of the fridge just to pull out and cut some slices off of after work or when I'm in the mood for a snack. Really good stuff. Notice on the website that it says they sell 2,500 pounds of cracklins a day. Folks, this is a small convenience store seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and they are cranking out 2,500 pounds of fried pig skin per day. Unreal.

jlawrence01 wrote:If you want something authentic, try Poche's Bridge Market and Restaurant a little North of Breaux Bridge (10 or so miles East of Lafayette off of I-10). They make great andouille, chaurice, chaudin, boudin, and roast pork dishes, it's out in the country, and if you like their products, they ship. This place is really great … and very hard to find. Google and mapquest and be ready to call for directions. I drove 15 miles driving past the road 10 times. Do realize that Poche's and most of the meat markets have a steam table and 5-10 tables. Most of the places serve "meat and threes" and a variety of menu items. Do not expect a restaurant per se.

I am down in Louisiana for the LSU-Florida football game tomorrow and ended up flying into Lafayette this morning as all flights into Baton Rouge today were full. After taking an airboat ride through the byways of the Achafalaya basin with a character of a Cajun driver named Taco Doucet (no kidding), I headed over to Poche's with my father and brother for lunch.

But first, obligatory shot of cypress tree with Spanish moss.



Poche's is a pretty unassuming place that looks more or less like a gas station or small country convenience store. It is rather hard to find, but keep your eye out for the Poche Bridge Country Club which is, uhhh, not exactly what suburban Chicagaons probably think of when they think country club (seems to be more of a gun club from what I could tell).



Exterior shots of Poches.











Inside, Poche's has a small store with a butcher counter, a wide selection of prepared meats, and a couple of racks of spices and the like. Here's a couple of the prepared meat selections.

Stuffed beef tongue



Chaudin (stuffed pig stomach)



Stuffed meats and sausages



As jlawrence noted above, Poches does plate lunches, with a rotating selection depending on day of the week.

Menu



I had crawfish etouffe with cole slaw and fries. Excellent etouffe and slaw, standard food industry fries (my bad, I should have gone with the jambalaya or potato salad).



Good atmospherics as well.







We also ran into former LSU and Houston Texans football player Domanick Davis (who lives in Breaux Bridge) eating there, so consider this NFL-approved.

In addition to an excellent meal, I came away with two pounds of boudin, a pound of tasso, a pound of chicken and duck sausage, and a pound of andouille to bring home. Will supplement this with some foodstuffs from the Best Stop in Scott (mentioned up-thread) on the way to the airport to come home.

Poche's Market
3015A Main Hwy.
Breaux Bridge, LA 70517-6347
1-800-3-POCHES
337-332-2108

Matt,

Those are great pictures. I hope that you have some more coming.

After seeing the pics, I am seriously thinking about cancelling my trip next weekend to Seattle and heading down to Louisiana or the Rio Grande Valley.