I go to Beaumont about once a month. I'm game to drive up to an hour across the border for real seafood or Cajun cooking. Any suggestions?
Sartins http://www.sartins.com/aboutus.html Try Sartins in Beaumont. It's a huge warehouse and they bring you the most enormous platter of fried Seafood I've ever seen. It's not fancy but the seafood is very good and very fresh. Terriffic Barbeque Crabs too. SARTIN'S WORLD FAMOUS "PLATTER SERVICE" INCLUDING ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT OF THE FOLLOWING ITEMS: BOILED CRAB CLAWS, BBQ CRABS, FRIED CATFISH, STUFFED CRAB, CRAB STUFFED JALAPENOS, FRIED SHRIMP, FRIES, HUSHPUPPIES & SALAD BAR-
When my grandmother was still living the best cajun food was at her house in Port Neches, TX about 20 minutes from Beaumont. I have an aunt who still lives in Beaumont. I'll ask her.
I love Boudreaux's in Houston. It's the best and closest thing to great cajun food in Houston for sure.
Its amazing, but now in southeast Texas you can find hot boudin and boiled crawfish in convenience stores. Andouille in the grocery stores. Some of the restaurants there serve up a pretty good ettoufee or red beans & rice, too. A lot of the Louisiana cuisine has gone west.
Also, they just opened up a new restaurant called Fish Daddy's here in Austin. Great atmostphere, staff, food and really more than reasonable prices. Check it out if you see one opening up near you. They come fairly close to satisfying the cajun appetite.
Drive to Lake Charles Pat's of Henderson. Cajun Charlies in Sulphur could be an option, but I've never been there. Pat's is hard to beat!
You must not have been to Pat's in a while. They've been living off of their reputation for a long time. The old cooks and Pat's 1st wife are the ones that made it what is is (was). If you do go, however, get the whole fried catfish. That's worth the trip.
Cajun Charlies sucks to high heaven. Been there once and that was one time too many. Too many damn restaurants love to throw Cajun in their name even though they don't know the first thing about it.
