Restaurant: Ragin’ Cajun Yesterday I did something I try not to do—I went into the city. Buffalo speedway in lunchtime traffic is my idea of hell. As I plotted the course back to Katy-as quickly as I could- I let my GPS pick a lunch spot and for once it did something right.
Let’s get the bias question out of the way—I’m from Louisiana and this is Cajun food so it seems like an automatic slam dunk, right? No. My people are Creole and this is Cajun cuisine, so no bias here. But respect is due because our country cousins can serve it up—they just lack our flair! At some point I will break down the differences between Cajuns and Creoles (probably ad nauseam) but for today let’s talk about how the Cajuns get it done.
We settled in for a late lunch at about 2 o’clock and ordered a couple of staples; a po’boy for me and my son’s standard cheeseburger and fries. My son is a Texan—and by no means an epicurean, but he is coming around...slowly.
Food
I’m a purest when it comes to joints like Ragin’ Cajun --"just the facts please".
My Cajun interpretation of that is the po’boy. I ordered a half crawfish/half oyster po’boy and I was not disappointed. The seafood was expertly fried; it had just the right crust (Louisianans know what I mean). Biting into it made me homesick, instantly. Here’s the beauty of this place. It would seem that expertise was not needed to put together simple things like bread, lettuce, tomato (which I hate), mayonnaise and fried seafood—the expertise of Ragin’ Cajun is in the superior quality of their ingredients. Namely the bread, and the seafood. I’m a hard sell on anything shouting that it is Louisiana food—if I see another crawfish with seasoning sprinkled on top of it in this city I will scream! But with Ragin’ Cajun the roots are deep and the food it right. Period.Atmosphere
Memorabilia on the walls (LSU above all), and that deliberate ragtag décor too often co-opted by of other, less talented, restaurants. The atmosphere is what the Cajuns are—loud and fun! Being in this restaurant is like taking a seat in an air conditioned festival. This place is kid friendly, but if you are with kids I would sit far away from the oyster bar. When we were there a very loud, shall we say grammatically free, couple were downing oysters and spewing profanities. We moved.
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