Tommy's Fish House

37306 Old Perkins Rd. (near Airline Hwy.)

Prairieville, LA 70769

225-325-3911

http://www.tommyfishhouse.com

For over three decades, the Delaune family has been in the seafood business, providing the South Louisiana area with fresh seafood direct from their own private dock at Bayou Bienvenu.  After Hurricane Katrina displaced the family from their home in St. Bernard Parish, they came to Prairieville to seek out a new start.

They started humbly, selling fresh seafood from a truck parked near the intersection of Airline Highway and Old Perkins Road.  Before long business had increased and ironically just one week after Hurricane Gustav hit the area, Tommy’s Fish House was opened.

Tommy’s houses a seafood market and a restaurant offering a variety of great local seafood, as well as other tasty items.  All the staples are here;  poboys, soups, stews, étoufées, as well as a variety of boiled and fried seafood favorites.  Boiled seafood is done well, with seasoning that delivers great flavor without being overly hot.  I had the crawfish, and it was done well, easily peeled and adequately seasoned.  Another highlight from the menu that I sampled was the Pepper Jack Crab Dip.  Jumbo lump crab is mixed with a pepper jack cream sauce to create a flavorful appetizer.  For the non-seafood folks, Tommy’s serves up a good burger as well as a few tasty chicken dishes.  They also frequently offer house specials where chef Michael Summers showcases his culinary skills.

Pepper Jack Crab Dip

In my opinion, the real thing that sets Tommy’s apart from the plethora of seafood restaurants in our area is the service.  Manager Chalin Delaune is committed to customer service, and is heavily involved in ensuring that the customer has a great experience.  He’s well plugged into the social media aspect of modern business and fully realizes its importance in maintaining customers.  No negative opinion or experience gets past him without a sincere effort to make it right for all involved.

By the end of the year, the business will split into the restaurant fully taking over the current building and the seafood market moving into the building next door.  The seafood market will be expanded into a full service fresh market offering an even larger assortment of fresh seafood as well as house made sausage and other specialty meats.  For the hunters out there, Tommy’s will also have facilities available for cleaning and prep of wild game.  But the biggest addition will be the installation of a crawfish holding system.  Tanks are being installed along with a complex aquatic system that will facilitate the holding and cleaning of up to ten thousand pounds of live crawfish.  This will ensure that customers have access to the freshest, cleanest, and best tasting crawfish in the region.

So whether you’re looking for a great meal or fresh ingredients to prepare yourself at home, give Tommy’s a try.  They are located in northern Ascension parish, in the Oak Grove area, across Old Perkins Rd from the Prairieville Wal-Mart, and are open for lunch 6 days a week (Tues-Sun) and dinner 5 nights per week (Tues-Sat).

Opie's Cajun Cafe

by: Wesley

http://www.opiescajuncafe.com/

I was looking for a good place to eat lunch in Mid-City this week, and my coworkers and I decided Opie’s Cajun Cafe would be a great place to chow down. This turned out to be a great decision!

We were promptly seated in the dining room, and a very friendly and attentive server took our drink and appetizer orders. The 3 of us split 2 appetizers - the crawfish pies, and the 10 piece BBQ chicken wings. The crawfish pies were about 2 bites big, filled with creamy crawfish and accompanied by a remoulade sauce. They were tasty and not greasy. As delicious as the pies were, I was more excited about the wings. The wings aren’t on the menu of Opie’s but are provided care of Sharky’s Wing’s, which is conveniently attached to Opie’s restaurant. The wings were lightly breaded and then deep fried, coated in a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce, and then brought to the table with a cup of ranch dressing. These wings were so good that I didn’t need the ranch - they were delicious all on their own.

For our lunch, 2 of us split the blackened shrimp po-boy with fries, and our other lunch partner ordered the crawfish ravioli. The po-boy was not bad, and had great bread, but I was disappointed in the shrimp. They tasted good, but there were too few of them on the sandwich. The real star of the show was the crawfish ravioli. They were so rich and filling that he couldn’t finish them on his own, so he was obligated to share them with me. I was very impressed with what I tasted. The ravioli are stuffed with ricotta cheese and fried, then covered with a crawfish cream sauce. It’s a great combination of chewy, creamy, and savory. Did I mention this is a very rich dish? This is what I’ll be ordering for myself next time around - it was so good!

So to sum it all up, Opie’s has great food, good prices, and friendly staff. If you are looking for a GREAT place for a Cajun seafood lunch (with a chance of wings) you have to give Opie’s Cajun Cafe a shot! They also feature a full bar, and the attached Sharky’s Wings does larger orders for take out.