Wednesday, January 18, 2012

king of the crawfish


so this is my second time to this restaurant - in the east side of chinatown on lane street. (725 s. lane st, seattle, 98104) and i was liking my dinner a lot more than the first time i went. i got the boudin balls and the crawfish etouffee. it is vietnamese-owned and operated, and they know what they are doing up in there. maybe it was cause i just got back from louisiana, but i was loving my dinner.

here is my one complaint - the first time i went, they served my jambalaya (which was pretty okay) in a to-go container. it was like they were telling me, take your food and leave. i couldn't really enjoy it. i felt like i should have been eating it at home in front of reruns of csi maimi. (and i hate that show and all it's kissing cousins.)

the restaurant looks real nice inside, but to the owners: seriously yall - if you see this, stop cheapening up the experience by giving me my food in a plastic to-go container. by the way, they didn't give me none this past time, but i saw the containers on other patrons' tables. weird.


here is the link to the place:
http://www.seattlecrawfishking.com/

i went with anthony, a friend of mine, and he got the fried softshell crab and the cajun fries, and i don't think he liked his as much. he said it was salty, so he had to dip his crab in some sauce (or was it sweet tea?) in order to tone it down. but that said, i don't like crab (unless it's the fake crab - because that stuff be slappin!)

well, this ain't the only asian-run louisiana-styled restaurant in the area. there is this one - cajun crawfish, and its good too, but lacks the atmosphere of the first. but i did like the crawfish; felt like i was home at a crawfish boil, (although we never had any in my home.)

http://www.thecajuncrawfish.com/

and then there's this one restaurant in renton, called casian grill, but it seems more of a kid-drink-beer hangout than a restaurant (and they didn't have no crawfish when i went there; all out!) but they do try to mix it up: two distinct menus featuring vietnamese and southern food. kinda like a kfc/tacobell, or a tacobell/pizza hut, or a pizza hut/a&w, or a wendy's/pet-smart. i get the idea, but once you sit down in there, you feel a little bit anxious that the cajun food will never be good enough because maybe the cooks are spending too much time worrying about the asian food.

but that said, here is the link anyway:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Casian-Grill-Restuarant/127520717258505

and this guy liked it:

http://photofoodblog.com/2011/10/casian-grill-renton-wa/

but in the end, if there is a war between these three restaurants, crawfish king really is king. check it out. they won't mind.

5 comments:

Laura said...

One of our youth worked here! It's a puzzling place and now even more so knowing that they ALSO serve vietnamese food. Probably the only post you'll ever have with both louisiana and vietnam labels.

jrm said...

well, crawfish king is louisiana only, casian grill does both; hence the name cajun+asian=casian... oh so clever. hahaha. how is the snow up your way?

Laura said...

Re-reading this blog post and feeling silly...

NOTSONUTSO said...

Asian-run cajun seafood restaurant? I don't know what to think about that; I am seriously nonplussed.

jrm said...

uh. i think it is gonna be okay. i don't think there is something so special about crawfish that only a toothless hairy-backed cajun man named boudreaux can cook it up. besides, the vietnamese have been fishing those waters for so many years now, i gotta feeling that they know what they're doing. and also, if your confusion is to be consistant, then fire all the white people that work at taco bell.