Well, I made it there and back. Lot of work today so I will make this snappy.

Went to Izzos at the mall upon arrival to BR, lunch on Friday. I thought it was better than Moes and not quite as good as Chipotle. Nuff said about that.

Parrains-dinner Friday night. Got there facing a 30-45 minute wait. Not bad at all for Friday night. Atmosphere inside was lively but not boisterous.

Went to the bar and got cokes for the college kids and a bloody mary for me and a Woodford and ginger for my lady. It took the young bartendress a while to figure out what Woodford was. She finally said "we don't have Woodford but we have Woodford Reserve."

It was all good. The drink was so stiff I had to ask her to pour it in a bigger cup and add more ginger ale. Parrains is losing money on that pouring.

Sat down and had a great waitress. Young and very familiar with the menu and the offerings. The menu doesn't say what fish is in each of the dishes-just says fresh fish. She knew what each fish was in each dish that evening.

We had the crab and crawish pasta, fried shrimp and catfish platter, the Delacroix and a dish that was drum with pecans. Can't remember the name.

The house salad was a big disappointment. The house dressing was good (a bit too sweet maybe), but the salads were overdressed and soggy. And the lettuce was likely that iceberg in a bag. No dark greens at all.

For apps we got the boudin balls and the seafood egg rolls. They were a hit, but I didn't think the egg rolls were anything special.

I had the Delaroix and I have to say I was not that impressed. It was served with garlic mashed potatoes. So the whole plate was a big serving of beige. And not a single bit of crunch to be had. The fish was cooked pretty well, but was within just a few seconds of being undercooked (not quite fluffy). The sauce had a taste that made me wonder if the fish was not fresh.

I looked at the rest of the table and it was four plates of brown. The shrimp and fish platter came with fries, hush puppies and dirty rice.

A couple of us had sweet tea, which was great, when we got it. 2 of the refills were unsweetened and the waitress said "someone must have forgotten to sweeten it" I know BR is not a big sweet tea town so we were fine with it.

All in all it was fine, but it was not a place that would be on my short list when I am down there.

Chimes for lunch Saturday. Very lively as can be imagined. Hour and a half wait. No complaints. It was game day. Had drinks in the bar at the varsity and watched football.

Seated and ordered the RB po boy, oyster po boy, crawfish etoufee, and a spinach salad. All to share.

I would choose Chimes over Parrains 10/10 times. I thought all the food was very good. The bread for the po boys was excellent. Oyster cooked perfectly. RB Po Boy was appropriately messy without being too soggy. Etoufee was nicely seasoned. Maybe a little less than wonderful, but for the price was good. Spinach salad was large and well dressed.

Service was...well Chimes. Waitress was harried and not too efficient. Obviously wishing she was somewhere else.

The main disappointment was the atmosphere. It was lively, but it did not have a gameday type feel. I thought they played "Hold that Tiger" on the hour. They did last fall at least. Just a minor complaint.

Tiger Stadium. Ordered the Papa Johns cheese pizza. Let's just say it was about what you'd expect.

A good time was had.