Le Creole - Long Review

Went to dinner at Le Creole for the first time tonight with my in-laws. Overall, I was very pleased with our experience, and I think Le Creole is a great addition to the BR dining scene. I've read a few reviews here before so that helped me order a bit, but since it's a Friday in lent, we were a little limited by what we could order.

For apps we started with the Corn Meal Dusted Green Tomatoes which were topped with shrimp and crawfish, carmelized onions, and champagne butter. The batter for the tomatoes was very good - a very light and thin cornmeal batter that was nice and crisp. The tomatoes were very tender, but a little thicker than I like them sliced for this dish. The seafood toppings and champagne butter were good, but a little unimpressionable. We also tried the Le Creole Flat Bread, which everyone at the table loved. The flat bread was a thin crust style dough, topped with crab, shrimp, crawfish, basil, and a little mozzarella. I typically agree with the thought of not mixing dairy and seafood, but I thought it worked here and we enjoyed it.

For soups I tried the turtle soup, and my wife had the smoked tomato basil. The turtle soup was not the typical creamy new orleans style turtle soup I am accustomed to. This was more gumbo-like, with a brown, smokey base. I loved it, my wife didn't care for it. The smoked tomato basil was excellent...rich and creamy with a nice smokey aftertaste.

For entrees my wife and MIL had the crab cake that I've seen recommended on this board before. IMO it lived up to the hype...it was a full 1/2 lb of lump crab as advertised with very little filler and had a nice sear on the top and bottom. Seasoning was light but just enough to not be bland, and the sauce was creamy without being too heavy. My father in law had the Cedar Plank Grouper, which was red grouper served on a cedar plank with grilled asparagus, herbed potatoes, and tomato buerre blanc. The fish looked great, but the asparagus and herbed potatoes looked kind of messy and thrown together. Still, he seemed to enjoy the dish very much. I had the Point Coupee, which was pecan crusted red grouper with lump crab meat, sauteed greens, and a sweet corn sauce. My dish was excellent. the pecan crust was great, though a little over-seasoned, and the fish was great over the sauteed greens and sweet corn sauce. The crab meat didn't really add anything to the dish, but I didn't expect it to. I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet corn sauce, it was sweet and creamy and paired very well with the grouper.

Our server was very attentive and knowledgeable, but not intrusive. I was happy with the service.

After our experience tonight I'll probably slide Le Creole into our regular rotation of BR restaurants. The menu is loaded with dishes I'd like to go back and try, especially some meat dishes I had to pass on tonight like the shrimp and tasso cheesecake and the paneed rabbit.

Cliffs:

Soups:
Turtle Soup: B+
Smoked Tomato Basil: A

Apps:
Corn Meal Dusted Green Tomatoes: B
Le Creole Flat Bread: B+

Entrees:
Le Creole Crab Cake: A
Cedar Plank Grouper: B
Pecan Crusted Grouper with Sweet Corn Sauce: A

Overall: B+...I'll definitely be back.