K-Paul's Review

Ate at K-Paul's on Friday night. It absolutely took us by surprise. I wasn't expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. It's a very nice restaurant as far as atmosphere. Brick walls as are frequently seen in NO. We sat upstairs, which was just fine and not quite as loud as downstairs. The place was packed. We took an elevator since one diner didn't want to take the stairs, so we got to go through the kitchen, which was fun. It was a booming operation with lots of flames coming up from the gas stoves and grills. Smaller than I would have expected. Service was spot on. We actually were in and out in about under and an hour and a half, but never felt rushed.

First, they brought out hot breads and muffins. There were 4 types: a plain yeast roll, a jalapeño yeast roll, jalapeno corn mini muffins and molasses pecan mini muffins. I had a corn and molasses muffin. The molasses muffin was addicting, which is why I bring up the breads. It's made with blackstrap molasses. The butter was room temp and easy to spread. I'm one of those folks who can't stand ice cold butter on warm breads. Just too hard to deal with. It's funny that everyone at the table commented that the butter was room temp and easy to deal with. It's funny what folks notice in restaurants.

Two of us had the fried green tomatoes with shrimp and chipotle remoulaude for apps. Outstanding. Those tomatoes were huge and perfectly fried with a light crispy cornmeal crust. There were about half a doz good sized shrimp and the remoulaude was excellent. I didn't expect to like the chipotle aspect, but I loved it. It was a great flavor addition to the sauce. I suspect he uses his ground chipotle seasoning, which he sells, with his regular remoulaude recipe. I could have eaten another for my entree. Another diner had the house salad with homemade green onion dressing, which was very good.

My entree was pan fried flounder with a shrimp herbal brie cream. Excellent! The flounder was shaped more like a nice piece of speckled trout. The sauce was not heavy. It included onions, fresh tomatoes, dill, basil and some other flavors, but it was mild and deglazed with pinot grigio. Sides were a sauté of fresh veggies including squash and zucchini in some sort of sauce. Very good, but I didn't eat much of that because the fish was so big. I didn't even finish that. There were mashed potatoes also, which I could have lived without.

Diner 2 had the blackened drum with a crawfish chipotle compound butter. Again, the sauce was not heavy nor did it cover the entire fish. She had the same sides as I had. The fish was perfectly prepared.

Diner 3 had speckled trout with seafood stuffing au gratin, which was more of a dressing with shrimp, crawfish and bay scallops with a bacon, chipotle cheddar sauce. Again, this was not that heavy. He ate every bite.

Diner 4 had a blackened stuffed pork chop with marchand de vin sauce, which he got on the side. The sauce was dark and extremely rich, but tasty. It had prosciutto, red wine and mushrooms. The pork chop needed no sauce, though, so he didn't use it. The chop was blackened and stuffed with ricotta, asiago, Mozz and caciocavello cheese. He loved the chop. He also loved the "stuffed potato" side, which was a scooped out potato filled with roasted chunks of potatoes which has been tossed in some sort of sauce. He also had roasted broccoli.

We shared some desserts one of which was a small crème brulee with a praline bottom. Excellent and just the right size for a little bit of sweet at the end of the meal. Another diner got a bread pudding which was a bit different. It was okay, but I preferred the crème brulee.

The menu included several duck and rabbit dishes, veal and soft shell crab along with the blackened beef with debris sauce. One app we would have ordered just to taste, if it hadn't been meatless Good Friday, was the chicken grillades and fried cheese grit patty. First of all, I've never had chicken grillades (I've made his chicken etouffee, which is good)and second, they chicken was described as "julienned" which made me curious.

Overall, we all thought K-Paul's was excellent and we will return. I've used his cookbooks for years, which are very good, the first being the best. I would recommend trying it if you haven't already done so. There's a "deli lunch" offering, but dinner is the time to go.

My only negative comments are that I would have liked a black napkin as I left with white lint all over my black outfit. The other is that while they didn't remove the app plates until we were all finished, they removed the dinner plates while I was still eating, leaving me with the only plate on the table and that's a big annoyance of mine. I lost interest in completing my meal, though I was almost done anyway.

(typed, but not proofed)