|
The Alligator Cafe: Fried Food Is Fun
By Michael Anderson and Anthony Lowenberg
For this month’s review, we decided to head on down to Cajun country, more specifically to The Alligator Cafe, a short drive from downtown, a stone’s throw from Baylor Hospital, and next door to El Pulpa (which is Spanish for The Pulpa). So, technically, it may not be in Cajun country, but we bet you won’t notice the difference.
If you have a hankering for fried alligator, and who doesn’t these days, this homely former fast-food joint (it’s either an old Popeye’s or Dairy Queen; let’s hope the new owners changed the fryer oil) will fill the fried food void in your life with a vengeance. In addition to fried alligator, The Alligator Cafe also serves up fried shrimp, fried oysters, fried crawfish, fried catfish, fried potatoes and hush puppies with a vengeance. We’re not sure what hush puppies are, exactly, but we know they’re fried with a vengeance.
In addition to fried foods of all kinds, the Cafe offers every Cajun dish you could imagine: etouffee, gumbo, jambalaya and blackened anything. The drinks are one size fits all, and at $1.75 for more than you’ll need, that’s not a bad deal. They also have their own homemade root beer, which is quite good. The blackened alligator is chewy and not too spicy, and the blackened catfish is tasty too, especially smothered in shrimp ettouffee. The shrimp ettouffee is rich and tomatoey, but if you like it spicy you’ll need to add some hot sauce, which isn’t a problem since The Alligator Caf? has just about every hot sauce you’ve ever heard of.
While the setting at The Alligator Cafe is Dairy Queen-chic, the prices don’t make for as cheap a lunch as we had hoped (e.g., shrimp ettouffee, fried okra and an iced-tea runs $12 and change) (you know you’re reading a restaurant review in a newsletter for lawyers when a parens begins with “e.g.,” although we acknowledge the improper use of it if only for this joke). The sandwiches, which we didn’t try, are more reasonably priced, and we imagine as filling as the rest of the menu. Orders are placed at the counter and the food is delivered to your table. Despite the fast food feel, to-stay orders are presented quite nicely, in wide, shallow bowls with paprika sprinkled around the edges as garnish (classy!).
All in all, The Alligator Cafe makes a nice break from the downtown routine. It’s only a couple of minutes past Deep Ellum, and if you can convince someone else to drive, you’ve got it made. On our-soon-to-be-famous scale of one to five gavels, one being a mistrial and five being a directed verdict, we give The Alligator Cafe three out of five gavels.
|
