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The interior looks like a restaurant more than a construction site, although there is clearly work going on. The sign ont he door calls for a soft opening over May 14-15 featuring five dishes like gumbo, cajun crawfish and seafood eggrolls.
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I'd mentioned this place in February after Jack spotted a menu on-line. In just a few months, Wild Cajun has renovated the former space of Chen Hibachi at Rte 40 and Rte 29. There are some wall murals and a painted stream along the floor -- although there weren't tables or chairs when we walked past Saturday.In comments, folks have said Wild Cajun appears to be a Vietnamese guy doing cajun seafood. That seems cool to me. Steamed crawfish could be a revelation, and po' boy sandwiches can be great fun -- although my stomach makes me impose high standards on fried food these days. I love some Bon Chon chicken, but I cringed at the last po' boy because I ordered it at a place that just threw batter-crusted shrimp on a roll.
Does anyone know if the May 14-15 dates are going to happen? I always understand when schedules slip a bit. Does anyone know more about plans for the restaurant?
9 comments:
Wild Cajun sounds like an interesting place. However - "steamed crawfish"???? AUUGGGHH!!! My family's from Louisiana; I went to college in New Orleans and lived there for 9 years. The proper way to fix mudbugs is to boil them. That way, you cook them with the corn and potatoes that constitute the lagniappe. Also, their list of po-boys looks short. I'd love to see a ham and swiss po-boy, dressed. Or even a muffuleta.
(My wife's from Maryland; the quickest way to start an argument is to discuss steaming vs. boiling seafood.)
It's a minor nit, but most of the food on the menu is "Creole" instead of "Cajun." But this is Yankee-land, so I'll give them a pass. :-)
I just moved here from New Orleans and would NEVER EAT STEAMED CRAWFISH!! omg My heart aches!
I just hope they have the right seasoning in the fried seafood batter too!
How long has Chen Hibachi been closed? I could have sworn I went there within the past 3 months. I had no idea it was gone.
I tried looking at the website menu for Wild Cajun - wow that's annoying: it auto-scrolls to the next page every 7-8 seconds.
@LIntMan -- Chen Hibachi closed over the winter, if I'm right. I think I heard in February that the restaurant had been sold.
@Anonymous -- Oh, heavens. Steamed crawfish is wrong? I checked the menu because I thought that I might have misread something, but that is the description.
Opening tomorrow the 14th at 4:00 according to someone answering the phone there today.
From what I understand, they will have some sort of a limited public opening tonight (5/14)
Thanks for the heads up! Excited about the prospect of this place and hoping it's similar to one of my favorite places back home - The Boiling Crab (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-boiling-crab-garden-grove-2).
Don't underestimate the crawfish - if this place is owned by a Vietnamese guy they make the best crawfish down South
We went there tonight (15 May). We were surprised to see the soft opening banner out front. There were a moderate number of people there, but the restaurant is clearly new. I hope that it will gather a good following and stick around. Grand opening is Friday 16 May with full menu.
For the soft opening, they served a free platter consisting of "wild Cajun" wings, Boudin balls, Seafood Egg rolls, gumbo (chicken and sausage), and "wild cajun" crawfish. We only payed for drinks (and tip).
The web page is a bit hard to read since it scrolls on you without any obvious way to make it stop to explore any particular page.
The inside is completely redone from the Chinese buffet that had been there before. Sound was a bit loud, but a word with a manager makes me think that they might address that in the near future. We also talked with the chef, who is a 74 year old imported from Louisiana.
Our opinions on the food we were served:
the wings were crispy with just a little dab of a sweet hot sauce on them. From the menu, I think one can order a variety of sauces.
The boudin balls were ok -- fairly heavy on a cornmeal filling.
The seafood egg rolls were quite good, well filled with some sort of meat (Krab? Shrimp?) and not too much of the usual vegetable stuffing.
The crawfish tasted ok, fairly spicy coating on the shells. I'm not a fan of crawfish in the shell. Like crabs, they take a lot of effort for a little bit of meat. I really like crawfish in a dish such as etoufee (which is on the full menu).
The star of the platter for us was the gumbo. It may not have been the very best of the many different gumbo's we have had -- but it was certainly right up there near the top. The gumbo they served had chunks of chicken and of smoked sausage. It had a moderate heat level. They also do a seafood gumbo on their full menu.
Next time we go for their full menu, it will be gumbo and etoufee. To me, those are the dishes by which one measures a mid-line Cajun restaurant.
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