What Foods Do I Need to Try in Baton Rouge?

Baton Rouge is known for plenty of things, but one of the most notable hallmarks is its delicious blend of Cajun- and Creole-style food and restaurants. This type of food has a long and proud history that you can easily trace back to the early French settlers in the area and is known for its unique blend of spices and its liberal use of the plentiful seafood found in and around Louisiana.

If you’re already an admirer of Cajun-style cuisine, then you know how delicious it can be. And if you’ve never tried this style of food before, then you’re in for a marvelous treat. We think there’s no better place to experience Creole-style dining for the first time than right here in Baton Rouge in the heart of the Deep South.

Not sure which dishes are the most quintessentially Louisiana? Don’t know which dishes best represent this food culture? Today, we’ve put together a guide to help you answer just these questions. Today, we’ll talk about the essential food to eat in Baton Rouge as well as the best time of year to sample these dishes and the best restaurants serving them in Baton Rouge.

1. Oysters

If you’ve ever visited Baton Rouge before, then you know it’s no secret that we love our oysters here. They feature prominently in many of our favorite dishes, and sometimes, we might even just eat them by themselves without the bother of cooking them up into a dish. For your first time sampling oysters, why not enjoy them raw by the half-shell or try them fried or charbroiled? The only limit to the many ways of eating oysters is your imagination.

But while you can find oysters in abundance throughout Baton Rouge all year round, did you know that you may have better luck finding the tastiest oysters during particular seasons of the year? According to Baton Rouge and Louisiana tradition, the best months to grab an oyster-based dish are those that end in an “R” — September, October, November and December. This is because these are the months when oysters are not spawning, making them leaner and giving them a better flavor.

If you’re looking to grab a bite of oyster in Baton Rouge, there are plenty of places to do so. Here are just a few of the restaurants we think are worth checking out when it comes to finding oysters:

• Jolie Pearl Oyster Bar: That’s right, it’s an entire restaurant dedicated to oysters. And while you’ll certainly find the Gulf Coast variety here at Jolie Pearl Oyster Bar, you can also enjoy oysters from both the east and west coast for a truly comprehensive oyster introduction. Top your oysters off with a beer or cocktail and some great live music, and we think you’ve got the recipe for a perfect evening.
• Parrain’s Seafood: Parrain’s Seafood is recognized far and wide as having arguably one of the best seafood menus in town. And while that includes seafood of every stripe and variety, they also offer up their fair share of oysters as well. Try their Oyster Poboy, for instance, and we think you’ll see what everyone else is talking about. Or, if you’d rather cut down on your bread, keep things simple and go for the fried oyster platter for a more oyster-centric experience.
• The Chimes Restaurant & Tap Room: While The Chimes has a full menu of all kinds of delicious dishes to sample, we want to call particular attention to their oyster bar. Here, you can enjoy your oysters raw, chargrilled or with grilled alligator sausage. Best of all? You can enjoy half price of any raw oysters from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday through Friday, as well as all day on Tuesday.

2. Gumbo

Unless you’re a native Southern or a frequent visitor, you may never have sampled gumbo before. If this delicious dish is something you’ve only heard of, but never experienced for yourself, then we want to change that. During any visit to Baton Rouge, this is one of the essential dishes we recommend trying before you return home again.

For the uninitiated, gumbo is a stew-like dish that’s heavily spiced and usually full of a combination of vegetables, a thickener and a primary meat or seafood. It can be made with meat such as chicken or duck, but here in Baton Rouge, you may be more likely to come across seafood gumbo, which is loaded with shrimp, crab or oysters. And while plenty of other cities throughout Louisiana and the Deep South serve up their own variations of gumbo, we like to think that Baton Rouge gumbo is a cut above the rest.

Wondering what’s the best time of year to enjoy gumbo? It depends on the primary type of protein in the soup. Crab gumbo is best enjoyed in the summer, for instance, while white shrimp gumbo is excellent any time of year but the winter. Depending on what season you’ll be in Baton Rouge, it might be wise to choose your variety of gumbo accordingly. Of course, you might also try enjoying your gumbo on October 12 — National Gumbo Day.

If you’re looking to find the best dish of gumbo in the city, here are a few destinations we know you won’t want to miss:

• Dempsey’s: Dempsey’s might have a full menu of appetizers, salads, burgers and sandwiches, but they’re perhaps most well-known for their delicious gumbo options. They make it in-house fresh every day, so you’ll never have to worry about settling for second-best. Choose between their seafood gumbo and their chicken and andouille gumbo, or splurge and get small bowls of each for the full experience.
• Drusilla Seafood Restaurant: A Baton Rouge staple for well over 30 years, Drusilla Seafood Restaurant has one of the best bowls of gumbo in town, in addition to all their other fantastic menu items. Their seafood gumbo is to die for, and the rest of their menu is certainly worth checking out as well. Best of all, Drusilla is known for its homey and family-friendly environment, making this an excellent spot to bring the whole family.
• Mike Anderson’s Seafood: Dating all the way back to the ’70s when it was just a small seafood and oyster bar, Mike Anderson’s Seafood has since flourished and cemented its place in the Baton Rouge seafood scene. Mike Anderson offers two different styles of gumbo — a chicken and andouille variety and, for the seafood-lover, a shrimp and crab variety. Both are sensational, and you can’t go wrong with either.

3. Crawfish

Crayfish, crawdads, freshwater lobsters — all these are different names for crawfish, a delicacy often added to many Cajun and Creole dishes. While they’re eaten and enjoyed worldwide, they have a particular connection to Louisiana, with this state producing an estimated 90 percent of the national supply. It should come as no surprise, then, that natives of Louisiana and Baton Rouge have long been finding new and interesting ways to include these small crustaceans into their cooking.

Cajun chefs often include crawfish in soups and gumbos, where they’ll typically only use the tail-meat. In other uses, such as a crawfish boil, the entire creature is served. While these are two of the most popular ways to eat crawfish, they’re far from the only ones. You can also include crawfish in pies, dressings, breads and beignets. If this is your first time trying crawfish, however, we think you can’t go wrong with a classic crawfish boil.

While you can eat crawfish all year long, you’ll find that they’re particularly delicious and best for consumption during the period from late winter to early summer. During these spring months, you may have the best luck sampling the finest of Baton Rouge’s crawfish offerings.

Looking for a great place to grab some crawfish in Baton Rouge? We recommend one of the following spots:

• Capital City Crawfish & Cajun Specialties: Capital City Crawfish & Cajun Specialties may be less than a decade old, but these authentic Cajun and Creole recipes have been handed down through the generations and represent the true taste of the Deep South. Their boiled crawfish platters alone are well-worth your attention, but the rest of the menu is delicious as well.
• Sammy’s Grill: The best way to enjoy boiled crawfish is in a relaxed and casual atmosphere where you can laugh and hang out with your friends. This is exactly what Sammy’s Grill offers and does so well. Their boiled crawfish platter comes served with your choice of potatoes, salad and garlic bread for a satisfying meal you won’t soon forget, in an atmosphere that feels just like home.
• Crawfish on the Geaux: For delicious crawfish and a unique dining atmosphere, you can’t miss Crawfish on the Geaux. Based out of a food truck that permanently resides in the same location so that they’re always easy to find, this restaurant is dedicated to focusing on what it does best — crawfish. And while the menu might seem sparse, we think you’ll agree that it doesn’t matter once you taste their hot boiled crawfish.

4. Cajun and Creole

Cajun and Creole aren’t technically specific ingredients, nor are they entire dishes. Rather, they’re complete styles of cooking, much the same way we might say “Italian” is a style of cooking. There are many different ingredients, flavors, spices and traditional dishes that fall under the umbrella of Cajun and Creole and that are commonly found throughout Louisiana and Baton Rouge.

But while we’ve been using Cajun and Creole as synonyms, they’re actually two separate traditions of cooking. The reason we often conflate the two and refer to them as one large homogenous style of cooking is because they exist simultaneously in the same region, share many similarities and, over time, have come to overlap further and further until few people recognize the differences anymore.

Here are just a few of the differences between Cajun and Creole cooking:

• The two styles represent different cultural traditions. Cajun food traces its roots back to the French Canadian settlers who were driven out of Canada in the 1700s, and who eventually settled in Louisiana. Creole food, on the other hand, goes back to the first generations of people born to French settlers in French colonial Louisiana — typically mixed-race descendants of French and Spanish settlers, as well as free people of color in the city.
• Creole cooking is traditionally seen as “city food” where Cajun cooking is usually deemed “country food.”
• Creole cooking uses tomatoes, while Cajun food usually does not.
• Cajun cooks are enthusiastic about spices, particularly cayenne pepper, and rely on just three vegetables to form the basis of most dishes — celery, onions and bell peppers. Creole tends to use far more ingredients and includes influences from all the different cultures blended in the Creole people, such as Spanish, African, French and Caribbean, to name just a few.

Now that we know a little bit more about Cajun and Creole cuisine, let’s take a look at some of the best places to enjoy it in Baton Rouge. While it’s worth noting that all the places we’ve mentioned today serve up some truly delicious Louisiana fare, some of the best places to get Creole in Baton Rouge include:

• Juban’s: If you’re going to enjoy classic Creole cuisine, why not do it in the most stylish way possible? At Juban’s, you can sample the scrumptious tastes of Baton Rouge favorite like the Hallelujah crab and seafood Diablo, and you can do it all in a grand and elegant dining space that’s perfect for special occasions like weddings and corporate events, or just a perfect night out with that special someone.
• Cecelia Creole Bistro: When you visit Cecelia’s Creole Bistro, you can enjoy the best of both worlds as you sample traditional Louisiana favorites that go back hundreds of years, all while relaxing in an undeniably modern dining setting. Enjoy favorites like shrimp and grits, Cajun redfish and crawfish étouffée, and be sure to visit their fully-stocked bar as well.
• Eliza Restaurant & Bar: At Eliza Restaurant & Bar, you can enjoy the very best of Creole cuisine in a relaxed and cozy environment. Come for either lunch or dinner and try out menu items like gumbo ya-ya, Eliza crab cakes and the crispy seafood platter. And don’t forget that they’re a bar as well as a restaurant so you can enjoy a few drinks while you relax over your seafood.

Visit Milford’s on Third Today

All of the restaurants we’ve mentioned so far are fantastic places to go if you’re looking to sit down and sample some of Louisiana’s finest Cajun and Creole dishes. But sometimes, you’re looking for less of a formal restaurant and more of quick stop-and-shop. For all these occasions, we invite you to visit us at Milford’s on Third — an NYC-style delicatessen that’s committed to delivering the flavors and charms of the South.

Located on the ground floor of the iconic Watermark hotel, we’re open for both breakfast and lunch, as well as shopping throughout the day. Come in and sit down to eat, grab something to take with you, or order online and let us bring the food straight to you. So stop by Milford’s on Third today and sample our Cajun and Creole foods today for a true taste of Baton Rouge.