I have heard nothing but good things about Alligator Soul from almost everyone who have been there, although I?ve failed to be impressed except for once when I had Crawfish Ettouffee to die for. Recently I went to their new location on Broadway. The space is certainly nice, and the wait staff couldn?t be nicer. However, the beignets were hard little rounds of deep fried flour dough. Real Beignets are light, airy, and moist on the inside (think French crullers). The file gumbo was heavy on the file, which made it taste like burnt gravy. Totally inedible. I did pick out a few pieces of okra that were nicely done. Being a huge okra fan, I tried okra at their former location, and got hard little nuggets of cornmeal and dried up okra straight from the frozen food section at Cash & Carry. The fried okra if my memory has a light dusting of cornmeal fried in a skillet and served with a little crunch on the outside and still a bit slimy on the inside. Yum! I had the Seafood Hot-Pot and my friend had the Steak Paradisio. The seafood was cooked just right, but the sauce came straight from a can of diced tomatoes, which wasn?t really worth eating, and certainly not worth the $21 price tag. My friend ordered his steak med-rare and it came well done. The side of chips were fabulous, but couldn?t compensate for the dried up and tasteless steak. He was so disappointed he didn?t even eat his meal. To their defense they were extremely busy and were understaffed, not having staffed up for the throngs of people who love Cajun food, but that doesn?t explain my several experiences at the other location. At best this restaurant is inconsistant. At worst there is an Elephant on the table and somehow they have convinced their dinners that it is authentic Cajun food.
Pros: Friendly Staff, nice ambience, parking
Cons: Inconsistant food prep, bad food
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