My friend and I went to dinner at Depeaux last evening and neither of us enjoyed the food. We stepped inside the restaurant to be seated, but due to the loud volume inside and the nice weather outside, we opted for outdoor seating. The outdoor seating was probably the best part of the experience. We ordered 2 appetizers, crawfish etouffee and crab & crawfish bouillettes. The etouffee was rather bland and just didn't seem that fresh; it had a dark, watery roux. I've had etouffee on several different occasions in New Orleans, as well as Savannah, and in my experience the roux has always been lighter and slightly thicker (and the crawfish fresher). In my opinion a dish like this should be a Cajun/Creole restaurant's signature dish, but it didn't stand out here. The bouillettes were rather doughy. We hoped for something better when we ordered the Grouper Ponchartrain and Depeaux's Big Easy, but we were out of luck. I've never had a meal in a restaurant that was so salty. I didn't even eat half of it because it was so hard to take. My friend felt they had a ways to go in understanding the cooking of collard greens as well. I was ready to leave it at that but my friend likes desserts and we agreed to split the Banana Royale (again, I guess we were hoping for something better). The bananas were good, but I'm pretty sure the pound cake they topped was by Sara Lee. Not very impressive; Sara Lee doesn't cut it for an almost $7.00 dessert. The service was attentive but nothing special. Overall, I'd say the garlic bread and the beer were the best things I had. Not worth the money or the assault on your taste buds.
Pros: outdoor seating, garlic bread
Cons: the food
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