My wife and I were in Cincinnati for Valentine's weekend,and for our second night out decided to go to Dee Felice. It was recommended to me by a sales rep that I see in my office who lives in Cincinnati.\r
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To give it a true trial as to how authentic New Orleans the food is, we decided to try three things that are typical New Orleans-Gumbo,Causar Salad, Jambalaya, and Crawfish Etoufee. Hving been to NOLA several times I have a pretty good idea of what ""authentic"" Cajun/Creole food is. This place is a true imposter.\r
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The Gumbo was extremely heavily tomato-based-not a bit of roux to it. It did contain okra as the thickening agent-yet it was listed as ""File Gumbo"". It contained some good sized pieces of sausage, was a bit too spicy for what good gumbo should be, and fee far short of what I expected.\r
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The Caesar salad was average-this was the highlightof the meal. Fresh lettuce, but a typical bottled Caesar dressing, and bland parmesan cheese.\r
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The Crawfish etoufee did have fresh, sweet tasting crawfish, albeit very small ones. Now, a good etoufee will be served over rice and the etoufee (meaning ""smothered"") smothers the rice. The onion, green pepper and celery should be cooked down quite a bit in a moderate roux, and somewhat thick. What I had was large pieces of onion, celery, green pepper, & TOMATO(?) in a thin, runny, tasteless liquid over rice. Not at all like a good, hearty etoufee should be.\r
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The Jambalya was way too heavy in a tomato sauce, not at all typical of jambalaya. Large chunks of onion, a smoked sausage (not andouille), drowned in tomato sauce. Not even close.\r
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It makes me wonder how this place could be in existence for so long and not have a clue of how wonderful true New Orleans cooking really is. They need to send the chef on a field trip or get a new one.\r
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Bottom line-if you've been to NOLA, don't go here expecting good food. If you've never been to NOLA, eat here, then go to NOLA and see how it should be done.
Pros: I'm sure the music would be OK-but they didn't have it when we were there
Cons: Horrible gumbo, etoufee, and jambalaya
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