Louisiana Lagniappe—All That and More...
775 Gulf Shore Drive, Destin, (850) 837-0881

Hours: Open daily at 5 p.m.
Reservations: Phone-ahead seating available
Children's menu: Yes
Dress: Casual

By Bruce Collier
February 19, 2009 Issue

I lived and ate in New Orleans for 10 years, and the menu at Louisiana Lagniappe was a reminder of what I used to see daily. The emphasis is on Gulf seafood, served grilled, blackened, sauteed, baked or fried. There are a few beef and chicken selections, but everything revels in sauces, toppings, and flavored butters. Where else can you sop up your gumbo with fried hushpuppies?

We ate at Louisiana Lagniappe on a Sunday evening, arriving just in time for a beautiful sunset. The restaurant is located on the water at Sandpiper Cove, and no doubt benefits from all those in and out -of-season tourists staying nearby, looking for a short drive to a big meal. The place was near-filled by the time we left, lots of older folk talking like the cast of Fargo and tying into the cocktails and generous portions.

The menu offers appetizers, soups, salads, main course items, house specialties, and fried platters. There was a special that night, and probably most other nights as well. Grouper, shrimp and crab are the stars here, appearing as the principal protein and in the many garnishes. Sauces are in the French tradition—hollandaise, bearnaise, meuniere, beurre blanc, and their Louisiana spinoffs.

We got appetizers, a cup of seafood gumbo and a pair of crab cakes. The gumbo was on the mild side, but richly flavorful and loaded with crabmeat, shrimp and oysters. Tabasco is brought for temperature adjustment. The crab cakes were breaded and fried, and the crabmeat more than held its own, being the dominant flavor among the balanced seasonings. I even ate some of the tangy remoulade, which I usually don't do. Other appetizers include Mardi Gras shrimp, eggplant with crab and hollandaise, barbecue shrimp, baked oysters, jambalaya, stuffed mushrooms, and blackened shrimp.

The main course menu offers familiar Louisiana items like red beans and rice with sausage, shrimp etouffee, barbecue shrimp, blackened redfish, and grouper almondine. There are also house specialties like fish en papillote (steamed in parchment), shrimp and andouille fettuccine, grouper Pontchartrain (with a fried soft-shell crab and honey roasted nuts on top), grilled tuna or chicken, filet mignon or rib eye, grouper with fried soft-shell crawfish, beef tournedos, and other combinations of seafood, sauces and toppings.

My companion, who recently fell in love with lobster, ordered seafood Lagniappe—pan-sauteed grouper topped with lobster tail meat, hollandaise and garlic bearer blanc (in case the hollandaise wasn't enough). I ordered blackened swordfish de la mer, topped with lump crabmeat and hollandaise, with fresh shrimp arranged around the side. Both were accompanied by a cheese-filled twice-baked potato. In both cases, the fish was perfectly cooked and tender. The respective lobster, crab and shrimp were sweet and in generous quantities. The sauces, while extravagantly rich, did not overwhelm the fish. I managed my entire potato, but my friend had to leave a portion of hers. Had you been there, you'd not have blamed her. After all, we had to have dessert.

Desserts are recited—our server, by the way, was friendly, informative and attentive—and probably vary nightly. As best I can recall, they had bread pudding, key lime pie, berry cheesecake, and a chocolate Snickers cheesecake. We ordered the last. Like its namesake, it was peanuts, chocolate, and caramel. I ate most of it, my friend being fairly new to professional dining.

Do not go to Louisiana Lagniappe in any condition except hungry. The kitchen subscribes wholeheartedly to the Louisiana/Creole credo that "more is more, and more than that is even better." A little indulgence, now and then, is a good thing.

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