Meaux Dad’s Cooks Cajun Cuisine (Review)

Meaux Dad’s
3467 N. Shiloh Dr.
Fayetteville
479-935-4096
3 forks
Cuisine: Louisiana Cajun
Noise level: Medium
Ambiance: Mardi Gras Festive
Price Range: $10 – lunch menu
Time: 45 minutes
Open Since: January 2008

Once in a while it’s nice to by-pass the traditional burger choices for lunch and opt for something out of the ordinary that takes you to a different culture and locale.

That’s exactly what a couple of reviewers decided to do when they made their way to Meaux Dad’s.

We happened to visit the restaurant the week of Mardi Gras, so it was hard to tell what was special décor and what was the norm. The restaurant’s New Orleans look, which covered the walls and extends clear up to the restaurant’s purple ceiling, gave us a clue as to what expect the lunch to taste like: a party.

Meaux Dad’s began serving lunch about a month after its doors opened, so not all the kinks were worked out on our visit. The lunch menu was on a table tent and not attached to the main menu we were seated with. The staff, though courteous and friendly, failed to point that out because they were harried by the newness of the lunch crowd.

After we figured out how the lunch menu was structured, we ordered a small version of our Cajun favorites. All of the options on the fast-track lunch menu were $10, which includes tax and a drink.

Our waitress was more than busy, trying to please eight tables of hungry diners. It took a while for us to get our drinks and refills, but otherwise she was great.

One diner chose the muffeleta sandwich, which came with french fries and a drink.

The olive salad on the muffeleta was tasty but the sandwich had more cheese than meat and was served a little too cold for the diner’s liking. French bread is the traditional choice for a muffeleta sandwich but most recipes call for the insides of the top and bottom bread slices to be removed so as to leave more room for the olive salad and meat.

The chefs apparently didn’t follow this rule of thumb and opted to leave all of the bread on the sandwich, which amounted to too much soft stuff for the meat-loving diner.

The fries were nothing special.

The second diner opted for a Louisiana specialty, the shrimp etouffe. The dish was traditional: shrimp and a spicy roux sauce over white rice, and it came with a side salad.

The etouffe was hot and tasty. It had just enough spice to bring a small tear to the eyes, he said, but not enough to cause a sobbing fit. The shrimp and rice were tender, and the flavor was like a mouthful of Mardi Gras. His biggest complaint was the lunch portion was too small for his Arkansas appetite.

Both diners said they would come back but would probably choose different items, or might even order the full dinner rather than off the lunch menu.