Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

December 2010

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

Anytime I go to Houston, a must visit place to eat is Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  On a business trip to Houston in December I met my good friend Mike and we had dinner at our favorite seafood restaurant.  It was a 15 minute wait for a table on Monday night.  This leaves a great opportunity to go to the bar and have oysters and beer.  I can confirm that Gulf oysters are back and they are great.  A dozen oysters on the half shell and a 22 oz. draft beer in a frozen schooner is a great meal in itself.  But for Mike and me it makes an appetizer that is part of the pageantry when visiting Pappadeaux.

The oysters are served on a bed of ice with lemon, cocktail sauce, horse radish and a new sauce of vinegar and herbs.  They are fresh, cold, sweet and spiced just right.  When we went to the table, we ordered another round of oysters and another beer.  And they serve a baguette loaf of fresh warm French bread.  Man, we are living large.

The Pappadeaux dinner menu specializes in Cajun seafood, fried seafood and specialty grilled seafood selections.  I always seem to order the same few items.  On this trip I ordered something new to me, the Texas Redfish on the Half Shell.  The half shell refers to the skin side down grilling.  The Redfish is a large fillet almost 2” thick in the middle and is white flesh, sweet, creamy and tender.  I think it’s better than halibut.  It is blackened and served with “jumbo lump crabmeat, asparagus & Creole roasted tomatoes in brown butter with dirty rice”.  It’s even better than it sounds.  The crabmeat, asparagus and tomatoes are sautéed in butter and Creole seasonings and poured over the fish fillet.  The brown butter sauce pools around the fish on the plate which makes the perfect place to dump the dirty rice that is served in a separate bowl.  The rice soaks up the brown butter and it is all so luscious.   The serving size is typical of Texas.  It’s a probably a 12 oz. serving of fish and crab.  The price is $29.65.  I know it sounds high for a seafood dinner, but it’s a real treat that you cannot find just anywhere. 

So, that was Monday night in Houston.  On Wednesday night, 3 of us in our group heard about the great steaks at Taste of Texas.  I’ve heard great reviews of this steak house.  Mike recommended tthat I get the 24 oz. Cowboy cut bone-in Ribeye steak.  He says they have a salad and bread bar that provides an opportunity to load up on blue cheese so you can keep some as a topping for the steak.  This was my plan for dinner.   We were late getting there because I was catching up on my e-mails in my hotel room.  Business in good in Houston even at the top restaurants and the wait was 1 ½ hours for a table.  We did not want to wait that long and there just so happens to be a Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen next door.  The same one I ate at on Monday night.  We walked next door.

This is awesome.  I had my standby favorite, Mississippi Catfish Opelousas.  It’s “Blackened catfish with oysters, shrimp & crabmeat in a lemon garlic butter sauce with dirty rice”.  The catfish is a large fillet and the topping is incredibly delicious.  The price is a mere $24.15.  Did I say we had a dozen oysters also?  Well we did.  It’s so good.  I love Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen.  An easy undisputed 4 star favorite. 

http://www.pappadeaux.com/