For Chris and my five year anniversary we went to the Old Bay Restaurant in New Brunswick NJ. He was in a knee brace because he got surgery the day before, and I told him we could just stay home, but he really wanted us to go, and i'm not going to lie, I was really looking forward to it too. We absolutely love cajan food, I mean come on now, we are from Louisiana. :) First of all the atmosphere is purely amazing and southern. Immediately when you walk to the restaurant the outside is designed like the french quarter, minus a balcony. When you walk inside you see mardi gras pictures, the walls are painted purple, and you get the feel as if you are in New Orleans. They seated up upstairs, and we were seated at a table for two right next to a window. :)
Before I get into the food, let me just say I didn't get any pictures of the food because I was just too excited about our anniversary and making 5 years, we did get a couple pictures of us in the restaurant though. Now onto the food.
Well everything on the menu looked delicious, in fact you can find the menu on the website for the restaurant, here. To start, we chose two appetizers because so many looked amazing. We went with the firey cat fish balls, and the baked andouille bread. I typically don't care for fish especially catfish, but these firey balls were so delicious. They were perfectly seasoned with plenty of spice, and they came in a bowl of sauce, it tasted like a spicy tomato sauce, almost like a tomato creole sauce.
The baked andouille bread was pretty good, it was hand made bread stuffed with cheese, andouille sausage of course and jalapenos. I felt like the end pieces didn't have much flavor, because there really wasn't any stuffing in them. The middle pieces were ware it was at. I wish the bread came with some sort of dipping sauce, maybe a jalapeno cheese sauce of some sort. It was good, but I felt like it needed something more, something to help make the flavors pop. We ended up dipping the bread in the sauce that was with the catfish firey balls. I actually liked the catfish balls more then the bread to my surprise, being that I don't really care for fish.
For dinner Chris and I were both debating between the Crawfish Etouffee and the Sausage & Chicken Jambalaya. We then decided one would get one, and one would get the other and we would just try each others. So many dishes looked great though from southern stuffed prok chops, duck and waffle, to shrimp creole. I got the Etouffee and Chris got the Jambalaya. When they came out and I tried the Etouffee my immediate reaction was this is not good at all and tastes like nothing, I tried Chris' Jambalaya it was better then the Etouffee but it tasted completely under seasoned. Honestly both dishes tasted as if the chef forgot to season them completely. Adding table salt and pepper didn't even do anything. What gave the Jambalaya more flavor then the Etouffee was the peppers, tomatoes, and onions. We asked our server for seasoning and she brought two dishes, of what basically tasted like Tony's only a little bit lighter in spice. Chris and I switched dishes, because even after adding spice, I liked the Jambalaya more and he liked the Etouffee more. I had to add half of a container of spice to the Jambalaya and Chris added a whole container and the other half of mine to the Etouffee. After adding the spice, the dishes were good and pretty decent.
I would like to give it another shot on another day. They were really busy Saturday because the server said the Rutgers game had just ended and everyone was filling up the restaurant. I sincerely do not understand how anyone can under season or here not season cajun food, or how it can just taste plain. I really think the Chef was so busy and forgot to season the dishes, so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and try it out again.
Here are some pictures of us while we were waiting on our aps.
Before I get into the food, let me just say I didn't get any pictures of the food because I was just too excited about our anniversary and making 5 years, we did get a couple pictures of us in the restaurant though. Now onto the food.
Well everything on the menu looked delicious, in fact you can find the menu on the website for the restaurant, here. To start, we chose two appetizers because so many looked amazing. We went with the firey cat fish balls, and the baked andouille bread. I typically don't care for fish especially catfish, but these firey balls were so delicious. They were perfectly seasoned with plenty of spice, and they came in a bowl of sauce, it tasted like a spicy tomato sauce, almost like a tomato creole sauce.
The baked andouille bread was pretty good, it was hand made bread stuffed with cheese, andouille sausage of course and jalapenos. I felt like the end pieces didn't have much flavor, because there really wasn't any stuffing in them. The middle pieces were ware it was at. I wish the bread came with some sort of dipping sauce, maybe a jalapeno cheese sauce of some sort. It was good, but I felt like it needed something more, something to help make the flavors pop. We ended up dipping the bread in the sauce that was with the catfish firey balls. I actually liked the catfish balls more then the bread to my surprise, being that I don't really care for fish.
For dinner Chris and I were both debating between the Crawfish Etouffee and the Sausage & Chicken Jambalaya. We then decided one would get one, and one would get the other and we would just try each others. So many dishes looked great though from southern stuffed prok chops, duck and waffle, to shrimp creole. I got the Etouffee and Chris got the Jambalaya. When they came out and I tried the Etouffee my immediate reaction was this is not good at all and tastes like nothing, I tried Chris' Jambalaya it was better then the Etouffee but it tasted completely under seasoned. Honestly both dishes tasted as if the chef forgot to season them completely. Adding table salt and pepper didn't even do anything. What gave the Jambalaya more flavor then the Etouffee was the peppers, tomatoes, and onions. We asked our server for seasoning and she brought two dishes, of what basically tasted like Tony's only a little bit lighter in spice. Chris and I switched dishes, because even after adding spice, I liked the Jambalaya more and he liked the Etouffee more. I had to add half of a container of spice to the Jambalaya and Chris added a whole container and the other half of mine to the Etouffee. After adding the spice, the dishes were good and pretty decent.
I would like to give it another shot on another day. They were really busy Saturday because the server said the Rutgers game had just ended and everyone was filling up the restaurant. I sincerely do not understand how anyone can under season or here not season cajun food, or how it can just taste plain. I really think the Chef was so busy and forgot to season the dishes, so I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and try it out again.
Here are some pictures of us while we were waiting on our aps.
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